First the arrogance of some pundits of privilege knows no bounds ...
Dear Rich Lowry: No Shame, Trayvon Martin Is Emmett Till
from Malek Mouzon, huffingtonpost.com -- 07/14/2013
Dear Rich,
More than riots, and an increase in vigilante George Zimmerman copycats, I'm afraid of people like you. White people with money, power, and influence, who live in coastal cities and are completely ignorant of their privilege.
[...]
I was immediately taken aback that such an educated and seemingly insightful person could spout such a thoughtless comment. Your statement is so problematic not just because of the way you uttered it with a casual disregard for a young boy's death. But moreover because it revealed something that is shared by many white people across the ideological spectrum: a complete obliviousness to their white privilege that you and many others have had the benefit of and continue to benefit from. It's something in this "post-racial world" that isn't discussed enough. To be fair you were under a 20 or so second time constraint but I think that makes your comment all the more genuine... and unsettling.
To answer your question I think very few feel ashamed for comparing Trayvon Martin to Emmett Till, especially after today. While the times and circumstances of their deaths are different. The inciting incident remains the same. A young black youth acted outside of the societal norms for someone of his race and he was killed for this act.
[...]
Stalking and harassment are illegal in a civilized society, and should always be treated as such. The instigators of violence should never be accepted as a substitute for civil justice, in a truly just and equal society.
Rather such activity should be shunned and stigmatized and stopped, at every turn. The Civil Rights act demands this of our nation.
Here's something else you should know 'dear' Rich Lowry, another way that "your race" benefits from its presumption of innocence, and the way that 'other races' are simply presumed not:
Do Stand Your Ground Laws Worsen Racial Disparities?
by John Roman, metrotrends.org -- Aug 8, 2012
[...]
Across the country, when the shooter is white and the victim is white, the percentage of shootings ruled justifiable is a little more than 11 percent. When the shooter is black and the victim is black, about 8 percent of homicides are ruled justifiable.
Now, when the shooter is white and the victim is black, the justifiable homicide rate is 34 percent. When the situation is reversed and the shooter is black and the victim is white, shootings are ruled to be justifiable in only slightly more than 3 percent of cases.
[...]
As a white man myself Rich Lowry, I am ashamed of what my Caucasian race has done, to legalize and codify and then continue to carry out, its "presumed" privilege of
being in the right -- while automatically assuming
other races are in the wrong ... simply by virtue of their outward appearances.
I am ashamed that in year 2013, that the Majority on the Supreme Court are obstinately and obliviously heading backwards on the matters of Civil Rights -- instead of vigilantly protecting hard-won gains to bridge our historic and quite shameful civil divide.
I am ashamed of my nation where employers have more rights than employees, where poverty is institutionalized and accepted as the norm -- especially in neighborhoods, deemed as 'not worth their time or investment.'
I am ashamed of our so-called leaders, who fail to stand up for human rights, and right of ALL citizens; our leaders and our pundits too, have apparently forget the pledge on which this land of freedom was founded -- to bring forth a society, where one day in deed and in fact, where ALL men, women, and children are created equal -- with equal rights and equal protections under the law.
A place where a person is 'judged by the content of their character, not the color of their skin,' as one such leader once said.
Until white people make these civilized ideals real, in actions and indeed, individuals of color will continue to suffer injustice; and our nation will have continued to have failed on establishing its foundational, aspirational dreams.
Dear Rich Lowry, the ingrained reflexive viewing of some people as "The Other" must stop ... if we are ever to form a truly free, and more perfect union, as the founders intended for us one day, like today.
This dream of living in a Civil Society is long, long overdue. The privilege of "dignity" does not belong only to those who are born into it. Human dignity is a human right. It belongs to ALL ... or at least it should.
As long as it doesn't -- that is to our white race's great shame ...