It does not matter that George Zimmerman is not white

It does not matter that George Zimmerman is not white.

Hypothetical Story based on the Trayvon Martin Case: A 17 year old black teen was murdered while walking home from a convenience store with ice tea and a bag of Skittles. The suspect, a 28 year old male, was arrested and is in police custody awaiting trial.

Stories similar to the one above happen frequently and tragically in cities across America. Yet few have garnered as much national and international attention as the Trayvon Martin case. Why? Is it because an innocent black teen was murdered by a racist? No. What if Trayvon had been murdered by a thief, or a gang member, or a serial killer? The story would still be tragic. Trayvon would still be dead, murdered senselessly on his return from the store. But the world would not be in such an uproar and racial tensions would not be as high.

Some Americans have made it their mission to inform all of us that reports of a white male killing Trayvon are inaccurate. These Americans state it is a smear against white people, to inflame racial tensions and produce a narrative that does not exist. To their credit, it is important to get the facts straight. “George Zimmerman” does not sound much like a Hispanic name, however photos of the man certainly resemble a person with Hispanic features. Add to that the family of George Zimmerman emerging to inform us that George is not white, and these Americans are right in their correction.

So facts matter. Getting the truth right matters. But whether George is white or not has little to do with the uproar from the black community and the accusations of racism and injustice. In the example I initially provided, the unarmed teen victim was killed and the murder suspect was arrested. But that is not what happened in the Trayvon Martin case. Trayvon the unarmed teen was killed, but the suspect, George Zimmerman, walks free with his gun in hand.

National and international uproar, the shouts of injustice, the Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton appearances, the Obama remarks, the Miami Heat tributes, the intense anger particularly in the black community are not merely due to a racist murdering a black teen, but that racist walking free after the murder. George was not found “not guilty” by a jury and set free, he was set free by the police who took his word at the crime scene and let him go home with his gun.

So where does race play in this? Where does the black and white tension come from if Zimmerman wasn’t even white? The tension is found in the double standard, the signs of second class citizenry that appear blatantly obvious to the black community. It is a double standard that values the lives of white Americans more than black Americans and it has existed since this nation’s founding.

No one believes that a big black George Zimmerman would walk free without arrest. No one believes his testimony would be trusted by the police, especially when he pursued the teen after a 911 dispatcher told him not to. No one believes that a small white Trayvon Martin would be drug tested before the suspect, or assumed to be the aggressor by the police. No one believes the family of a white Trayvon Martin would be lied to about the history of the murder suspect by the police, or that a white family would face trust issues concerning the quality of investigation by the police.

No one believes a black George Zimmerman with a history of assault on a police officer, domestic violence, and resisting arrest would have any advocates in law enforcement supporting his claims of self defense. This is a nation that recently executed Troy Davis. This is a nation that sentenced John White on second degree manslaughter charges. John was arrested for accidentally shooting a white teenager who came with a group of his friends as a “lynch mob” to White’s property at midnight to threaten him and his family with violence and racial slurs. John White went to jail, Zimmerman has not been arrested. Police arrested Professor Henry Louis Gates for “breaking into his own property” when he forgot his key.

No need to list the history of injustices suffered by black Americans at the hands of the police. A simple google search will yield around 30 million results.

This is a tragic reality that appears unique and persistent to black Americans. The beating of Kelly Thomas by Fullerton police was so rare that for some white Americans it was a light bulb moment that they too might be vulnerable. Pepper spray on Occupy protestors or the arrest of the “Don’t Taze me Bro” pale in comparison to the shooting deaths of Oscar Grant, Sean Bell, Ramarley Graham, the Rodney King beating, and many other black tragedies. Couple those tragedies with the fears of driving while black, fitting the description, excessive force and police brutality, having drugs planted on you, Katrina murders by police, etc. and the Trayvon Martin case is another stab to an open wound.

So these fears have plagued the black community for years, decades, and generations. But the Trayvon Martin case is not a case of a abuse where Trayvon was a suspect. The Trayvon Martin case is a case of abuse where Trayvon was the victim. The UNARMED VICTIM received injustice. The VICTIM cries from his grave while his killer goes about his life freely without arrest. And even this has sad historical precedents; Emmett Till, Shirley Sherrod’s father, etc.

