Features Jul 17, 2013 at 4:00 am

Thirty Years Later, I Had to Tell My Black Son

mike force

Comments

1
KILL WHITEY.

Prez Obama: you are officially disowned by blacks nigga. The crackers can have your republican kissing ass.
2
"had Trayvon Martin been white, he would have made it home alive" how is this a fact? A lot of people have been soliciting their OPINIONS as FACTS lately. Shame on you for stirring the pot! This kind of thing only makes things worse, for all of us. The advice given about how to act with cops is good, but applies to all people in general. Please stop trying to build the racial divide up higher than it already is.
3
White thug in a hoodie would be just as dead if he attacked Zim. Don't lie to yourself.
4
I always think about this when I see those videos of entitled and stupid (white) teenagers trying to bait police officer into violating some right or other on camera and then posting it to youtube (usually based on a pretty flawed understanding of their rights).
5
@ 2 -- I think everyone with a reasonable understanding of how our society works can agree that he would almost certainly have made it home if he were white. And I think we can agree on that without saying or implying that Zimmerman was acting out of some sort of racial animosity.

And how to act towards cops is good advice for anyone, but when I was a teenager and I knew a cop pulled me over for no reason, or was hassling me without cause, I was completely confident that I could be defiant and tell him he had to let me go without being dragged out of my car and assaulted. If I were black I would have been in serious risk of physical harm for acting that same way. I don't think the point is how people should act--the point is that black teens have to act differently to avoid fitting that stereotype for even a minute, or else face potentially lethal consequences.
6
What the fuck is up with people's obsession with hoodies?! Everybody wears them! 6-year-olds wear them. Grandmas wear them. How on earth did they become indicators of criminality?
7
Beautifully written, Charles - thank you.

It breaks my heart that here in the second decade of the 21st century, this country is STILL this fucked up, to let walk free the murderer of a child 'armed' with candy. We are, indeed, not yet in a 'post-race society.'

I only hope I'll be alive to see it, when we get there...
8
@ 3 - Trayvon didn't attack Zimmerman, it was the other way around.

Zimmerman attacked Trayvon - Trayvon was only trying to defend himself against this creep who had stalked him and was about to kill him. And Zimmerman attacked him because he was a black kid wearing a hoodie - Zimmerman would NOT have attacked a white kid with the same impunity (and I'm using that word quite literally). The risks of attacking a white kid would have been too great, and Zimmerman knew it. That's why he was specifically hunting, stalking and killing a black kid.

How about YOU don't lie to yourself about what kind of a country we live in?
9
little known and unmentioned facts:

-Zimmerman is partially black himself
-he mentored black kids in his community
-he spoke against a black homeless man that was beaten by the police in Sanford

The ugly truth is that race baiters like Charles are silent on the 97% violence on blacks is black on black crime. Where was the outrage when the L.A.P.D went on a shooting spree looking for Chrisopher Dorner then burned him alive. That's right, it does not serve a political agenda.
10
Where is the outrage for the murder of Andrew Austin Bohannon and his brother Matthew Ryan Bohannon which is an obvious retaliation of Martin's murder and the countless assaults and lootings that are not being reported.
11
America let blacks run around Crown Heights for 3 days and lynch, assault, and mug my people and never face any consequences. There was no outrage when Lemrick Nelson was acquitted and the photos showing a 6 year old child and his father being attacked by a black mob weren't published anywhere but the NYdaily News.
I suggest everyone read The Daily Beast article on the stand your ground shooting of Daniel Adkins by Cordell Jude Lamar in AZ. It happened around the same time as the Trayvon incident. It took twice as long for him to be arrested and it only happened after he tried to murder another person. A better question would be why is Trayvon's life and death a million times more valuable to the left than Daniel Adkins, Yankel Rosenbaum's, or Antony Grazzonni's? It's a legit question.
12
Some of these commenters are just fucking stupid for having zero sociological perspective. Just plain stupid.
13
Explain why if America is so anti-black racist the Trayvon story got 10 million times more coverage and sympathy then this? Why isn't Lamar getting the same hatred Zimmerman is? http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/20…
14
Half of the murder victims in Seattle last year were young black males. None of them were killed by white people. But you tell your son it is whites who are a danger to his life.
16
@ 10 We could go tit for tat over "the outrage" for hours, but why? Is this really an arguement you want to hold and to win (whatever that means, in this context)?

