It’s one thing, after all, to look at evidence in a criminal trial and come to different conclusions — especially when claims of self-defense and confusing jury instructions are involved — but quite another to reject, out of hand, the lived reality of peoples of color: a reality that tells them, based on experience (not to mention the quantitative data) that suspicion all too readily attaches to young black men, irrespective of their behaviors. That Zimmerman initially suspected Martin because of the latter’s color is incontestable to reasonable people. In fact, the defense all but admitted as much by using previous break-ins in the community (which they made sure to note had been committed by black males) so as to justify their client’s decision to follow Trayvon. So to say that race had nothing to do with the case is to add insult to injury. It is to say to black people that they are hallucinating, stark raving mad, or so weak-minded as to be incapable of evaluating social reality – their own social reality — and thus, are easily manipulated by smooth talking “race hustlers” who get paid to make racist mountains out of innocent little molehills. Because we cannot imagine the possibility that perhaps it is we who are making the molehill out of the mountain.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 17:44:27 +0000