Posted on 03/28/2012 5:36:38 AM PDT by SJackson
As many of us have been made well aware of, on Feb. 26, 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was found shot to death in a community in Sanford, Fla. Since then, the story has gained a lot of national attention from people all over the country. Racism and a lack of justice seem to be the central theme that has angered thousands of people all over the nation.
I would like to present the argument that these issues are terrible, however I do believe that a bigger issue has been overlooked for far too long.
The death of Trayvon Martin is, was, and forever will be a terrible tragedy for all Americans. His death is a painful reminder of the injustices that black America has witnessed since we first stepped on American soil years ago.
However, while it may be horrible, his death should not hold more weight than any other teenage death that has occurred in recent years, especially the deaths of black teenagers.
Regardless of how we want to look at it, the murders of young black men have become so apparent that we seem to only get angry and protest when it deals with racism.
This is not meant to down play or ignore the death of Martin. However I challenge everyone to ask yourself how many times have you read or seen something about a black kid getting killed by another black kid and did nothing about it?
Martin died because of racial profiling.
This is something that the country cannot, no matter how hard many people may try, ignore.
On the other hand, according to the Department of Justice, this case is more rare than many of us want to admit. Need proof? In 2009, white offenders killed 209 black individuals. Meanwhile, that same year black offenders killed 2,604 black individuals. And if that wasn’t bad enough, statistics show that 94 percent of black murders had black offenders.
If those statistics do not show you that there is more of an internal problem with black violence than anything else, then quite frankly I don’t know what will.
While we force the country to see that racism is still an issue in today’s society, why not force the country to also see that black on black crime is perhaps the biggest problem facing Americans today.
Why should the death of Martin weigh on your heart heavier because of the race of the killer and the victim, while black people kill other black people everyday and we do nothing about it except view it as “the norm.”
Martin’s mother has lost a son that she will never get back. Yet so many other black mothers have all lost kids due to a senseless act of violence in their own neighborhoods.
Derrion Albert was beaten to death on camera by a fellow black American in 2009 and sadly most people don’t even remember his name.
Torie Carpenter was shot to death in her home in front of her two children by a fellow black American in 2006 and her name was barely whispered in the news.
A few weeks ago in Chicago 41 people were shot in three days (one of which was only 6-years-old) and the media not even make a peep about this, probably because most of the victims and offenders were black Americans.
These are all cases where people of color were killed not because of racial profiling, but because of ignorance. And if racial profiling is nothing more than ignorance in a different form, then explain to me how these deaths are any different than the death of Martin?
We speak about justice not being served for Trayvon, but then we hear about unsolved murders in black communities all over the country and remain silent.
So why is justice more important when it comes to white on black crimes, than it is when it comes to black on black crime? Especially considering the fact that statistics show white on black crime is far less common than black on black crime.
Martin’s death was something that shook up the country because it is something we have thankfully begun to see less frequently in our society. Black people fought for years to stop the brutal murder of our men, women, and children due to the color of their skin.
However when we see black people dying everyday, we seem to ignore the fact that the only reason this is accepted is because of the lack of justice that has been provided to innocent and defenseless young black men and women. These are people who lost their lives in a drive-by, a drug deal gone wrong, or simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I applaud President Barack Obama for addressing the Trayvon Martin tragedy. Yet it would still be nice to hear a politician (and it does not have to be the President) address the fact that black people are the leading killers of black people in this country and so few of us are doing anything to help prevent it.
Say what you want about racism but the fact of the matter is we are killing ourselves more than any other race right now and we have all sat back and let this injustice go on for quite a few decades now.
The media has stopped covering the bigger issue. There are less and less major rallies organized to help prevent black on black violence. There are no more “Wear black shirts for all the black teens that were lost last year,” movements.
Black people need to see Trayvon’s case as another black male who was killed and justice was not served. That’s a huge difference from the theme flowing around, which appears to be a white/hispanic male killed a black teen and justice was not served.