People are upset over what looks to them like systematic and institutionalized racism. I happen to agree with them but, even if I didn't, I would have absolutely no interest in trying to determine whether one young person's death is more important, or worth more outrage than anothers'.

Asking this question is just sending up a smoke-screen over the bigger issue, and regarding that bigger issue: it is your responsibility to educate yourself about systematic and institutionalized racism. No one is required to *convince* you that it exists.

Do the work, read the literature, have open and honest conversations with your friends of color about racism. Most importantly: listen, listen, listen! Don't judge, and trust that they are the authority on their own experiences.
17
14) sadly those deaths are along class lines.
18
Racism exists bilaterally across all groups and denominations that are manipulated and promoted by BOTH political parties and their cronies to divide the populace and bring disparity. The increase in drugs and overall crime with the simultaneous destruction of the family have long been established by patterns and propaganda brought by the media, literature and arts, politics, and educational institutions. Having the country divided and marginalized into factions, a statist government can exert a greater control. But of course, most people don’t give a damn that they are being monitored and profiled by big government agencies while their Bill of Rights are slowly, issue by issue and cause by celebrity cause, being taken away.
19
@18: Many Americans--especially those of us who are black--"don’t give a damn that they are being monitored and profiled by big government agencies" because we are being monitored and profiled (and worse) by LOCAL government agencies in ways that take away our rights in much more immediate and dangerous ways.

Seattle Public Schools and the Seattle Police Department are under federal investigation for unfairly targeting blacks and other people of color. The kind of racism that you call bilateral is not the problem we're all worked up about. The problem is the kind of racism (institutional, structural) that gives cops, teachers, principles and even neighborhood vigilantes--all agents of a white system even if they're not technically white themselves-- the benefit of the doubt ("his heart was in the right place") when their direct actions cause people of color the immediate loss of life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.
20
Thank you Charles for an excellent example of living in the world as it is, and not the world people pretend to have. We need more of this kind of thinking across a range of subjects if America is going to be anything more than a third world garbage dump in 100 years' time.
22
I guess we're not all as sensitive as black folks. http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/04/opinio…
23
"When we moved back to Zimbabwe in 1981, my parents stopped warning me about bad white people and also allowed me to watch as much TV as I wanted (though there was only one channel and it operated only seven hours a day—from 5 p.m. to midnight). It was such a relief to be in Zimbabwe."

So what you are saying is that everything was fine as long as your Dad was helping Mugabe systematically kill off white people.

But now America is a bad place because you can not beat someones head into the concrete for being a "Gay Rapist Cracker" in the words of Rachel Jeantel.
24
23), if mugabe killed anyone in the 80s it was tribal and not racial. you are talking about 2000 farm thing. we left zim in 1987. yes, we abandoned the one-party state long before the white farms and moved to botswana. at least we smelt the coffee before they did. sorry gee. know your history.
25
Very moving article, Charles, and beautifully written, as always. And what Brent @5 said.
26
@24
So you are saying that Dear Old Dad merely praticipated in tribal genocide rather than racial.

"Sorry gee" doesnt really make up for Hundereds of thousands of deaths and even more civil rights violations, but what can I expect from a filthy scum marxist.

27
Charles, if you are bothered by defamatory statements like the ones posted by Cascadian Bacon (and you should be, regardless of family relationship) please prevail on your co-workers to tighten up anti-troll enforcement. Tolerating trolls accomplishes no positive purpose, and degrades the quality of the message board. The practice of responding to disagreeable speech with your own speech works only with good-faith commenters, not trolls, and trolls have no right to freedom of speech on a private message board. Instead of replying, you should have had Cascadian Bacon ip-banned upon reading his first troll post. The elimination of just a few trolls from these boards would vastly improve them.
28
Hmmm, liberals only believe in freedom of speech when it agrees with their mantras, otherwise it's hate speech. Hey at least you did't say it was Bush's fault.
29
All you need to know is that if you are white, male, and heterosexual, you are a bigot and that America is the worst place in the world to live. Accepting that, you've read every screed that the Stranger has ever published or will publish in the future.
30
s
31
@27

"Free speech should only exist for people who say things we like"
-LookieLouE1707

I would like to take this opportunity to thank The stranger staff for their open moderation policy and for allowing people to speak their minds despite widely differing points of view. Your actions show that you are indeed committed to one of the most important Human Rights.

