News broke Monday that Trayvon Martin, the young boy who was stalked and killed by George Zimmerman in 2012, would be getting an honorary degree from Florida Memorial University, where his grandmother had graduated. A nice touch, I thought- gone but truly not forgotten.
I learned of this news from a Snoop Dogg Facebook post. Now no judgement against those who follow Snoop Dogg, I myself don’t, but a friend had commented on the post thus bringing it into my feed. As I read through the comments, they bordered from the absurd (one man remarked how now that degree cannot be given to a kid who had actually went to school and earned it), to downright contempt. Not just disagreement- but absolute contempt. The top comment was “Wonder if the high school he never went to will give him a posthumous diploma since he would of never received it either.” Another person wrote “I want to be a DR. Do you think they will give me a degree after I die? Then my headstone could say Dr. [name retracted]. Sweet.”
As per usual, a number of disapproving comments began with people clarifying they weren’t racist “but…” or they were as liberal as anybody “but…” But one thread in particular really caught my attention and taught me a little bit more about white privilege, which, as a white man myself, is still an ongoing journey of learning. In commenting to the quote above about “Dr.” on his headstone, one man said “you are not getting anything because you are not black [smiley face emoticon],” to which I replied that plenty of white people before Martin have received honorary posthumous degrees. Antonin Scalia, Donald Trump, and Betsy Devos were three that immediately came to mind.
The reply I received read “no dead WHITE KID has.”
For that I went to Google and found some cases such as the Ohio State and San Bernadino shootings, where slain students were awarded posthumous degrees. But it also made me realize the commenter’s problem was not in merely being lacking of fact, but the underlying expectation behind his statement. Read it again, and let’s pretend for arguments sake it is true:
“no dead WHITE kid has.”
In other words, Martin receiving a posthumous honorary degree was not acceptable because a white teen had not received one first.
And this shed more light onto the subject of white privilege, the innate notion in so many that things have to happen to white people first, or happen to them also, or else it’s not fair.
![Florida State Attorney Norm Wolfinger announced on March 20, 2012 that a grand jury will investigate the death of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old who was shot and killed in a gated community by 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida. The Justice Department and FBI has also opened an investigation into the death of the unarmed teenager. Zimmerman has not been charged. Martin is shown in an undated family photo. UPI (Newscom TagID: upiphotostwo147443) [Photo via Newscom]](https://images.dailykos.com/images/405191/story_image/trayvon_martin.jpg?1495721140 "Florida State Attorney Norm Wolfinger announced on March 20, 2012 that a grand jury will investigate the death of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old who was shot and killed in a gated community by 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman on February 26, 2012 in Sanford, Florida. The Justice Department and FBI has also opened an investigation into the death of the unarmed teenager. Zimmerman has not been charged. Martin is shown in an undated family photo. UPI (Newscom TagID: upiphotostwo147443) [Photo via Newscom]")
