JUSTICE? HELL NO!

So, the "criminal" trial is over and some person  thinks the "justice" system worked?  That statement is laughable and believe me, there is no laughter in this house or in any other similar house in this country. There is instead, a profound silence, a shared gut wrenching  grief that forces each of us to reach out and embrace our sons, our grandsons and  all the young men of our families. There are those who claim amazement that inner cities did not burn. That amazement alone proves a gross lack of understanding of the minority mindset in the U.S. of A.

As the black mother of six sons, grandmother of one, I have much to communicate, but little to verbalize. It was no shock for Zimmerman to be found "not guilty." Why?  My sons and  my grandson are threatened  daily because they are black men. Their lives, their livelihood, their very existence could be forfeit because they spend their daily lives in a society that culturally fails to recognize its own deepseated and entrenched bigotry as racism. A young man runs out of gas three blocks from his home of 31 years, in front of the elementary school that he and his siblings attended. The cops are called ("Black man on foot in the neighborhood!) and they (the cops) come running.  ( Who called? Don't know and don't really care.)  This particular black man has lived in this neighborhood...in the house his family owns outright for 31 years. He and his family have paid a small fortune in taxes to support this town, this county, this state, in those 31 years.  This black  man can't even jog/run through his own neighborhood  without being accosted by the police ("Black man on foot in the neighborhood!). 

Isolated incidents? I am afraid not. The narrative could go on and on with other incidents added. The illustrative incidents do not matter a much as  the facts that  the incidents themselves are common to the experience of  growing up black in America. That will not change until all people are willing to face the fact that there is something inherently wrong  when a nearly 30 year old man (over 200 lbs.)  carrying a concealed weapon can use that weapon to shoot and kill a not quite 17 year old child (nearly 50 lbs. lighter) and get away with it.  Was the "not guilty" verdict a surprise to black families in America? Unfortunately not. We desperately  wanted to be surprised  and even a watered down "guilty" verdict would have been a surprise.....but reality struck once again....no surprise.

Reminds me of a conversation I engaged in years ago with a man I consider  a friend. We were discussing an incident when a young cop  (mid-twenty age group) had manipulated  situations with the intention of making himself  look competent.  His last "victim" was a member of a black family in the community and the young man stretched the truth (lied)  about the situation.  His stretched truth unraveled rapidly and hit the community grapevine within the hour.  Was the young man an overt racist? Don't know. What I do know is that he thought he had picked a safe "victim" and the so-called "arrest" would enhance his self-view as a "competent" officer of the law.  He assumed (wrongly) prejudice aimed at his "victim" would automatically shift "public opinion"  in his favor. In less than 24 hours...his whole scenario had collapsed and the small  town he  worked in could have been  facing a major lawsuit....which they would have lost. The young man's error was that the racial stereotype that he thought would play in his favor....boomeranged back on him costing him a job.

Playing to  stereotypes might not be an  indicator of overt racism..but when allowed to fester and grow can become the seeds of bigotry. As a nation the seeds of stereotypical assumptions and behaviors  should be targeted for elimination from our collective psyche.