I’m even more hesitant to make a definitive opinion since I last posted, as the week has progressed, except for how tragic and horrible this was and is becoming for everyone else. I will say, though, how sad it is that one does not see this kind of outrage and united calls to put an end to murder and crime in general, whether it’s black on black, white on white, etc.
My university was in the middle of a very dangerous area of the city and had its own private police department which was one of the best in the city, otherwise, I don’t think anyone would want to send their child to the school no matter how good of a reputation it has. Just a couple blocks away, the area was named “The Badlands” and we were warned not to venture down that way. Murder and other crime was occurring all the time around the campus. I had a real street education by attending university there because I volunteered in the community, mostly at the schools to which we had to have police escort because of how dangerous the area was, and then also doing volunteer work at hospices and getting to know some of the homeless who hung out around our dorms. Also, although crime was mostly kept off campus, you really couldn’t help but be touched by the area. (ie. witnessing a local man running for his life from a gang of other men holding baseball bats, run right in front of me and into my dorm for protection. Fortunately, the gang did not follow him in. One of the police men was there and escorted him out of the dorm. I don’t know what happened afterwards.) From speaking with the teachers and to the children at the school where I volunteered mostly, you learned that so many of them had little chances of a bright future. Those who did were the fortunate ones with luck, fortitude, strength of mind and at least one person on their side who was cheering him/her on.
I just wish that those who are making such a loud noise about the Martin/Zimmerman situation could do the same for all those children and young men/women who are trapped in a life very difficult to escape from and are witnessing crime and murders of their friends, siblings, peers, etc. all the time. Where is the outrage, anger, the calls for justice for these people? To me, it seems that because it is not beneficial for some who are leading these rallies or writing the news, nothing will be done. That is tragic in it of itself.
We had four students murdered off-campus during the time I attended university there. Three of them were white and one was black. The deaths of two white students were pretty much dismissed by many in the suburban communities as something unfortunate, but because they were out very late at night off campus when they were murdered, part of the blame was placed on them. ie. Their “stupidity” got them killed, no matter how innocent they were, whether it was going to the ATM or coming back to campus after a night out with friends in the safer part of the city. They should have known better, especially in that area, so they had no one to blame, but themselves. The other white student was automatically assumed that he “had” to have been out buying drugs in that area, so his “stupidity” and assumed drug use put him there, thus no major sympathy. There was no information that said this was the case. It was just assumed because of the area he was in and no white people ever went into that area, unless it was for drugs.
The black student was from the neighborhood, one of the fortunate ones who rose above the poverty and crime to try to better himself. He was apparently caught in the crossfire, gunned down on the steps of his church. It made news for a few days because he was a kid from the neighborhood trying to better himself, but no national outrage, no national calls for justice of those who murdered him, no anger over how an innocent 19/20-year-old kid, working hard to escape the cycle of crime and poverty, had his life snuffed out so easily. Where were the Sharptons and Jacksons making a public outcry? And where was the media?
Yes, I think what happened to a young man like Trayvon Martin is horribly sad and tragic, but it has been caught up in so much media hype that I really do think it has made it difficult for anyone on the outside viewing this to make a wise and rational opinion on what actually occurred, not that I don’t think a discussion is warranted. I can’t help but think that if this occurred in a poor neighborhood where he was held up and shot or even shot by a neighborhood watch person from that community who felt he was suspicious, it would not have received so much media coverage or outcry. It would just be considered another one of those unfortunate statistics of innocent people being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Honestly, to me, those who are in those poor, dangerous neighborhoods need more people being outraged about this. It shouldn’t matter what the color of the people involved were, which I think is what the media and certain vocal people are trying to turn the M/Z situation into. (I personally think the idea of a “hate” crime is a bit redundant. To me, all real crime is hateful.)
Ok, rant over. Time out for me for a while.
