You're a young man in your own neighborhood, when suddenly a huge man starts to chase you in the rain... you have no idea why... you run between homes dashing for the safety of hearth and home and you hear him gaining behind you.... you realize you will be caught. You turn, you stand your ground. You are in fear for your life. You pull the trigger.
The headlines would likely read:
NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH VOLUNTEER KILLED IN COLD BLOOD BY TEEN WITH POSSIBLE GANG TIES
The gnashing of teeth would begin, the family of Zimmerman extolling his virtues, his selfless protection of their "once quiet" neighborhood, and how it was shattered when "that element" moved into their gated community.
The press would dig relentlessly, did the boy listen to rap, had he gotten into drugs, did he lead a secret second life???
Little would be said about "stand and defend," rest assured, and Trayvon Martin would be yet another black youth thrown into the incarceration nation's prison system.
IF it even made the press, that is. One more black youth wrongly accused, convicted in the press and by society. The preconceived notions that Blacks have nothing to fear from whites, "unless they are doing something wrong..."
Everything that is wrong with America would have transpired had the situation been reversed. It would have been a tale of a young man with a future, who chose to throw it all away by being swept up into the "gun culture" of Black America, as described by a predominately white and biased press. It is still a culture of fantasies of a master race that assumes white innocence and black guilt with justice for none.
There will be little justice for the killing of Trayvon.
There would be NO justice if Trayvon defended himself either.
I am glad this story is getting press. It gives me a glimmer of hope to see people stand up to this racist fucking meme that a bully, hater, bigotted man could chase down a boy with candy, tackle him, then shoot him in cold blood, while calling him a "coon." I would feel much better if he was off the streets.
It enrages me that "stand and defend" would likely not offer that same defense had it been a young black man that killed a middle aged white man.
Had Trayvon defended himself an stood his ground?
We would be damning a whole segment of society looking to blame culture, drugs, guns, or any other thing that racist America equates with people of color. We would not be taking a human being's word that he was "in fear for his life" and the police would not have given him the benefit of the doubt.
Even if he was chased by an unknown assailant. Even if he feared a pedophile or worse. He would have been cuffed and dragged off on the spot.
This story making headlines is a start.
But if we really examined our Society at large, we would realize there is MUCH more work to be done than changing one law.
We have to change our minds and hearts.