Also please bring back Happiest Hour and Police Beat.
32
@26, If only we were in Mugabe's tribe. Seriously. Do you even know what a manica is? No you don't. What a waste of time. This dog that keeps barking up trees.
33
God, I'm depressed. I pray for the safety of all my friends. As master of the universe slogger wrote, this wasn't manslaughter, this was 1st degree murder.
34
Good Evening Charles,
I read your piece. It was poignant and necessary. I admire any father, yours and you for that matter that remains vigilant for his children. That too, is necessary.

However, I still have a small and civil quibble. It remains true that black-on-black crime is disproportionately higher and even more lethal than any other racial/ethnic group against any other racial/ethnic group in America today. It is horrific. On the same day Zimmerman was found not guilty, 3 young black males were shot to death in Chicago. Last I checked they were human, American and male (like me and Trayvon). The perpetrators remain at large. They are presumably African-American. This is the great American tragedy.

Trayvon's death was most unfortunate. But, so is any murder victim's. George Zimmerman is no hero. He clearly killed another human being. He never denied it. He was arrested, tried and found not guilty. I wanted him to at least be tried. And, I think SYG should be abolished. However, paraphrasing Pres. Obama, let's accept the verdict and remain calm. There are way too many "Trayvon Martins".
35
@32
You may not have been in his tribe but you did move to his country your father did serve Mugabe as a financial advisor. You were complicit in his crimes and continue to parrot his policies of racism and marxism.

But a marxist supporting mass murder is par for the course.
36
I disagree with the authors' assumption that Martin would have made it home alive if he was not black. Zimmerman was a power hungry cop wannabe with a chip on his shoulder and Martin was a teenager. If Travon Martin had said to Zimmerman "Call the cops; I will sit here" then sat down and shut it, he would have been more likely to make it home. He was a teenager, dressed like a "gangster," (which kid today doesn't?) probably angry with being questioned by come random stranger (wouldn't you be?) who didn't, or couldn't, think through the situation. Zimmerman is an idiot, wanting to be some kind of "neighborhood watch hero," looking to find a problem to solve where it didn't exist. It's a match made for a confrontation regardless of the color of their respective skins.

In addition, the author talks about how he reacted with two cops confronted him at gunpoint. Uhh..when a cop confronts you with a drawn gun, you keep your hands where they can see them regardless of the color of your skin. You let them pull your ID from your pocket without regard to your race, gender or whatever. You make no sudden moves regardless of your income, the kind of car you drive, the family you were raised in, the church you go to (if you go) or and other factors. They are cops, the have you at gunpoint, regardless of what color you are; they will kill you if you are dumb enough to give them the slightest reason. Use lawyers after you survive the confrontation if you feel your rights were violated, but it should be common sense that when the gestapo has you against the wall, the only things coming out of your mouth are "yes sir" and "no sir." I'm a middle aged, fat white guy. Yep, I agree, if you are black you have to do one step further, but.. what part of "no shit, sherlock?" does this author not understand?
37
Cascadian Bacon: regarding marxism and Marx, you dont know shit and should shutup. Have you ever read any serious histories, or criticisms of Marx? Of course not, that would be too much work and too taxing for that pea brain of yours. Marxism is no more of a murdering political stance than democracy; being a marxist does not immediately make one a murderer. And dont come back with that claptrap regarding the Soviet Union, a state that was marxist in propaganda only; Stalin was a monster and Marx would have slapped the shit out of him.
38
What was your son's reaction to your speech?
39
@37

While our nutball friend Mr. Bacon is completely over the top, those of us who have read some "serious histories" know perfectly well that there have indeed been quite a few murderous Marxist regimes, and for us, the "no true Scotsman" deflection of Stalin's crimes is beyond tedious.

In particular, you might want to go back to your "serious histories" and re-read the parts about the Red Terror and Lenin's Hanging Order— the Communist Revolution in Russia was murdering people long before Stalin came to power.
40
I was not the black guy they were looking for.

