by Shauntrice Martin
When I was a freshman in college, Louisville Metro Police officer McKenzie Mattingly shot an unarmed Black teenaged boy named Michael Newby. The case was investigated, only to bring back a charge of justifiable homicide. The officer was on paid administrative leave during the investigation.
That was almost a decade ago.
Last month George Zimmerman, (who law enforcement expert Rod Wheeler thought to be drunk at the time of the incident), maliciously stalked and gunned down a 17-year-old boy named Trayvon Martin.
- 911 callers reported that Trayvon was screaming for help and pleading for his life. (Listen for yourself here).
- The FBI, along with other organizations, have stepped in to conduct their own investigation.
- George Zimmerman violated the rules and regulations of the Neighborhood Watch manual and does not belong to any of the registered Neighborhood Watch Associations.
- Zimmerman has not been arrested or formally charged.
- Zimmerman was not tested for drugs or alcohol, even though that is the proper procedure for homicide investigations.
- According to an article from Dissenting Justice and WFTV, the officer (Raimondo) involved had a history of racist behavior. Raimondo previously failed to arrest a white man who severely beat a homeless Black man in Florida.
- Basically, this dude Zimmerman murdered an innocent young man and disrupted an entire community. To date, Trayvon Martin has not received justice. Neighbors testified that Zimmerman was “fixated…on young, black males.”
Honestly, until we go Nat Turner on the proper parties, this will not stop. I hope yall didn’t think Obeezy was going to protect us from racism. If Zimmerman was black and Trayvon was white, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. Trayvon cried out for help over and over until he was silenced by Zimmerman’s hatred. Some people have decided to send empty bags of Skittles to Chief Bill Lee (Sanford Police Station 815 West 13th Street. Sanford, Fl 32771). Some people will come together in a prayer vigil.
What is “our” dear president doing? What are “our” celebrities doing? The better question is: what are WE going to do about this? I am so tired of this and it really makes me want to cry. I think about whether or not I want to bring a child into this world. I think about my students. My niece. I am tired of my people missing out on justice. Most of all, I hope people realize that there will never be justice as long as our former slave masters are in power. This system is a joke and we deserve better.
Shauntrice L. Martin is the director of the Justice Resource Center and long time youth advocate. Shauntrice has taught in Belize, Trinidad & Tobago, and the Dominican Republic. She is originally from Louisville, Kentucky and currently works with youth to sustain social justice movements in the District and beyond.
Awesome commentary!!
America’s contempt for anything Black continues to dominate live for Black folks in American. In today’s America Black Americans remain the most negative and unworthy collective. Schools engaged in disparate suspensions and the soft bigotry of low expectation is often the best practice when it comes to any kind of customer service for our communities.
Justice for Black Americans remains a fiction our children cannot walk on public streets for fear of drive- by low self esteem incidents to white teens trashing Black girls with nappy heads
Right now America is a dark place for us even our President lacks the courage to acknowledge our plight for fear his concern for our interests will alienate white voters. Even other non-whites express disdain for us as they seek admission in to Whiteness in America.
Great article queen. I agree with every word.
Peace & Blessings. Thank you, Brother Thrasher. That disdain you referenced in external as well as internal. Stems from the inferiority complex this entire country has carried around all these years. To quote Dr. Cobbs & Dr. Grier from the book Black Rage: “slavery was never undone for either the slave r the slave master.”
As Brother David remarked, I want to “send a message that we won’t be brutalized and slaughtered in our own communities on some barbarians whim” That is the whole point. Regardless of the method, I’m tired of this. I want to raise a family that doesn’t have to fear walking to the store. Brother Dyer, I definitely agree that we need to organize…I just think there are so many different ideas of what they means or what we would even organize around…this is the difference between a movement and a moment…how do we construct and sustain a MOVEMENT?
Here a full video on this murder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7WwsrZVZAI
I couldn’t agree more with the article as long as that mans breathing and we don’t have the courage to rectify that, we might as well declare open season on ourselves. The answer is simple you don’t ask for justice you take it. Were long overdue for another BLA.
The problem with “going Nat Turner” is the same problem Nat had himself; that Denmark Vesey had; that Cinque had;that the Panthers had….They got the guns.
And they will not hesitate to use them. In other words, we cannot win a violent confrontation with these people. It’s simply suicidal.
So sporadic and episodic outbursts as were done in the ’60s gets their attention and may get some laws changed, but the always following “white backlash” results in…The New Jim Crow, for example.
Kwame Toure said it best years ago. There is only one way to beat these people: “Organize, Organize, Organize!”
