This is my first post, so sorry if it's a little rough. I should be sleeping right now, but can't
I've been up all night thinking about the Trayvon Martin case, disturbed by so many aspects of it. The first part is obvious: a man hunted a teenage boy like he was an animal in a forest. He stalked him, ignored police advice, got into a tussling match with Trayvon (because who wouldn't try to fight back if some scary, fat-ass dude got out of an SUV and went after you?), and ultimately murdered him in cold blood. This is already beyond comprehension. No one wakes up one morning, especially someone so young and thinks, "Today's going to be the day that someone's going to murder me while I walk around in my neighborhood eating Skittles". Fucking ridiculous.
The truth is, though, the world is full of fucking ridiculous people who do terrible things. Granted, this was clearly a racially inspired if not motivated crime, and to act like this tragedy is a random act that would have occurred in a vacuum is ignorant and downright offensive. We don't live in an ideal world where race doesn't exist. We live in a world where wearing a hoody and incidentally having darker pigmentation makes you "a threat". I understand this, too. I disagree with it so much, but I understand that this is how race works in this country, and it's tragic. I understand that there are monsters out there--literally children hunters, in this case, and it's related to the race of the victim. Fucking ridiculous? Hell yes. Infuriating as hell? Fuck yes. But the truth is, there will always be scary, racist assholes. It's unavoidable, it's tragic, it's wrong.
I can accept that there are some irredeemable people out there. I can even accept that hate crimes can and still occur, but what I can't accept is that our justice system has just allowed a free pass to a child killer who had no business even engaging the aforementioned child in the first place. I'm saddened to say that I, among many others, am not remotely surprised at the verdict because we live in a society where African Americans are still second-class citizens.
The genesis of my anger began at the first gunshot, grew exponentially larger at the verdict, and is now pulsating with rage at many of the responses of my fellow white citizens, "fellow" used with bitter disgust. I can accept a crazed idiot with a gun. I can accept a government failing the people (once more), but I absolutely am so disappointed and disheartened by people who seem to think this has nothing to do with race. People my age (24) who are saying the same sort of shit that misogynists say when a woman is raped. S/he was asking for it. Look at how he/she was dressed.
Just as women do not exist solely as a vessel for men's sexual fantasies, black men don't exist just to scare the rest of society, or to intimidate the rest of society, or to fill up jail cells for ridiculous, over-the-top sentences, or to make us feel better when we befriend one. That's just as much objectification as the kind women face every day, except it incites fear/appeasement rather than sexual arousal. Everyone needs to stop treating each other like objects, like a means to an end, like an unjustifiable threat. The world is a scary, precarious place. It's okay to be afraid. Just find it in yourself to not project your fears, your anger, your disappointments onto other people. Hell, talk this shit out, if you have to. If it's awkward, it's awkward, but a conversation has to start somewhere.
I wish that instead of the many well-intended individuals who have set out with the goal of "making the world a better place", there would be at least twice as many who would just try not to make the world a worse place. I seriously believe that if you do your best, you try to maintain an honest life, you are good to those around you, you work hard, and you don't get out of SUVs and shoot children, the world will improve drastically because of your behavior. And honestly, that's really not too much to ask, is it?