Herein lies a brutal truth. The cops WERE looking for a black guy who may have resembled your general body characteristics probably because that black guy did something wrong.

Trayvon Martin was stalked, and ultimately killed, because he had basic characteristics of somebody who was actively doing something wrong in that neighborhood.

Of the two young black male criminals who had been serially burgling the gated community for months, only one had been arrested and the other was still at large.

Was Zimmerman right in profiling Martin? Absolutely. Was he right in getting out of his car with his gun? No.

Hardly anybody puts the onus on the initiators of the situation: the burglers. They were responsible in no small part for creating an atmosphere in the neighborhood targeted against young black men. People want to talk about racial profiling but act as if there wasn't a reason for it in that specific neighborhood. And, that's just avoiding another important conversation of the relationship of crime, poverty and blacks.
41
@40

I believe Mr. Mudede's trump card for that argument was played in @17: sadly, those burglaries are along class lines.

Perhaps you're suggesting that black parents all across America should be telling their children, "you need to work twice as hard as a white child to refrain from burgling homes." Because black burglars will be profiled by policemen and vigilantes both, and white burglars will not? This is the reality of our society etc etc...
42
@41 See my last sentence: "And, that's just avoiding another important conversation of the relationship of crime, poverty and blacks."

I'm not denying class issues exist. I'm saying that they're not even a part of the conversation.

I detect sarcasm in your suggesting that black parents should tell their children not to rob. But, black crime isn't a joke. Whether its black on black crime (as in the streets of Chicago or Seattle), or black on everybody crime (as in GZ's neighborhood) it's a problem that people get called racist for trying to bring up. Yes, it's among class lines. But, saying "they're poor, thus desperate, what do you expect?" is even more racist because it animalizes the poor while also not helping the problem.

As for your statement that white burglers wouldn't be profiled if they kept hitting the same damn neighborhood, I suspect that would be far from the truth.
43
@42

I was roughing out a Mudede argument there, not really making my own. I don't doubt that white burglars would be profiled, but I do doubt that they'd be racially profiled, or that innocent whites would need to be wary of falling prey to that racial profiling.

The question you need to ask yourself, when you're wondering if profiling is a problem, is: "Do I need to constantly monitor crime reports for descriptions of criminals active in my neighborhood, and then adjust my own appearance as necessary, each time I leave the house, to avoid being mistaken for one of them, and possibly detained or confronted?"

After answering that question honestly, ask yourself if you'd have a different answer if you were of another race. And then ask a person of another race how they'd answer the question for someone of your race, given the same exercise.
44
Well-written and moving. Too bad it's bringing the racist vermin out of the woodwork.
45
@43 As a Hispanic, I consciously don't dress like a gangbanger. Primarily because its a hideous style.

But, Mexicans aren't nearly as profiled up here as they are in higher hispanic density areas, such as in the south.

So, to answer your question, fuck yes I adjust my dress.
47
Good piece, Charles. We've had similar conversations with our boys (caucasian teens) following the police shooting death of John T. Williams, the brutal beat down of a 15 year old girl in police custody (for flipping her shoe at a cop), and the police beating of a guy in front of Cinerama (result of mistaken identity). Sadly, I could go on and on. Aggressive men in authoritative positions can be f*cking dangerous and we want our kids to be extremely careful in their presence. The Dangerous Black Person narrative fueling the Zimmermans of the world makes today's America a doubly dangerous place for black people. We need a new narrative. And to that end the 'kill whitey' sentiment popping up in comment threads like these is super un-helpful. I mean, I get it. I feel the outrage too, as a parent, as any decent person should. But, seriously, we can't let the tiny minority of ultra-rich drive us further apart by pulling our rage strings. They'll use it against us to further justify a growing police state, which, in turn, will be used to defend their hold on EVERY LITTLE THING WE EVER HAD. They have DRONES now, for god's sake, and even Obama has become a lickspittle to the plutocracy. Whites, blacks, browns, women, gays, the elderly are all getting f*cked. Yes, some are getting it harder/more brutally than others. But if there is any hope in ending this systematic, institutionalized abuse of the 99%, it will be found in our moving forward together.
48
@39: You might want to go back and read up on your Marx. In no way does he ever advocate the kind of violence visited on Russia by Lenin and Stalin. While it is very true that Lenin proclaimed a Communist revolution, there was no way he was going to devolve true power to citizens and workers in the way Marx recommends. Once Lenin, and Stalin, had consolidated their hold on power, thru terror it is very true, they set out to destroy any kind of real Communist movement in the country, thus turning the Soviet Union into a "Communist" country in name only, not fact.

