I have a 16 year old son and I can't imagine what the parents of Trayvon Martin are going through.
I support their efforts and will continue to lift them up in prayer.
HOWEVER!
*somebody say however*
HOWEVER...............
I'm a bit taken back by the selective outrage I'm seeing from my people.
It seems like everybody and their mama is rocking a hoodie nowadays in support of Trayvon.
That's great, but I have a question:
Where has all of this outrage been?
Thousands of young black men are murdered in this country every year, and most of the them are murderer by other young black men.
And because of this stupid "No Snitching" code in our community, some of their killers are still walking the streets.
Where are the marches and protests for those families?
Why aren't people outraged about those cases?
Is it because George Zimmerman is white, and this case has a racial overtone to it?
Is it because it's easier to point the finger at white people and say,
"They're killing our young black men"?
We're so quick to shine the spotlight on police brutality, and cases like this where young black men are racially profiled and stereotyped.
Yet, we dim the lights when it's time to talk about the effect black on black crime is having in our community.
I'm not saying that the outrage in this case isn't justified-it's more than justified.
But I think it's time we stop having "selective outrage".
I agree with everything you said, EXCEPT: This case received explosive media publicity almost from the start. There was mass media and internet coverage to fuel the outrage. Fuel that is sadly missing for black on black crime. Where are the petitions to find the murderers of black people by other people? Because I would sign them, as I did in this case. I would support those efforts, but they are seldom made. I wouldn't call it selective outrage, I would term it "guided outrage". We have been led to our outrage in this case, first by the media misdirection in calling the shooter white when he is Hispanic (although he does have some loose family ties to an extremely wealthy white individual, reportedly), then by the failure of the police to arrest the perpetrator. Mark my words if this were a black on black crime and the perpetrator was known, he would be in jail. There would be no need for outrage and calls for justice because the police are quick to slam a black man in cuffs.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous - I don't think that's a correct assessment of the situation. I'm no expert but that's a common mindset I see amongst African Americans and its poisoned them in fact. "The police always got it out for the black man." I am a constant watcher of "The First 48," which is a real program that follows real homicide crimes and homicide detetctives. There are a lot of them which are black perpetrators. However, without evidence I've seen countless times where they had to let the individual go.
ReplyDelete