An interesting read on white privilege: "We Are Not Trayvon Martin" by Abby Zimet commondreams.org/further/2013/07/19 And then I went to visit the WeAreNotTrayvonMartin website itself...I read entry this below and It made me realize for the first time how much I have not truly understood .... I had to read it a second time, and it took on a whole different meaning... This is from the WeAreNotTrayvonMartin website: "My nephew is a dork plane and simple. He sings pop songs, does the gangnam style dance, and wins arguments by being loud and obnoxious. He speaks to me sweetly when he wants something and get pouty when he doesn’t get what he wants. He quotes Mark Twain and corrects me when I give inaccurate historical facts. He tells me all the worlds a stage and then asks me to pull his finger. He is funny, kind, sweet, frustrating, and often is a pain to deal with. "This is the boy I held when he was born and he was so tiny I thought I would break him. He has grown so much. When he was two he would wake me up every morning with kisses. When he was four I dressed him like a girl and he danced around the house as I took pictures. When he was six he came home crying because his classmate called him fat and it broke my sister and my hearts. When he was ten he said he would never speak to me again because I was cheating when we played cards. He forgave me the next day when I bought him ice cream. When he was twelve I cried because he didn’t want me to give him a kiss goodnight anymore. When he was fourteen he was official taller than me. "This is my nephew. I have loved him since before he was born. He became the light and joy of our family. So wise beyond his years that some times we would forget just how young he was. This is my nephew whom I love, when I look at him this is what I see. Yet when the world looks at him all they see is a tall young black man and they feel threatened. They stereotype him and have him all figured out before he even opens his mouth. Threatening? My nephew who jumps on chairs and screams when he see spiders. "I see the looks he gets when we walk down the street and it enrages me and breaks my heart because these people who don’t even know my nephew put him in their little box. They stripe him of who he is, of what he has been through, of the people that love him and the people he loves. They take away his basic human rights. No long is he an individual with life experience that shaped him and made him who he is, no he is a tall young black man and he is scary. HA I laugh at the thought. Scary, threatening? My nephew? The boy who would turn on every light in the house when he’d wake up at night, who still covers his eyes during the scary parts of movies. "My beautiful, sweet, annoying, and bratty teenage nephew. Who takes pictures of himself trying to look tough, flexing, smiling outside of hydroponics store, trying to look cool and fit in with all the other kids. I see these photos and laugh. When he gets in trouble at school for being late or skipping a class, his parents punish him. I comfort my sister. I remind her we that we were young once and did the same thing. We laugh as we remember him telling us when he grew up he would be the President of France. Now he wants to play ball and be a lawyer.He drives his parents nut with his hair cut and the clothes he wears, but then he tells them all the cool kids wear them and they understand. Yet we worry about how he dresses because we know people aren’t going to look at him as what he is, a teenager trying to fit in and express himself. All they will see and all they really want to see is a thug. "Yet that is not my nephew and that was not Trayvon. They are children! Young, beautiful, and loved. With their whole lives ahead of them, to make mistakes, get hurt, fall in love, grow up, get married, and have kids of their own. Unfortunately because of one mans actions Trayvon won’t have the chance to grow up and to live. This same man is free because of a ridiculous law called ’stand your ground’. A law that Zimmerman and the courts used to justify the murder of a child. "If we as a country of mothers, fathers, sister, brother, grandparent, and children don’t " STAND OUR GROUND" and demand for change, then everyones child is at threat of the reckless and perverted action of people like Zimmerman, Joe Horn, Cordell Jude, and Greyston Garcia. Who hide behind this “law" to do murder. Things need to change and if we don’t take a stand they won’t. I fear for my nephew. I fear for his future in a country were the murdered of a child can be justified in our court systems. I fear for him as a young black man. I don’t want this to ever happen again. We can’t ever let this happen again. Trayvon you will always be remember, may your death not be in vain. May we as a country stand up to make change happen."
Posted on: Sat, 20 Jul 2013 22:16:00 +0000
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