Lenin was a horrible human being; calculating, intelligent, brilliant, charismatic, but a horrible person who would use any tool, especially violence, to achieve his aims. There were atrocities committed by both sides, as the old regime struggled to retain its grip on power. It might not be outside the realm of reasonableness to state that some of the violence was a reaction to acts committed by the opposition, whomever the opposition was; I guess I am saying that violence can escalate violence (duh?).

Look, we all have seen plenty of examples in history of madmen seizing on various ideologies to advance their power-hungry and/or murderous aims. But to blanket Marxism as always fostering "murderous regimes" shows a ms-understanding of Marxism in specific and history in general.
49
I see that the comments have devolved as they always do but I'm very touched by your fear and sadness. I'm a white middle aged male with two blonde children and I will never know your pain but you helped me to see some of it.

(weeping)

Brad Hawkins
Seattle
50
If Zimmerman had been a white liberal,

“Excuse me, pardon me (tap, tap) Mr. African American youth Sir, would you be so kind to stop bashing my head on the sidewalk and punching me in my face. I am sorry to inconvenience you, but I think I may fall unconscious. I understand your pain and suffering and I might add you look just fabulous in that hoodie, excuse me, pardon me…”
51
Black people gotta lose their inferiority complex else they always gonna be slaves. Their choice.
52
@50) If Zimmerman had been a white liberal, he probably would have obeyed the 911 dispatcher's instructions and STAYED IN HIS CAR, thus avoiding any need for either him or Trayvon to stand any ground whatsoever.
53
You want to lessen prejudice, how about quit acting and tolerating goons like @1, which this whole board ignored. You liberals are hypocritical and repulsive. The Stranger never mentioned a peep about the assaults that took place by gay rights supporters on Christians expressing their viewpoints peaceably during the Pride Parade. How Pathethic!!!
54
@ 53 -
Sure, because Black people have never had to endure such racist, hateful comments from White People!

OR: see #51, #2, #3, #9, #10, #11 - 14, #18, #22, #23, #26 ....
55
#53, I realize how so many of you Christian bigots like to play the victim, but get your facts straight about the attack at the Pride Parade.

The man who pummeled the "peaceful" preacher was the husband of a woman who was insulted by the preacher. The suspect is heterosexual multi-time felon. So don't try to make it sound like the preacher was jumped by a pack of gays. In fact, it was a crowd of gay men that pulled the suspect off the preacher.

But hey, if you want to focus on one assault that took place out hundreds of Gay Pride Parades in the past two decades instead of the countless hate crimes perpetrated on the gay community, have at it.

Poor Christian.
56
I had to tell my son the sad truth about how America sometimes imports people who hate this country. You know, like Charles Mudede and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
57
Mudede, I think of you as one of the most pompous, self-inflated, incoherent, self-indulgent and simply bad writers that the Stranger has ever hosted on its pages, and I've never been shy about expressing that.

Which is why I think it's also important to acknowledge when you've written something that's thoughtful, elegant, coherent and sadly, painfully true. I wish it were not so, but it is.
58
Firstly, I am not Christian and I do support rights for all. I am independent and do not subsribe to left/right ideology. The "peaceful" preacher was a youth who was just holding up a sign and many people were pushing and insulting him. It seems the left has taken the postion of the right`s view on pornography...I don't know what tolerance is, but I know it when I see it.
59
@56) Nah, Charles is like me: He loves this country so much that it hurts to know that we haven't risen above the bulls--t where any old vigilante can stalk, confront, and kill an unarmed teenager because he appeared to said vigilante as "suspicious."
60
For all of the people commenting who are putting their energy into angrily defending their point of view and hatefully criticizing others, I hope that there are tons of people who read the article, and tried to understand and empathize. There is a better way to express yourself and be heard and in fact people are more likely to listen to what you have to say and truly hear your side if you speak in a respectful, civil and rational manner. Thank you for the article.
61
Blacks who commit crimes make it tough on the blacks who obey the law.
Charles, we love you, but, please place some of the blame on the black guy they were looking for.
Since carrying concealed weapons is legal everywhere in the United States, might I suggest that introducing yourself to the neighborhood watch guy or security guard by punching him in the nose is a very bad idea.
Politely introducing yourself by telling him your name and where you are living, if you are living in the neighborhood and showing an interest in the other fellow's point of view might have more positive results.
Of course, when facing a copper, acting like nitric acid is also a very bad idea.
Even if you are white.
62
@53 from #54

