We’ve been watching coverage of the NOT GUILTY verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. It has been said time and again by multiple non-African Americans that this case is not and has never been about race. They say that the jurors did the right thing based on the evidence they were given in accordance with Florida law. That may all be true, but I want those same people to convince us that if the races were reversed in this case, that a Black man would walk away free last night. Defense attorney Mark O’Mara was asked if the outcome would have been different had George Zimmerman been Black. His response was that he would not have been charged in the first place, had he been Black. Unfortunately, that may be true if this was Black on Black crime. That is an entirely different issue that needs to be addressed.
However, it’s not enough to flip half of the script. We must ask if Trayvon was a 17 year old unarmed white child, would he have been profiled and assumed to be up to no good by a grown Black man? And if that grown man then shot him in the heart after a brief altercation, would he have been found not guilty? Let that sink in and then answer! No matter the circumstances, the evidence and the rule of law in the state of Florida, George Zimmerman would be UNDER the jail right now if the races were reversed. This case IS about race and has been since the moment that George Zimmerman started following and called the police on Trayvon Martin. We can even venture to say that George Zimmerman would not have taken the same actions had Trayvon Martin been white.
We pray for the family of Trayvon Martin as they come to grips with the fact that the man who shot their son in cold blood is a free man and is able to carry his gun once again.
Will we wake up as a community, band together and demand justice for all of the Trayvon’s in this country? This is a fight for all young people of color to show that we are finished with accepting racial profiling as normal. By letting George Zimmerman go free while the world was watching has set a precedent that it’s OK to shoot innocent children of color.
It’s time to organize. Sign the petition to demand justice for Trayvon!