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| image of the late Trayvon Martin is from here |
I suggest we ought to understand what happened to Trayvon Martin--his murder at the hands and gun of known serial criminal son-of-a-judge* George Zimmerman (see
here, and
here: trigger warning for details of child sexual abuse)--through much broader lenses than those used by white male-owned corporate media. I view such an injustice and grievous act, another loss added to the millions of others, in the context of seeing how many Black and Brown people around the world are allowed to die an unnatural death from the following:
--gross economic discrimination, violence, and terrorism,
--pollution, theft, and destruction of water systems and other natural resources,
--imperialist invasion and occupation,
--wrongful/unjust incarceration alongside serial and mass murder inside and outside the criminal justice system owned and operated by white men and
supported by white women
--willful media and medical abuse, negligence, and neglect,
-- coerced and forced indebtedness and dependence on white/colonial societies,
--sexual trafficking and sexual and economic slavery,
--many other forms of well-organised and institutionalised inhumanity leading to disease, depression, and premature death
I come to the conclusion that what happened to Trayvon Martin, including the injustice his family has to endure from a white-majority jury, is neither accidental, aberrant, or anecdotal. (Not, really, that there was any doubt.)
What happened to him is what happens in many different ways to Black and Brown people globally: being targeted for harassment, assault, and death both one at a time and en masse.
If and to whatever extent Trayvon had the courage and will to fight back, it surely wasn't sufficient to save his own life or to take the life of his stalker. We can only hope Black and Brown people prevail. Chances for survival and success beyond survival would greatly and dramatically increase if whites would organise to release the institutional strangling grip of economic, social, and interpersonal murder.
*Thanks to Carolyn Gage for publicly pointing out the particular
political significance of this with regard to why he's never been found
guilty of anything he's done that is criminal--including messing with a
cop, and more recently this murder of a youth.
May Trayvon Martin, and all the other murdered Black and Brown women, men, and children, rest in a
kind of peace not socially offered or available while alive.
I close with this statement about the killer, by bell hooks:
"White supremacy has
taught him that all people of color are threats irrespective of their
behavior. Capitalism has taught him that, at all costs, his property can
and must be protected. Patriarchy has taught him that his masculinity
has to be proved by the willingness to conquer fear through aggression;
that it would be unmanly to ask questions before taking action. Mass
media then brings us the news of this in
a newspeak manner that sounds almost jocular and celebratory, as though
no tragedy has happened, as though the sacrifice of a young life was
necessary to uphold property values and white patriarchal honor. Viewers
are encouraged to feel sympathy for the white male home owner who made a
mistake. The fact that this mistake led to the violent death of an
innocent young man does not register; the narrative is worded in a
manner that encourages viewers to identify with the one who made the
mistake by doing what we are led to feel we might all do to “protect our
property at all costs from any sense of perceived threat." This is what
the worship of death looks like.
- bell hooks on the Zimmerman verdict