So if this is mainly a case of outrage over police injustice with the black community, where does the white-black tension lie? Please note, when I mention “white-black tension” I am not saying the Trayvon Martin case has sparked a hatred against white Americans by black Americans. I am saying that it intensifies the contrast in justice, freedom, safety and security, the contrast of protection under the law between the experiences of white Americans and black Americans once again. That is where the racial tension lies. It lies in the constant reminder that black Americans who built this nation are once again denied the rights, securities, and privileges guaranteed to all Americans and enjoyed by white Americans.

Yes Zimmerman appears to be a racist, and that’s awful. But if the police and justice system in Florida did not also appear to have racial biases, this national uproar would not have happened. It is naive of us to think that the election of Barack Obama has or can fix everything. The Trayvon Martin case is like re-injuring an old wound once again that never seems to heal. And Zimmerman’s ethnic make up does little to distract or comfort from the perceived and blatant double standard of justice for Trayvon and black Americans.

RIP Trayvon.

Jim Renacci, Republican nominee for House of Representatives, rant against civil rights

Link to video

Watch the video above. A concerned citizen asks Ohio Republican nominee for the House of Representatives, Jim Renacci, about the lack of diversity in his campaign and what he plans to do in terms of civil rights and diversity. In response, Ranacci launches into a rant about “freedom” and how the federal government should get out of civil rights, which he believes should be handled locally.
The voter then points out civil rights came about largely because of the federal government, as certain cities and states were adamant about enforcing racism. For Jim Renacci to suggest that the federal government should get out of civil rights and “these issues be handled locally” is to suggest that he is against civil rights entirely. And he never answered the voters initial question concerning the lack of diversity in his campaign, or why minority communities should support his campaign.

He is clearly unqualified for the office, and it is sad that such subtle racist attitudes still exist in 2010.

Tennessee Mayor slams President Obama for interrupting a Charlie Brown cartoon with his address on war

You can’t make this stuff up folks! You just can’t make it up. Tennessee Mayor Russell Wiseman is still promoting the campaign lie that the President is a Muslim (a false rumor addressed and readdressed endlessly during last year’s campaign). He also believes that the Commander in Chief addressed our nation about the Afghan war and deploying more troops in a sneaky anti-Christian move to block children from watching Charlie Brown’s Christmas special (which can be found on DVD and most likely the internet).

Huffingtonpost reports

In case you didn’t know, President Barack Obama’s West Point address, in which he announced his intention to escalate the war in Afghanistan, pre-empted the broadcast of A Charlie Brown Christmas on ABC. As it turns out, at least one person was crackpotted enough to believe that the whole point of the address was to prevent this cartoon from being shown. That person is Arlington, Tennessee Mayor Russell Wiseman. He actually exists. And he made the mistake of bleating out his strident, weird take on the matter on Facebook, and is acting all aggrieved that people noticed.

His Facebook message read in part:

Ok, so, this is total crap, we sit the kids down to watch ‘The Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ and our muslim [sic] president is there, what a load…..try to convince me that wasn’t done on purpose. Ask the man if he believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he will give you a 10 minute disertation [sic] about it….w…hen the answer should simply be ‘yes’….

First off, “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is a twenty-five minute dissertation on Jesus Christ being the Son of God. More importantly, in this time of giving, I’ll point out that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” is available on DVD from Amazon for $13.99. Maybe one of Wiseman’s Facebook friends (maybe even the one with a conscience who sold Wiseman out to the press out of a higher obligation, perhaps instilled by his or her belief in Jesus Christ) should purchase it for him, and he need never watch a speech about a serious topic like war again.

