Please click pic to see President Obama's message regarding Trayvon Martin.
I purposefully did not follow the Trayvon Martin case. I would purposefully change the channel when updates regarding this American tragedy aired. And, I too often became disgusted when his picture would flash across my screen while checking Facebook and with that said, I deliberately avoided conversations that discussed the details of his case.
Since the age of 17 I have dedicated my life to studying the history of African-Americans in this country and a great deal of that experience has been tragic. I have also studied the atrocities of racism in South America and in various countries across Africa.
I remember, while in undergrad (I was an African-American studies major), in one of my Afro classes the professor required us to create a professionally printed magazine about any part of the African-American experience we chose. I chose to create my magazine about the lynching of African-Americans in the South. As my research began and as my magazine was being slowly created I remember the emotional toll it took on my spirit to see pictures and watch documentaries of African-American men being hung, penises cut and slipped in jars for the next day’s sale, or African-American women being hung while white little girls looked in awe as they ate fruit from their picnic baskets.
And, I remember the weekend before the project was due and I was putting the final touches on my project I broke down in tears because I couldn’t stand to continue to create a project about such violent acts against my grandmothers and grandfathers of a lost past. I called my best friend not being able to speak, just expecting God to give her the words that would comfort my soul enough to finish my project.
Upon hearing even the general details of this case I could not allow myself to fall into such a depression about what we already know about this country and its tactics to continue to slaughter the lives of African-Americans, but especially African-American males.
But, today, while sitting in my hotel room at a conference that I attended for my regional organization, CNN transitioned from detailing Wall Street to discussing the logistics of this case and the Creator would not allow me to change the channel this time.
As I sat on the edge of the bed I began to hear the awful details of this case and I was flabbergasted, but not! I am not a pessimist, but I am a realist, and I cannot understand why we expect for a country whose economy and social justice system built on racism to value the lives of the very people it killed for the color of their skin.
I am certain that every white person or person who claims to be of European ancestry is not racist. I am certain that this country is built upon racist principles and for that reason ‘minorities’ should begin to understand that you must continue to fight and protect your own in times like these because I can be certain that if that were my son, unfortunately, that young man would be, in the words of my co-worker, “apologizing to him where ever my son might be.”
And, upon my arrest, despite the fact that they never arrested him albeit any damn law instituted in the State, I would ask my father for forgiveness because I gave life to that child and if I have to give up my life for the honor of his then so be it. One person comes to mind when I think of this case and that is Samuel L Jackson.
Samuel L. Jackson played in a movie, released in 1996 entitled “A Time to Kill,” about a black who killed two white men because they had not only raped his daughter, but sodomized her, who said a line that this country will never forget—“yes, they deserve to die and I hope they burn in hell!” Mr. Martin’s story is not one of him being beat or sodomized and then having the chance to tell his story; Mr. Martin’s story will never be heard because he didn’t live to tell it.
But, these are the choices we make for our children. I am certain that Mr. Martin’s parents are upstanding people and I am not criticizing their methods in handling this case, in fact, I give them more respect because they are trying to allow federal and governmental officials to handle this case. I am grateful for their humility and their continued patience involving bringing justice regarding the case.
I am a 29 year old single black male with no biological children of my own and for that reason I speak with empathy and not sympathy, but I do think about if that were one of my children, my students, who had been involved in such a case how would I react. Because just as President Obama commented, if I had a son he too would look like Trayvon Martin. And, I do not cry tears in vain now that I’ve heard the gory details of this tragedy, but I cry for a people who seem to never to get a break. Who is always fighting for respect? Who is always fighting against an injustice? Who is always fighting against someone not knowing the value of their lives?
Can you imagine carrying a child for 40 weeks of your life, raising and nurturing that child putting God first in everything in his life, and praying every day to see him be fruitful and become successful and some man who has a God complex takes his life away with a bullet?
Self-defense? You pursued him in the middle of the day because he is wearing a hoodie and when he tries to defend HIMSELF you shoot him, oh, not in the leg, or not in the arm (that is if you were so frightened for your life as he is not armed), but in the chest where a vital organ lay that supports his physical body to sustain life? That was self-defense?
Well, there are a great deal of people with whom I would like to defend myself. Will I be arrested if they defend themselves against me after I pursued them?
And, in the words of Al Sharpton, “self-defense is determined in a court of law after the shooter is arrested, not in the police department who decides to make no arrest!”
To be continued…
J. Prince, Princepality 31
Princepality 