Drat - wasn't able to finish my original thought!

Anyhoo, what I *meant* to also say is this: those statements aren't discourse, they are trolling, and should be taken as such.

63
Libery4all,
If you are such a neutral commentator, why do you feel the need to lie about what occurred at the parade?

http://www.inquisitr.com/832633/seattle-…

No youth involved.
64
#61, how was Martin supposed to know that the creepy stranger following him was the neighborhood watch guy?

You have it backwards: It was the wannabe cop's responsibility to calmly introduce himself to Martin, instead of stalking him in a threatening manner. Why is it so hard for Zimmerman supporters to admit that he had absolutely no business getting out of his car and following Martin in the first place?
65
@ 64 - Amen.

66
@thread: hey you know that feeling you get when you buy a new shirt and its awesome and then you see some really ugly stupid idiot about on town wearing the exact same shirt? This is kinda how it feels being white and reading the ignorant bullshit posted by some in this thread.
67
@15,

Diffident is not that unusual a word.

Thank you for writing this, Charles. The white supremacists can go fuck themselves.
68
@53: The reason no one on the thread called out @1 is that all of us assumed instantly that gft@1 is a troll, a particularly transparent one, not worth responding to -- go look at the comment history. You'll see right away it's not a real person, even by the dubious standards for "real person" on the internet. I suppose it could be you, or thetruthhurts, or Seattleblues, or someone like that who is making that object's lips move, or perhaps it's a more apolitical white man, just out for some online giggles. In any case, responding to it just encourages its creator. By the way, if it is you, you really must avoid being the only only one on the entire thread to call attention to it. Looks suspicious! If a troll persona ain't working for you, just start fresh with a new one.
69
I don't play that.
70
A white parent warns his child about the presence of black violence in America...that would be racist to you wouldn't it? While European Americans strive to be colorblind, you warn your child to be especially "aware" of the color of his skin. That is why it is called the white man's burden;your ideas are illusions created to avoid the facts. Go ahead and sweep the reality under the rug. I defer to Detroit as an example of how African Americans treat the country when White Flight has left them to their devices.
71
It's hardly a surprise when Bill Cosby said quit blaming other people and go educate yourselves that he was met with such vitriol. Human trash like Mudede want to be "victims". And so does everyone else at the Stranger for whatever "minority" they fall into. David Goldstein probably gets a pass since Maureen whatever-the-fuck-her-last-name-is was the last woman who would ever part her legs for that douche. He's going to be taking it in the butt from now on.
72
Oh, shit. I forgot. Goldstein pretends to be Jewish when it suits it. My bad.
73
A lot of your point of view, no matter what it is, is rooted in your experiences in the neighborhood you grew up in.

Where I grew up, in the Midwestern Projects, Even white trash got profiled and occasionally killed unjustly. It is a class issue. And today, that class hatred and resentment is not only alive and well, but growing. But from the opposite side.

Something tells me Zimmerman would not have been so macho had there been more than one person there, or several legit gang members. He would have stayed in the car or walked away.
74
59) you have stated my feelings perfectly. Thank you.
75
My god, this is sad!
Just sad.

We obviously haven't learned one damned thing from the Civil Rights Movement, especially now that the Declaration of Independence has been scrapped.
76
Does anyone remember West Side Story?
I think it should be shown again in all theatres
to further drive home the point that hatred
grows like a cancer and must be stopped.