MUST SEE – Michael Jackson: The Untold Story of Neverland

http://nimmer.net/

Please link to this blog post and send it out to everyone you know! This is for all of the people who either believe that Michael molested children or “aren’t sure” about it. I won’t voice my opinion on it, I’ll let you watch the documentary yourself and make the judgment for yourself. Again, make this documentary VIRAL!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_v._Jackson

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

PART 4

PART 5

Sgt. James Crowley should apologize to Prof. Henry Gates Jr.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9964bHrXtA

Interview with Harvard Professor Henry Gates Jr. after arrest

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpyOsUUA1BQ

Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood

http://www.mediaed.org/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=134

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQYKXGj2JA4

Part #1

Part #2

Above are a few video clips from the video “Consuming Kids”. It is an amazing film on how marketers and advertisers (aided by deregulation and dilution of power of the FTC in the 1980s & under Reagan) are targeting children like pedophiles. They are extremely aggressive, taking on an amoral approach to converting infants into life long loyal consumers of their products (whether it is good or bad for them). Cartoons were made for the sole purpose of selling the toys. Even schools are now taking field trips to malls and stores, and having gyms sponsored by companies like Pizza Hut or Pepsi. Marketers have done brain scans on babies to see what stimulates them the most. They’ve even followed children into the bathroom or observed how they bathe all as a part of “research” on how to target them to sell products.

This video is extremely eye opening and disturbing. Marketers are only interested in their bottom line, and their actions have contributed to many problems we now face including childhood obesity, attention deficit disorder, social anxiety/depression, teen pregnancy, etc. I have only posted two parts out of seven in this post, you can see the rest on youtube or I may follow up by posting more in an update.

Every parent should watch this video.

Kids dying weekly in Chicago

Kids dying weekly on Chicago’s streets

CHICAGO, Illinois (CNN) — The Rev. Michael Pfleger has ordered the American flag at St. Sabina Church hung upside-down — a historic sign of distress — to symbolize the growing death toll among the city’s youngsters.
Alex Arellano was beaten, burned and shot in the head last week. He was 15.

So far this school year, 36 children and teens have been murdered — more than one a week — and Pfleger is among a chorus of weary Chicagoans who say the slayings aren’t getting the attention they deserve.

Had 36 kids died of swine flu this year, “there would be this great influx of resources that say, ‘Let’s stop this, lets deal with this,’ ” Pfleger said.

Instead, because violence is driving the epidemic, “We’re hiding it. We’re ignoring it. We’re denying the problems,” he said.

Pfleger is not the first Chicagoan to express the sentiment. In 2007, after the city recorded 31 murdered children during the school year, Arne Duncan, then-CEO of public schools, expressed similar disappointment.

Duncan, who now serves as President Obama’s secretary of education, said “all hell would break loose” if these killings took place in one of the metro area’s upscale enclaves.

“If that happened to one of Chicago’s wealthiest suburbs — and God forbid it ever did — if it was a child being shot dead every two weeks in Hinsdale or Winnetka or Barrington, do you think the status quo would remain? There’s no way it would,” he said.

Yet the problem has only worsened since Duncan publicly shared his observation. With about a month left in the school year, Chicago’s public schools have topped the number of students slain in the 2007-2008 and 2006-2007 school years — 27 and 31, respectively.

One of the most disturbing slayings came last week when the family of Alex Arellano found the 15-year-old’s body. He had been beaten, burned and shot in the head.

“It’s sad because they didn’t have to torture him that way. He never did nothing wrong, never. He was a good kid. It just gets to me. It’s crazy,” Alex’s friend Ashley Recendez said.

Indeed, police say the teen had no criminal record, no gang affiliation. His family says he was well-behaved and shy, almost fearful of strangers. They had recently taken him out of school to protect him after gang members threatened him.

He was last seen May 1, leaving his girlfriend’s house. His girlfriend told his family that several young men chased him and beat him with baseball bats. She didn’t know why.

The family found his brutalized body in an alley the next day, which at the time made Alex the 34th child slain this school year in the city, according to an unofficial tally kept by the Chicago Tribune.

“Why would they do this to a child that has nothing to do with nothing, and just, on top of that, brutally killing him?” asked Alex’s uncle Juan Tirado.

Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis said scuffles among youth have become more violent and a conflict that 20 years ago would have warranted a pushing or wrestling match now sometimes results in gunfire.

