On Saturday, July 13, 2013--the entire world waited to hear the verdict of The State of Florida vs. Zimmerman. We were all either listening to the radio or television to hear. Most of Black America believed that Zimmerman would be found guilty and that would be the end of the matter. Instead, George Zimmerman was found not guilty on Saturday of second-degree murder in the 2012 shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman had maintained all along that he killed the unarmed teen out of self defense.
A jury consisting of six women acquitted Zimmerman, 29, of both the second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the nationally-broadcast trial. The 2012 shooting of Martin was widely publicized nationally, creating debate over Florida's "stand your ground" law and the state of race relations in the country. Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, was accused of racially profiling Martin because the black teen was wearing a hoodie, and shooting him because he thought Martin was a criminal.
Rather Zimmerman calls it self-defense or straight murder, Trayvon Martin is dead. Zimmerman has been acquitted. Millions of people are outraged. Several are demnding a second prosecution of the 29-year old named Zimmerman, this time for hate crimes. Others are blaming the tragedy on "Stand Your Ground" laws, which they insist must be repealed.
My question to all who read this particular blog is simple. So What? What if he did kill Trayvon out of hate? So what if Zimmerman was a zeolous want to be cop? Zimmerman is guilty, morally if not legally, of putting the bullet in Martin's body. Even those who defend Zimmerman's actions must admit that he was a reckless fool. He did many things wrong. No. 1 was interferring that Martin was a burgular because he fit the description of someone who robbed neighbors in the complex. No. 2 was pursing Martin on foot. Zimmerman had already done what the neighborhood watch rules advised: he had called the plice. Although most do not want to talk about Zimmerman's reasons for walking around with a concealed firearm--it was obvious. He felt that he was protecting his neighborhood from danger.
The nearly all white jury knew some things about Zimmerman. Jurors knew that Zimmerman was an overeager would-be cop, a self-appointed guardian of the neighborhood who carried a loaded gun. They were told that he profiled Martin — young, black, hooded sweatshirt — as a criminal. They heard that he stalked Martin despite the advice of a 911 operator; that the stalking led to a confrontation; and that, in the confrontation, Zimmerman fatally shot Martin in the chest. The jurors also knew that Martin was carrying only a bag of candy and a soft drink. They knew that Martin was walking from a 7-Eleven to the home of his father’s girlfriend when he noticed a strange man in an SUV following him.
Our society considering young black men to be dangerous interchangeable, expendable, and guilty. This is the conservation about race that we desperately need to have-but probably, as in the past, will try our best to avoid. We must ask ourselves a very important life. Why is the life a black male expendable even within our own community?
Startling statistics reveal that between 1980-2008, African-Americans were six times more likely than whites to be victims of gun violence and seven times more likely to kill with guns than whites, according to the Justice Department. African-Americans represent a mere 13% of the US population yet more than 50% of federal prisoners are black. You can claim racial bias in the judicial system, but that doesn’t explain all of it.
Why aren’t so-called black leaders outraged and marching over the recent killings in such cities as Philadelphia, Chicago, or even Birmingham.
For example just last month in June, two twin boys were gunned down in Birmingham, Alabama. Jonathan and Jeremi Berry were just sitting on their front porch when three male suspects forced their way into the home just before LaTasha Berry arrived home. She approached then tried to drive away after spotting the men. They began firing at her vehicle and she was shot before crashing in a neighbor's yard. The suspects shot Jonathan and Jeremi before leaving the scene. The family struggled to get together the money to pay for two funerals. The suspects have been charged with the killings; however, there was not a public outcry.
I think it’s stunning that scant, if any, attention was given to the violence raging in Birmingham or other cities across the country. Americans, especially black Americans, have come to accept blacks killing other blacks as normal.
In June of 2013, Birmingham Blacks also dealt with the Supreme Court decision to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, the provision of the landmark civil rights law that designates which parts of the country must have changes to their voting laws cleared by the federal government or in federal court.
The 5-4 ruling, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, ruled in Shelby County v. Holder that “things have changed dramatically” in the South in the nearly 50 years since the Voting Rights Act was signed in 1965.
The court’s opinion said it did not strike down the act of Congress “lightly,” and said it “took care to avoid ruling on the constitutionality of the Voting Rights Act” in a separate case back in 2009. “Congress could have updated the coverage formula at that time, but did not do so. Its failure to act leaves us today with no choice but to declare [Section 4] unconstitutional. The formula in that section can no longer be used as a basis for subjecting jurisdictions to preclearance.”
The tragedy is that the black leadership who are often screaming about the tragedy in the Zimmerman case, Civil Rights issues, or those hosting rallies have often made a living on black sufferage. As a result of building careers off the suffering of Black America, they will never offer real solutions. especially toward the violence issues in the Black communities. It does not benifit their pocket books.
Today the main people holding blacks back as a race and taking them back to the days of Jim Crow are blacks themselves. This includes of course the self appointed black leadership. Yet, it also includes advocacy groups with national scope who have local chapters. These local chapters are hosting numerous fundraisers, spending money, filled with leadership who rip the local chapter off, and play games with the community needs. I will never be the one to say that racism doesn't still exist; however, we as Blacks often take more advantage of ourselves than anyone on the outside could ever do. This leadership makes a huge battle cry when a national tragedy such as Trayvon Martin takes place. Beyond this battle cry, they have no solutions to offer blacks a way towards greater economic prosperity and less violent lives.
