My cousin wrote this on my fb page about my post on Trayvon

[OneGrassRoot]

60. Forget Zimmerman. Forget Trayvon. Forget media coverage of this event.

Do you deny that there is institutionalized racism in this country, specifically within the criminal justice system?

To me, this particular tragedy was basically the straw that broke the camel's back, as is often the case when one person's story takes hold and gains national attention.

I tend not to focus much on Zimmerman at all; it's more about Trayvon and the millions of Trayvons out there. What I do pay attention to is how right-wingers have appeared to universally embrace Zimmerman as a hero, especially since he was acquitted.

if national media did, there would be little time for anything else.

True, but I never see the marches and protests of the moms and family members decrying the scourge of violence in their communities covered by media, trying to bring attention to the extraordinary violence -- and the circumstances perpetuating the violence.

and no, many of those killers are NOT caught and thus not prosecuted.

But when they are caught, I simply cannot believe they are not prosecuted; if it makes it to court, I cannot believe the vast majority are not convicted. And, if they are not, I'd be very curious to investigate those circumstances.

And the media coverage simply IS ridiculous in many ways. It is loaded with misinformation, for one thing.

Whereas I'm normally the first to criticize mainstream media as useless, providing white noise as a means to confuse and distract from the work of the puppet masters (and, yes, there is always misinformation, and that is no different here), I don't view what's happening now concerning the Zimmerman verdict in that light.

What I'm seeing is a national conversation trying to get started about institutional, systemic racism. There are a lot of commentators/hosts/pundits of color who now have a national platform and they are personally devastated by this verdict. Like I said, this is the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. They personally fear for their own children even more now. (See this Charles Blow article: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/16/opinion/the-whole-system-failed.html?_r=2&).

They are passionate and eloquent and REAL. I've seen more honest dialogue on TV in the last two days than I have in the last 10 years. The corporate mask of BS has been ripped away and they are simply being human, asking to please come together to figure this out, for the safety of our children. They also realize the Stand Your Ground laws and other aspects of this case have the potential to negatively affect many innocents.

For another, all these people now saying that because of Zimmerman black parents have to be afraid for their kids. Well, that is quite absurd considering that nine times as many young black people are killed by other black people than are killed by "creepy a$$ crackers". So it is absurd to try to make Zimmerman some kind of boogeyman, especially since all the jail time given to the black men who took lives hasn't stopped that tsunami of deadly violence, or even slowed it down that much.

That's pretty tone deaf. The same parents I've seen speak of how this verdict creates more fear for their children acknowledge the violence within black communities as well. Many black journalists have been writing about that very thing of late.

Actually, that comment pisses me right the fuck off, to be perfectly honest.