“There’s simply too many gangs, too many guns and too many drugs on the streets,” he said. “We’ve got a problem with some of our young people are resorting to use of weapons and violence to solve any type of conflicts they may have.”

Weis said he concurred with Duncan’s remarks from two years ago and bemoaned that society had become desensitized, almost to the point of acceptance, by the violence in some of America’s major cities.

“That is a very sad state of affairs,” he said. Video Watch how Chicago is struggling with the violence »

But not all officials are convinced the level of violence against children is unique to Chicago.

Mayor Richard Daley said the numbers appear worse in his city because the public school system considers teenagers students even after they drop out.

“The rest of America doesn’t count them. You’re a dropout forever. We don’t think they’re dropouts. They’re students,” he said.

He further said Chicago’s problems are no worse than those in any other American city.

“It’s all over, the same thing,” he said. “You go to a large city or small city, it’s all over America. It’s not unique to one community or one city.”

Despite Daley’s remarks, CNN has learned that none of the city’s 36 victims this year was a dropout.

Also, Daley’s statistics on the number of youths killed in other cities don’t appear to match reports from American cities.

Los Angeles, California, notorious for its gang problems, is larger than Chicago. It has reported only 23 child slayings this year. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is about half the size of Chicago, but it has witnessed only a ninth of the child slayings: four this school year.

In 2007, Diane Latiker, founder of the community group Kids Off the Block, began a memorial on a vacant lot in Chicago. She bought 30 landscaping stones and wrote the name of a slain school-age child on each of them.

Her hopes were that the stark sight of the memorial would shock the city into action.

Today, the memorial includes 153 stones, some for children as young as 10, and there is little indication the pace is waning, as at least two children were killed since Alex Arellano’s body was found Saturday.

“They come by here and they do this, and they come by here in cars and families come and cry,” Latiker said of the burgeoning memorial.

Asked who was failing the kids — police? schools? city officials? — she replied flatly, “We all are.”

Other community activists said they’re at a loss to find any simple explanation. In May 2007, public outrage overflowed after the death of 16-year-old Blair Holt, an honor student and aspiring songwriter.

According to various media reports, Holt was riding a city bus when a gunfight erupted between two gang members. Holt tried to shield a young girl who was in the line of fire and was fatally shot in the stomach.

His death sparked public protests, and grieving family and activists listed a host of scapegoats: lax gun laws, insufficient policing, bad parenting. But two years later, families and activists say they’re tired and discouraged by the torpid pace of change.

Lakeesha Stevens, whose son was shot as he slept in the car last year, said, “It can happen to anyone… you can be walking, you can be anywhere.”

Fortunately, Martrell Stevens survived the shooting, but kindergarten proved a lot tougher for the youngster after the bullet left him partially paralyzed.

Weis said Chicago police work tirelessly to keep the violence out of the schools, and he expressed relief that the city is “providing a safe place for our young folks to learn.”
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However, he acknowledged that the conflicts sometimes begin in the schools and are finished off-campus. The violence will continue to be a priority for Chicago police, he said.

“I can promise you the Chicago Police Department is outraged and we will continue to work these cases with high energy and a great deal of enthusiasm,” he said.

Goodcops.com to acknowledge good police officers in your community

image from Flickr

I saw this on a post recently.

Why not start up a website like goodcops.com or something. The site could be for communities to nominate and acknowledge the good police officers in their communities. There are some good cops out there, but too often they are overshadowed by the rotten ones like that guy at BART.

Truth be told, you only hear about police officers in the news when they do something racist or abusive so that leads to a certain stigma and negative feeling about police in general. A site like “goodcops” could work to counter that stereotype. Pastors in the community along with celebrities could hand out the awards and the site could have other features to drive traffic to it. I think it would work best if a strong effort was made to make being a police officer cool again. (sort of like how Obama made politics cool again).

We can’t just hear the bad about police officers, or it tempts people to think they’re all bad which isn’t true or fair.

I think it’s important for the public to see a balance, so I agree with the poster on that. Maybe a site like “goodcops.gov” or something would be a good and effective way to improve relationships between police and the communities they serve in.