You may have noticed that I took down the post on the people who dressed up for Halloween as Treyvon Martin complete with a blood stain on their hoodies. For the record I thought what they did was disgraceful. I get freedom of speech and freedom of expression. But I don’t get having a complete lack of compassion for the fact that a 17 year old boy is dead. That said the reason I took it down is because the debate and discussion got really ugly. Before I posted it my wife asked me why I wanted to put that picture up and give those people even more attention. I said there were several reasons: I wanted to go on the record as saying I thought it was disgusting. I was hoping that people would see that even though it was a joke, it still wasn’t funny. I wanted people to see Treyvon Martin as a human being, as opposed to just a black teenager. And most importantly I wanted people to see regardless of where you stand on what happened, this isn’t just a black and white issue, this is about a family that has lost their teenage son. Any one of us could be those parents and how would you feel if someone made the death of your son into a big joke? And for the record, if Treyvon Martin had been white, and two black men put white powder on their faces and pretended to be him, I also would have posted it, and I also would have said that I thought it was disgusting. Michael Jackson wrote a song about how “It don’t matter if you’re black or white.” I agree. However, what I’m finding is that it seems like EVERY TIME race enters the equation, almost all thoughtful and honest discussion stops. But I’m an optimist. I still have hope that we can all do better in the future. I still have hope that we can all listen to what each of us is saying. And i still have hope that in the end well all realize that Michael Jackson was right. It really doesnt matter if youre black or white. Were all pieces of the same puzzle.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 19:28:18 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015