Things that we Can Learn From Trayvon

The trial ended like all free thinking people thought it would.  It also ended like racist semi sociopaths thought it should.  Justice is funny that way.

By this time next year, no one will care that one of many dead niggas was blasted by a white dude that started the whole incident.  However, there are things that we need to learn here.  My love for education is rooted in the belief that it moves humanity forward and if we are going to move forward after Trayvon’s death, we should take what we can from it.

First of all, kill the witnesses.  George Zimmerman didn’t even have to testify and most of the witnesses went to the stand to verify his story.  Why?  Because that was the only story that they heard.  Why was that the only narrative they had?  Because the only other real witness was the victim.  The neighbors’ testimony was comical.  It wasn’t even halfway believable.  How the fuck did you notice the colors of their clothes but not seem to know that one of them had a gun?  The witnesses in the Trayvon Martin were incompetent at best, making up shit at worst.  That allowed George Zimmerman to present his own story as the only account of what happened the night that he stalked an unarmed child with a loaded weapon.

Second, being Black and in the streets is dangerous.  I’ve been Black and in the street several times.  While it hasn’t proven fatal (yet), let me tell you, being followed by the police is infuriating.  If I was getting followed by some “crazy cracker” I might be in the mood to get physical my damned self.  Similarly, if I was getting followed by some random nigga, I would definitely have to call for fight or flight.  White folks follow you for no reason.  If random Black folks are following you, it’s probably the beginning step of an agenda.  I know that sounds racist but we just aren’t prone to following each other around.  We know how not cool that shit is because the police have been doing to us for forever.

Third, people get real up in arms when you mess with the level of racism they are accustomed to.  Us black folk are well aware how the justice system feels about us.  The numbers of Black people in prison are ridiculous unless you accept one of two things.  Either the system is preying on us or Black people are naturally inclined to crime.  There’s no other way around it.  We all know the statistics, so why no outrage?  Because everybody is at their racism tolerance.  Black people were fine until the notion that you could just gun down our children in the street go introduced.  White people were fine because, well, when it comes to matters of race, not mentioning it is their usual strategy.  There are even the rare few that deny that racial issues are made up by the media.  Those people are fucking stupid, so we won’t get too much in to it but how long was Al Sharpton asleep at the switch for people to be debating as to whether or not racism exist?

Fourth, money talks.  George Zimmerman raised half a million dollars, mostly from strangers, for his defense.  In the same courtroom where countless defendants got a public defender to walk them toward disaster, this dude got a top notch defense team just by asking other white folks to help him with his defense for killing an unarmed teenager.  That’s some fucked up shit… I wonder if Zimmerman thinks he would have got such a defense if he was another Black man begging for money from the populace after killing a 17 year old. 

Fifth, the “That nigga was scary defense”.  The Zimmerman defense wanted to show that Trayvon had weed in his system and that here were pictures of guns on his phone to somehow prove that he needed to be killed.  Just the suggestion that you can prove that you are not a murderer because the guy you killed wasn’t a good guy is ridiculous.  Fortunately, the judge mostly agreed.  However the court of public opinion had a field day, only fueling the trials racial undertones.  Before anybody tries this defense again, can we all just imagine how many murderers we would have to let go if we were using toxicology reports of the victim to decide whether it was ok to kill them? 

Lastly, it’s good to be a coward in America.  George Zimmerman took a loaded gun to the grocery store because he lived in fear.  He lived in a gated community and lived in fear that some random nigger was coming to some random crime.  That fear is why felt the need to follow and eventually kill Trayvon.  That fear is also why gun laws are so lax and no one thought to even press charges on Zimmerman for a year.  Cowards rely on some form of protection from what they imagine to be a threat.  Ironically, that can make them more of a real threat to others, as we have just seen.  We see it all the time in the hood.  It is natural to be afraid sometimes but when you become a coward, that fear dictates you decisions and that is no way to live.  Here in America, though, we actually legislate for cowards.  Where self defense laws end, stand your ground laws intervene, so what there is a little blood on the streets because of it.  Terrorist on the prowl?  The NSA will nab em.  So what you have to give up a few phone records.  We have a coward oriented society.  That’s probably the biggest thing to learn here. Until we have the courage to confront our fears about race, guns, privilege and the general random fuckery of our fellow Americans, best believe we will be down this road again.