I’m not a black mother or a white mother. I’m just a mother. I’m not a black person or a white person. I’m just a person. With a beating heart that can break. With blood that runs through my veins. With a sense of right and wrong etched deep in my psyche. The very same psyche that screamed injustice! when George Zimmerman was pronounced not guilty.
I live in Florida, just an hour way from the place where Trayvon Martin was shot dead by an overzealous neighborhood watch citizen. It seemed like a clear cut case to me. Boy was unarmed, not trespassing or causing any trouble. Gets into a fight with Zimmerman, who decides to follow and then shoot the teen – when in the first place he should have simply waited for the police to get there. Clearly guilty, right? Atleast to me it seemed that way. So I didn’t really watch the trial in its entirety. On the night that the jury delivered its verdict I was up. I stared at the television screen and at the word ‘aquitted’ which my brain processed as ‘guilty’. That’s how sure I was that Zimmerman would pay for snuffing out the life of a child! Then it slowly sunk in. I was shocked!
Let’s go back in time. To about a decade ago. 1992 to be precise. The Rodney King case involving police brutality. Yes, the guy was a criminal on parole. Yes, he did not co-operate with the officers. Did he deserve to have most of his bones broken? No! 33 blows to get this man arrested ? No! All the officers were aquitted and then when the case went to the civil court two were pronounced guilty and two were aquitted. Maybe you felt Rodney King deserved it because he was a criminal. Maybe you sympathized with him. Maybe you were enraged by the whole thing. If you were Afro- American you told your sons to be cautious when approached by a police officer. To simply put your hands up and co-operate or get beaten to death!
Let’s go back to 1955. That is the year that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man. Did you know that there was another woman by the name of Claudette Colvin who also refused to give up her seat on the bus and was dragged out and arrested? Do you know why they withdrew her case from the federal courts? She was pregnant and unmarried. Quoting from the book Rosa Parks : My story – If the white press got hold of that information, they would have a field day. They’d call her a bad girl and her case wouldn’t have a chance. So Rosa Parks was the chosen one – the one who would rid America of segregation on the bus.
Go back to the 1800s when the Ku Klux Klan was terrorizing the Southern States. You don’t even have to go back that far to arrive at a place in history where a black man could be shot by a white man for simply being sassy. The law did not protect the lives of black men, women or children.
I could keep going back in history to prove how much injustice has been meted out to the black people. But that would not help any of us. I just wanted to show you how far we have come and how much more work needs to be done. Going back to Trayvon Martin, and I think his name is no coincidence (just like Rodney King), I was amazed by the strength and dignity shown by his parents. They are aware as I am now that their son was part of a bigger plan. A plan to take a good look at the law books and change things that are not working. We also need to take a good long look at ourselves and see where we fall short as human beings. Where we let inequality, labels and sterotypes to govern our judgement. Where we let the vestiges of the past take control of our actions.
Why am I writing about this? I owe it to fellow blogger Eva who said – I’m plagued today for the same reason so many black parents are: we just watched a jury in the lawless state of Florida acquit George Zimmerman in the senseless and blatantly racial murder of Trayvon Martin…and we have children that by now we’ve had to explain it to.
I may not be Afro-American but I have read enough of American history to know what race is. In India it’s the caste system and other countries have other systems in place that reek of segregation. When President Obama was elected in 2009 it felt like America had taken a huge stride toward liberty and equality. But we still have some cob-webs to clean and some fine-tuning to be done. Many people are disheartened by the verdict and feel like things will not change in their lifetime. Imagine if Lincoln gave up on the 13th amendment! Imagine if only whites could vote today would Obama be our president? We cannot look back, we have to keep looking forward and we have to stop segregating the fight for justice. It’s everyone’s fight. Not just the black people! It’s not just America’s fight. It’s every nation’s fight for justice and an end of discrimination based on your skin color, nationality, caste, immigration status, gender, disability…the list goes on.
I’m not black and I’m not white. I’m a mother and I feel the pain of a mother who has lost her son. I ask each one of you to reach inside yourselves and really try to relate to this case. Put aside the facts, the media hype and the 10,000 analyses. Just ask yourself and you will know right from wrong. Knowing isn’t good enough, you need to start a conversation and get people to talk and take action. I just did. Now it’s your turn…
Punctuate Life 
This is the third post on this case I have read in the last little while. Not one reflected outrage or righteousness. Each expressed pain and regret about what had happened. No matter how you slice it, there is a deeper malaise a play. There has to be so much going wrong inside the culture, steeped in the environment, for the events to have unfolded as they did. You don’t build up the kind of fear or loathing that Zimmerman had without a culture that tells you, you should be afraid. Despite that, I find it hard to believe that the incident reflects some fracture in the whole psyche of the country, after all, you also elected Obama. Whether you care for his politics or not, that says something about American values too.
It is clear that through out history there has been many injustices to people. I honestly believe that it is not just one race that has been mistreated but different races at different times. This was very nicely written. 🙂
You are right Susan…all over the world and in the pages of history you can find instances of people being mistreated.
It’s quite sad that we continue to follow media that lull us into to believing that it is nothing but race. It’s really as you say. Maybe you want to write Obama who while justified in relating his heartfelt story about how much he understands the Martin’s grief, in my opinion stoked the embers of race. Of course he had every right, and he had the bully pulpit bit what you say could be written for his speech writers and get rid of those cob-webs you mentioned. Likely more than cob-webs.
Thanks for an insightful post.
Over from LinkedIn Group BHB
This case became a case of black against white. There are unfair killings everyday of whites killing blacks, blacks killing whites and so on. I am a mother and feel the pain, but what about all the crime in the this country. It is not our right to make the decision of what should be the verdict. Our country has a jury system and we all need to respect what the outcome was whether it is this trial or any other trial. Please understand I am not for or against either one in this situation, but the media blows things out of portion and makes it into a circus. I don’t have an opinion one way or another because I was not there. As you say I am not black or white I am a person
My dear Arleen, if we didn’t contest the law and change it like we have done several times in history, women wouldn’t be able to vote today. Slavery would be legal and there would be segregation on buses. I agree that the media blows things out of proportion but to me it was wrong right from the start. Stand your ground makes no sense in this case…
It’s a tragic situation. One mother lost her son, another mother is in hiding after receiving death threats and having her address published by unfreindly celebrities. There is no upside to something like this.
A powerful post and message. Seriously people, we’re all human beings. My white sons learned they had to “vouch” for their black friends who would almost inevitably be questioned by the police in our mostly white neighborhood when they were out at night. We saw that most of the cars pulled over had black drivers — giving some credence to the notion that black drivers in white neighborhoods get pulled over for “driving while black”. BTW, this is in a suburb close to a large northeastern city in a blue state.
Suzanne, thank you for getting the message I was trying to convey through my post. One day not in the very distant future I believe we would all drop labels like black/white, Asian/Hispanic etc. and simply be human beings.
There seems to be a less obvious thread running through all racial and caste/creed discrimination! It is more about survival of the fittest and the community that is politically, financially or militarily more powerful suppress the others! Color, religion or cultural differences are just the outward signs.