George Zimmerman, the man accused of murdering 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter Saturday night. This case has captured the nation’s attention for more than a year and sparked emotional debate regarding issues of racial profiling and state gun laws. Discussion of the verdict, obviously, has dominated the news and social media.
As Roxane Gay writes in her Salon.com piece, Racism is every American’s problem, in the coming days there will be impassioned and righteous writing about Trayvon Martin and race in America. “None of this writing will necessarily solve anything but it will matter, at least a little, because people are making some noise instead of stewing silently, helplessly, hopelessly,” she writes.
Other women writers have also chosen to voice their views on the verdict.
Florida resident Faiqa Khan of Native Born urges us not to acquit ourselves and each other for our own crimes of racism, discrimination, and bias. She writes:
Everyday, people in this country are deemed threatening because of their appearance, their name, or their culture. They are dirty because they are poor. They are violent because they are black. They are angry because they are Muslim. They are racist because they are white. They are deviant because they are gay.
These ideas and words are crimes against you and me…
They are the crimes that divide us…
And here’s the real clincher: the perpetrators of these crimes are almost always acquitted because the jury is too sympathetic or apathetic to convict.
You acquit. I acquit. We acquit each other when we look the other way when a remark is made about “those people” and why they are “that way.” We acquit each other when we accept the idea that “race is not an issue.”
Someone pleaded today, “What can I do?”
I’ll tell you.
Hold yourself accountable for the tiny ways in which you might be making this problem bigger.
Christen Smith wrote at The Feminist Write an open love note for her son on mourning, love and black motherhood.
Anna Breslaw at Jezebel points out that critics of prosecutor Angela Corey might be more effective if they stuck to Corey’s stats instead of “ragging on her makeup or her weight.”
Williesha Morris says she understands that “the prosecution failed to persuade the jury there wasn’t reasonable doubt. There just wasn’t enough evidence to convict.” But she says there are still many things she doesn’t understand about this case and about the night Trayvon Martin was killed.
Alison Moore writes that “discrimination against African Americans is still very prevalent in today’s society” and asks those who think otherwise to be open to having a discourse about race.
And Melissa Harris Perry asks, “How does it feel to a problem, black America?”
What are your thoughts on the Zimmerman ruling?
This case hit home for me and left me feeling confused, upset and worrisome about the world I’m raising my son in. America we need to change our thought process.
Yes, I can’t imagine what the mothers of young boys are feeling right now.