Charles Blow: From O.J. to Trayvon
From O.J. to Trayvon
By CHARLES M. BLOW
Published: April 6, 2012
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But there is an important, if strained, commonality between them: the issue of equal treatment by the justice system.
As a black man who thought O.J. Simpson was as guilty as the day is long, I found black people’s consistent and overwhelming belief in his innocence a low point. I eventually chalked it up to a perverse pursuit of equal justice by a people who saw the system as unfairly stacked against them. If the system was broken was it unbiased in its brokenness? Was part of equal justice equal injustice?
You can argue that intellectually, but the argument is morally bankrupt. There is no right in aligning yourself with wrong.
The Martin case, on the other hand, holds the potential to be a high point. There is nobility in the advocacy for truth and justice for a dead child who would still be alive if Zimmerman had not pursued him. While opinions shouldn’t get ahead of the facts — and we must all remember that what is right and what is legal don’t always dovetail — public pressure for a thorough investigation and fair dealings in this case needn’t and mustn’t be defined as a black issue. It’s a universally human issue.
Furthermore, Trayvon’s death and the public outcry about the case has shined a harsh light on the plight of young black men in America and the shadow of suspicion that hangs over them. It has also renewed the debate about racial-profiling — which is completely incongruous to any basic concept of fairness. Guilt isn’t genetic. Color and culture don’t dictate criminality. Innocence must be the default assumption. No one should be punished for another’s sins.
And, as the investigation progresses, it may well open the conversation even wider to consider unequal treatment of boys and men — by all authority figures in this country — and the heavy toll that that takes.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/07/opinion/blow-from-oj-to-trayvon.html?_r=1
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