General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Check in if you're a white person who thinks Zimmerman should have been convicted of something.... [View all]raging moderate
(4,305 posts)My heart just goes out to all black teens and their parents! I think of little black boys I have worked with, in my career, and come to love. I am so afraid of what could happen to them, after this verdict! When I look at black teens in my town, I worry about what they must surely suspect I am thinking about them! Even a little old white woman must surely seem like a potential threat to their lives. How can they know? What are they supposed to do? They're damned if they do, and damned if they don't, for anything you can mention. Nothing they do will safeguard them from these vicious attacks! That one white juror is said to have commented, "What was the kid doing out so late at night?" 7 pm? At age 17? Walking home from the local store? And one commentator is said to have suggested that Trayvon brought it on himself because of his clothes. Khaki pants with folded cuffs, rubber-soled shoes, and a hooded light jacket? That could have been my son, at that age! And Trayvon said, "Why are you following me?" and then "Get off me?" (which I heard someone say in an old movie last night, when somebody reached out to grab somebody). I even wonder whether this will aid molesters and kidnappers of children. I can see from what I read and saw that Zimmerman might not have known that he would actually wind up shooting the kind of person Trayvon really was, because Zimmerman seems not to have realized that such persons existed. But, with that special expanding bullet in his gun, he had definitely prepared himself to inflict a life-threatening injury on the kid he believed he was pursuing. Without the authority of a genuine, screened, trained, bonded, qualified police officer. Trayvon Martin had every right to be where he was walking, and to do what he was doing. George Zimmerman did not.
My question is this: What can we do to provide some protection to these black teens? Maybe we could all form some protective community groups? Or could we just stay watchful for these incidents, cell phones ready? I have no fighting experience. so I couldn't succeed in active intervention, could I? Unlike George Zimmerman, I know my limitations. But it seems as if there must be things we can do.