Modern racism is often covert and its adherents masquerade as “colorblind” members of society even as they harbor subtle (or not so subtle) racial prejudices. Yes, Zimmerman is part Hispanic, but being part of an ethnic or racial minority does not automatically insulate someone from promoting white supremacy or anti-black racism. Zimmerman, after all, can pass as white with his fair complexion and Anglo-sounding surname. Furthermore, one need only look at the relations in some communities between Asian-American and Arab-American shop owners and black patrons to see that racial prejudice is not simply a black and white issue. Members of racial and ethnic minorities do not necessarily align with other minorities in solidarity against white power or white privilege. The fact that George Zimmerman is half Hispanic and does not wear a white hood on his head or a swastika on his arm is of little consequence. His extreme suspicion of young black males contributed to the death of Trayvon Martin. Even as Zimmerman and his apologists may assert his “colorblindness“, it was his racial perceptions, subtle as they may have been, that ultimately contributed to the vigilante execution of Trayvon Martin. The notion that a non-white person cannot advance the ideology of white supremacy is a naive notion that does not square with the reality and complexity of contemporary racism. Many on the political Right, have accused those of us who speak of racism with regards to the Trayvon Martin case as playing the “race card”. What they seem to overlook is that we did not deal this hand. When the deck is stacked a certain way, you have to play the cards that were dealt and call them as you see them. To do otherwise is to live in denial, and wishing racism away is not the same thing as ending racism. While some on the Right are expressing fears that if Zimmerman is acquitted, blacks will riot, a greater concern should be that if Zimmerman is acquitted whites and those who pass as white will continue to have legal sanction to murder African-Americans with impunity. White privilege in this nation has sometimes included even the privilege to murder and to be held up as some kind of folk hero for doing so. If George Zimmerman is acquitted, then white privilege in America will continue to carry with it, a license to kill, and the rules of engagement will tilt even further in the direction of protecting those who perpetuate racial injustice through the barrel of a gun.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 00:00:02 +0000
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