Peace & Power
HD
You just described the antithesis for power in a so called “Black America”. One of the main reasons why a “Black President” is worth a pitcher of warm spit and why things like this are so common place. If this vigilante gets what’s coming to him in the dark that doesn’t implicate the whole community.The BLA was not organized for a military conflict with the government, it was organized to send a message that we won’t be brutalized and slaughtered in our own communities on some barbarians whim. To much liberalism has gotten us into this position of crying, marching and then praying. If this is a form of struggle it’s obviously failing and stuck in the 50′s ethos. I’ll agree that an all out war locally is suicide but globally it’s much more plausible. Such global prospects do indeed take organization as does everything political but we have to be able to answer the question of, “To what end are we seeking?”.
David,
Great Question? I reason this is a personal answer and perhaps not a collective answer..
The reality is that for many Black folks living in America thier lives are good and rewarding and as such they don’t want or seek a regime change or Black America for others they want a revolution.
It is critical that we understand that many of our reactions to the legacy and practice of white supremacy/oppression/racism are impacted by our exposure and contamination of this white diease.
It has wounded and stained our personhood and how we interpete issues of this nature.
Definitely true but regardless of your walk of life or perceptions of it empire and the nation have cast their verdict on black life in this country. If we accept it in silence expect this to happen over and over again except one of those times it might be you or me or anybody.
Brother Dyer, please excuse me but I can’t let this go.
The Panthers *were* organized. They educated and they organized. They made it clear, just as white america is making it clear that it will tolerate this kind of murder, that the time for lying down is over. And they released all the anger, beauty, pride, power and productivity that is blackness in this country–and across the globe as well.
To gloss over the Panther’s contributions as “sporadic and episodic outbursts” demeans them absolutely and ignores everything that they stood for. This is a shameful and ignorant reduction of black history!
White backlash? They don’t need an excuse to lash back. The response to Trayvon’s murder is the proof. To say that defending our sons and daughters invites “backlash” his is just another way of blaming the community for what properly belongs to the category of white supremacy.
Kwame Toure wrote a book called Black Power when he was still Stokely Carmichael. Go back and read it!
what more can be said?
“Definitely true but regardless of your walk of life or perceptions of it empire and the nation have cast their verdict on black life in this country. If we accept it in silence expect this to happen over and over again except one of those times it might be you or me or anybody.” -David
I am fortunate that no one in my immediate family has been murdered in this manner by some person or persons acting out White America’s vigilante fantasy under the color of law. Fortunate, because I never want either myself, or members of my family to ever have to experience the dual traumas of first seeing the life of an irreplaceble loved one wasted, and then, watching the inevitable exoneration of that person’s killer(s) by the so-called justice system. I am also fortunate that this has never happened, because I feel that, in my heart of hearts, regardless of the cost, eventually, in the aftermath of such an atrocity, there would be more blood spilled.
How does one “take the law into one’s own hands” when “law” doesn’t exist, except, perhaps, as an enabler and an accomplice for the likes of the Zimmermens of the world?
Your niece and other female relatives are relatively safe, Shawntrice; you and all of us need to worry FAR more about our young men (teens and young adults), as this is the group that the general u.s. society and, unfortunately, even Black america fear and loathe.
What the useless president, congress-critters, and media & clerical celebrities are going to do IS a important question, since so many blacks dang nigh worship these craven lackeys, self-servers, and schmucks. Identifying these potentially powerful good-for-nothings and do-nothings and spreadin’ the word loud’n'clear that they are worthless and contemptible is necessary to rouse LObamatize blacks from their delusional stupor to begin to acknowledge and laud, cheer, patronize, edify, vote for, and otherwise support dissident voices like Cynthia McKinney, Jeremiah Wright, and Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide who’ve shown they’re not afraid to take action on behalf of oppressed voiceless people.
@jae:
After 300 years, White America got most of us figured out. Most of us never really wanted freedom because being free means putting in the work which is required to make those who hold political office use the political system to exercise power so that it serves our interests as well or better than it serves the interests of other groups.
Instead of making demands on elected officials, most of the Black population is happy to bask in the temporary glow of having a pretty Black family reside at the White House. Like a bunch of groupies fixated on celebrity, they are content to live vicariously through the Obamas as if the act of governance is nothing more than a reality TV show. The blind worship of President Obama, a man who pointedly goes out of his way to to disparage and distance himself from Black people and their interests unless he needs their votes, is a symptom of a people who have lost their way, and are desperate to feel that they have been accepted by (White) America.
@Jae – I have to strongly disagree here. (sorry for the delayed response) A blind Black woman was tazed by police a few years ago. Recently, Rekia Boyd was murdered by pigs in Chicago. More names come to mind, like: 7 year old Ayana Jones, Kathryn Johnston, Shaima Alawadi, and others. Anyone who is part of a marginalized group, is subject to termination by the forces of white supremacy.
So as long as my niece is Black, I need to worry about her. Black women create Black men from our wombs, so as long as this country fears Black men/boys, then we as women will always be in danger as well.
You should really moderate the responses at this site