Posted on 03/01/2014 3:27:31 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
I imagine you taller now. I imagine you ready for college or the armed forces, or sulking because the world isn’t kind to those who are fresh out of high school. I imagine you annoyed that the economy sucks and that tuition is high and scholarship opportunities are limited and the paperwork is endless.
I imagine you unsure of your next steps and grateful for the anonymity that hoodies provide when you don’t feel like talking or being seen. I imagine you unafraid. I imagine you fearless. I imagine you scared of everything and hiding behind a scowl because hip-hop taught you that. It taught me, too. It taught most of us, ranging from vanilla latte-hued to unlit charcoal, which is why we still mourn you.
We are you. I was you.
Before I became this guy, a writer of marginal success who believes in the weight of words, I used to be Trayvon Martin.
I used to mug and grimace and stare people down and look silly while doing it because I was thin and not convincing. But Washington was brutal back then, and gangster rap was the soundtrack played on repeat. I wore my pants two sizes too big because we all did, and they hung loose on my frame because I, like other black boys, was playing man. I was playing tough. It was an actual grown black man who picked up on my thug impression and would call me “Tinactin: tough acting.”
Truth is, I was struggling to carry the weight of my blackness in rooms that didn’t seem to want it or me around. I had grown my hair out wild to have it braided. I wore a Polo hoodie most days with the hood up so it hid my earphones....
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
I imagine him in jail. For killing George Zimmerman.
I imagine you braggin’ about how many timeses your “gots shots”. Always a necessary thing (even if you gotta lie about it) for street cred as a thug, playa, or rappa...
The writer needs to go to therapy.
I imagine him not reporting to his probation officer.
Pffffft.....whatever
When you try to intimidate strangers, don't be surprised when they look at you suspiciously and treat you as a dangerous fellow.
prisoner #215671
I imagine him moving to Colorado for a Rocky Mountain high.
Mr. Martin today would be Florida Department of Corrections Inmate # 6211979.
trayvon would be bubba’s girlfriend over in Stoney Lonesome
Did this guy knock off as many places as Tray did?
Ya my first thought was were would George Zimmerman be had he not been jumped by Trayvon? I have no idea, perhaps in a better spot, maybe 100 lbs liter, maybe still with his wife, still employed, still serving the community as neighborhood watch leader
The writer is living in an imaginary alternate reality that does not exist. Saint Trayvon was bound for neither College or for Military service. He was heading toward a future of drugs and laziness and sloth.
Hillary and the memory of Trayvon.
/s
He’d probably be a young father now.
.
Only two comments so far on the MH site.
Yup — and I seriously doubt that St Skittles ever had any interest in books that didn’t have lots of pictures in them.
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