Race is still an issue here, but the fight that is more important is the protection of all black people, not just the ones who are killed by someone of a different race.
If we were seriously sad for the Martin family, then I would love to see everyone take 10 minutes out of their day to pause for the black people who have died due to ignorance. Or maybe a fundraiser to go towards funding some of these unsolved murders that are so frequent in the black communities.
Or how about the college students of Greensboro come together with the community and we host a march on violence.
These are all ideas to show that Trayvon’s death was terrible, but it doesn’t make us forget that the true tragedy here is that another black teen has died due to an act of ignorance.
George Zimmerman’s inexcusable act of violence is something that is being highlighted in this case. Yet sadly ignorant acts of violence happen every day in the black community. So much so, that we have stopped seeing it for the tragedy that it really is because it is now seen as “normal.”
Here is one story from this week. I wonder if these 3 are obama sons!
March 27 (Reuters) - A third man is facing a murder charge
after the fatal shooting of a student at a Mississippi State
University residence hall, authorities said on Tuesday.
John Sanderson, 21, of Madison, Mississippi, died after
being shot Saturday night in a dorm room on the Mississippi
State campus. It was the first campus shooting in the school’s
history, the university president said.
Trent Deundra Crump, 21, was being held by authorities in
Gainesville, Florida after his arrest on Tuesday on a capital
murder charge, said university spokeswoman Maridith Geuder.
Two other suspects, Duntae Harvey and Mason Perry Jones,
also both 21, were arrested on Monday on the same charge,
officials said.
Story #2
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2012-03-04/news/31122324_1_white-boy-fire-tv-station
Teens set kid on fire for being ‘white boy’
Obviously, blacks are committing murder at a much higher rate than whites, since the gross numbers are about the same, but blacks are a much smaller segment of the population.
But of murders committed by blacks, 83% of the victims are other blacks, but only 14% are whites.
The inter-racial murders are the ones that wind up on the front page, but both blacks and whites kill each other at a much higher rate.
Actually they thought it was "NEGLIGENT MANSLAUGHTER - UNNECESSARY KILLING TO PREVENT UNLAWFUL ACT"
I do...but I ignore racist morons.
Video of New York Times connected elite ‘journalists’ talking about manipulating the news to help Obama and other liberals ( when they don’t know a conservative is in the room taping)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBFOmUXR080
Actually it is. I used to think that the “n-word” could be used in the generic as a term of endearment, but it is truly unique, because its context is exclusively one of servitude and inferiority.
As such, it reinforces opinions of victimization and incapability among black people, in any context.
This has been recognized in other circumstances as well, such as parents who frequently call their children “stupid”. At a deep, psychological level it hits hard, with children often growing up defining themselves as stupid.
Comparatively, individuals who call each other “A-hole”, may indeed do so in a state of camaraderie, yet even then it is still tinged with passive-aggressiveness.
“Actually it is.”
You have a right to your opinion.
I was referring to your post about him being fatherless, not the earlier post.
Unfortunately this friendly banter affects the rest of society, at which point it stops being private. And while it is only a small part of the problem, it is part of the problem.
Black Americans have been pushing the rest of society so hard, and for so long, it is becoming intolerable. Eventually something far worse is going to happen unless they get their act together and stop raising hundreds of thousands of criminals.
And whatever this is, it would be a lot harsher than telling them to quit calling each other by the “n-word” and a hundred other such things.
Statistics show that children of single parents are 60% more likely to become social problems. So why don’t black leaders say “no babies unless you are married?” Some, a few, do. But it’s not enough.
Seriously, things are now so bad I would not be surprised to see a law by which all black children would be taken from their parents and raised by the state, unless the parents are married, have good jobs, etc.
“Unfortunately this friendly banter affects the rest of society,”
Especially where there is no sense of humor but whose fault is that? I am not responsible for other people’s lack of a sense of humor.
Thanks for the links.
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