The author.
Posted on 03/30/2012 4:44:59 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
AS a black man who has been mugged at gunpoint by a black teenager late at night, I am not naive: I know firsthand the awkward conundrums surrounding race, fear and crime. Trayvon Martin's killing at the hands of George Zimmerman baffles this nation. While the youth's supporters declare in solidarity "We are all Trayvon," the question is raised, to what extent is the United States also all George Zimmerman?
Under assault, I didn't dream of harming my teenage assailant, let alone taking his life.
Zimmerman reacted very differently, taking out his handgun and shooting the youth in cold blood.
What gives?
Welcome to gate-minded America.
From 2007 to 2009, I traveled 27,000 miles, living in predominantly white gated communities across this country to research a book. I threw myself into these communities with gusto - no Howard Johnson or Motel 6 for me. I borrowed or rented residents' homes. From the red-rock canyons of southern Utah to the Waffle-House-pocked exurbs of north Georgia, I lived in gated communities as a black man, with a youthful style and face, to interview and observe residents.
The perverse, pervasive real-estate speak I heard in these communities champions a bunker mentality. Residents often expressed a fear of crime that was exaggerated beyond the actual criminal threat, as documented by their police department's statistics. Since you can say "gated community" only so many times, developers hatched an array of Orwellian euphemisms to appease residents' anxieties: "master-planned community," "landscaped resort community," "secluded intimate neighborhood." No matter the label, the product is the same: self-contained, conservative and overzealous in its demands for "safety." Gated communities churn a vicious cycle by attracting like-minded residents who seek shelter from outsiders and whose physical seclusion then worsens paranoid groupthink against outsiders. These bunker communities remind me of those Matryoshka wooden dolls. A similar-object-within-a-similar-object serves as shelter; from community to subdivision to house, each unit relies on staggered forms of security and comfort, including town authorities, zoning practices, private security systems and personal firearms.
Residents' palpable satisfaction with their communities' virtue and their evident readiness to trumpet alarm at any given "threat" create a peculiar atmosphere - an unholy alliance of smugness and insecurity. In this us-versus-them mental landscape, them refers to new immigrants, blacks, young people, renters, non-property-owners and people perceived to be poor.
Zimmerman's gated community, a 260-unit housing complex, sits in a racially mixed suburb of Orlando, Fla. Mr. Martin's "suspicious" profile amounted to more than his black skin. He was profiled as young, loitering, non-property-owning and poor. Based on their actions, police officers clearly assumed Zimmerman was the private property owner and Martin the dangerous interloper. After all, why did the police treat Martin like a criminal, instead of Zimmerman, his assailant? Why was the black corpse tested for drugs and alcohol, but the living perpetrator wasn't?
Across the United States, more than 10 million housing units are in gated communities, where access is "secured with walls or fences," according to 2009 Census Bureau data. Roughly 10 percent of the occupied homes in this country are in gated communities, though that figure is misleadingly low because it doesn't include temporarily vacant homes or second homes. Between 2001 and 2009, the United States saw a 53 percent growth in occupied housing units nestled in gated communities.
Another related trend contributed to this shooting: our increasingly privatized criminal justice system. The United States is becoming even more enamored with private ownership and decision making around policing, prisons and probation. Private companies champion private "security" services, alongside the private building and managing of prisons.
"Stand Your Ground" or "Shoot First" laws like Florida's expand the so-called castle doctrine, which permits the use of deadly force for self-defense in one's home, as long as the homeowner can prove deadly force was reasonable. Thirty-two states now permit expanded rights to self-defense.
In essence, laws nationwide sanction reckless vigilantism in the form of self-defense claims. A bunker mentality is codified by law.
Those reducing this tragedy to racism miss a more accurate and painful picture. Why is a child dead? The rise of "secure," gated communities, private cops, private roads, private parks, private schools, private playgrounds - private, private, private - exacerbates biased treatment against the young, the colored and the presumably poor.
******
Rich Benjamin is the author of "Searching for Whitopia: An Improbable Journey to the Heart of White America" and a senior fellow at Demos, a nonpartisan research center.
The author.
Having your skull bashed in is now COLD BLOOD??
Go win the future yourself!
ROTFL!
That’s a nice looking coat shirt and tie. Is it private property comrade?
The rise of “secure,” gated communities, private cops, private roads, private parks, private schools, private playgrounds - private, private, private
It is all for a reason.
Hey, it’s Buckwheat !
“nonpartisan research center”
The big lie technique is still alive and well.
(author looks like a stoned Buckwheat as played by Eddie Murphy! LOL)
Gated communities? Really.....
What next?
God, these people are so empty.
Where is it that Martin cold cocked him in the face and broke his nose, that decked him to the ground and then continued banging his head into the ground. You lost your credibility and I didn't read the rest of your rant. You are dismissed.
So the whole problem here is that people are allowed to have safe havens away from high crime areas? If we’d just tear down their gates the problem would go away? LOL
Oh boy, he ought to have SMRT tattooed right on his forehead.
what if the hispanic didnt have a gun? Would his head have been smashed like a pumpkin on the sidewalk?
“and a senior fellow at Demos, a nonpartisan research center.”
What Brain Dead worm eaten Zombie writes this drivel and has the audacity to use the word “nonpartisan”? That is like saying CNN, MSNBC and others under that same dirty blanket of Yellow Journalism is non-biased.
Rots O’ Ruck!
yea, it is not the gated community it is the scumbags who trespass like there is no such thing as private property..
why don’t they just say because earth made me do it, nope its your pea brain filled with hate, demanding of others...
Heard of the ten commandments, do not steal, don’t want your neighbors stuff...all that’s left is do something for yourself..
Nah that’s a choice whitey demands...pukin....
Non-partisan my sweet Aunt Fanny.
From their website: "A multi-issue national organization, Demos combines research, policy development and advocacy to influence public debate and catalyze change. Founded in 2000 and headquartered in New York City, Demos works with advocates and policymakers around the country in pursuit of three overarching goals:
A more equitable economy with opportunity for all;
A robust democracy in which all Americans are empowered to participate;
A strong public sector that can provide for our common interests and shared needs."
The bias - it burns!
I thought I had read that Zimmerman and Martin’s “gated community”, with all that that implies, was really a mixed race apartment complex that happened to have a gate.
And stoner Buckwheat is a low grade moron.
I saw this in college, all those years ago. I just never thought that brain matter stopped maturing, at that point.
Dopey me.
Is that you, Alfalfa? If the IQ fits...
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