Stop the hatred!
77
#64 tangled, here is how Martin knew that Zimmerman was some kind of security guard.
Piers Morgan interviewed Rachel Jeantel and asked her what Trayvon meant by "creepy ass cracka". She explained that Trayvon meant that he thought that the guy following him was some kind of security guard.
79
When Zimmerman saw a suspicious person walking through the neighborhood, he called the police.
When Martin saw a creepy man following him and watching him, he called Rachel Jeantel. He could have called the police himself. Or he could have called his dad who lives in the neighborhood and could have explained to him about the neighborhood watch, or at least come out to support his son in any meeting with the creepy man if such creepy man turned out to be any other person than the neighborhood watch guy.
But instead of these options, Martin chose to punch Zimmerman in the face knocking him down, and then pound on him when he is down. I suppose Zimmerman could have calmly introduced himself to Martin, had Martin refrained from physical assault.
80
Thank you for a beautifully written piece, Charles. My only addition is that part of white privilege is the delusional belief some white people have that their skin will protect them.

Between 1870 and 1890 Mississippi was known as one of the most progressive states. Among other things, voting was open and unrestricted. Starting in the late 1880s a group of rich planters and traders started a campaign allegedly to establish a white supremacy regime and in 1890 they were able to persuade the state to revise its constitution to disenfranchise Blacks and poor whites. A majority of poor whites voted for a constitution which deprived them of the right to vote. The only explanation is The White Delusion--They thought the law would not apply to them because they were white. They were wrong. They still are.
81
Too many crackers with guns out there for a nigga to safely walk the street. My kids is all gettin homeschooled next year til we move to Cannada. Y'all racist crackers can have this stupid country and Obama to.
82
Buh Bye
83
The only facts I gleaned from your article were a) you were raised by racists.
and
b) you are a racist as a result.
84
Vandalism and car prowling have been occurring in my neighborhood. That's usually done by young males, can be any race. Most often done at night, I would suspect any young male out in the dark of night and may watch them. Attaching a person is never a good idea, especially when so many are 2nd amendment equipped. Lots of crazy people out there, lots of crazy people with guns. The police knew right off the bat that there was not a case to charge Zimmerman that would hold up. It was a PR campaign that got him charged, not a review of the facts and relevance to our laws.
85
About 120 (?) years ago all the Chinese people were run out of Washington State. These days no one has a problem with Chinese people.

About 70 Japan invaded the US and all the Japanese people in the Lower 48 were put in Prison Camp. These days no one has a problem with Japanese people.

About 60 years ago we fought a war in Korea. These days half the new business starts in Snohomish County are by Korean Americans.

About 50 years ago we fought a war in Vietnam. These days there is a Pho place in every community.

During the Potato Famine in Ireland thousands of Irish people came here and were hated. When I was a kid "Polish" jokes were the fashion.

The Indian People were hated more than black people ever were. Around Jackson's administration it was government policy to exterminate the Indian people.

We had a war with Mexico but now most of out field hands are Mexicans. White and black people are to lazy to do the work.

Black nations never invaded the US. We never invaded any Black nations. Why are African-Americans the only group who has never assimilated in the US? Why does most every reference to race or prejudice in the press refer to black people?

Why do black people in the US live better than black people in any black nation? Why isn't Haiti a tourist paradise like Cuba was before Castro? Why isn't Puerto Rico a tourist paradise like Hawaii?

I'm asking you all because no one would want to hear my opinion. I would very much like to hear your opinions.

Especially Mr. Mudede's opinion! Why has he returned to this hate filled country? Why doesn't he raise his boy in Zimbabwe??????
86
I guess you and your family should have stayed in Africa for that feeling of peace and tranquility? Nothing like out of control AIDS, rape, tribal slaughter, genital mutilation of young girls, child solders, disease, famine, to bring a family closer.
87
*sigh* ... where to start.

I will suggest that Mr. Mudede and all others interested read John Derbyshire's essay "The Talk: Nonblack Version" at Takimag.com.

It's pretty perceptive, and unlike Charles' essay, it cost him his job.

89
Mudede,

How utterly disappointing that another black parent, particularly a father, has succumbed to telling his/her child to be diffident (Webster: modest or shy because of a lack of self-confidence) when encountering potentially abusive white people. We will always be treated as second class citizens if we act the part.

My mother was a preacher's daughter and life long Methodist so she might have quoted Matthew 5:15, "Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all that are in the house." She was not about us being diffident under any circumstance. My black mother taught us to be proud, confident, and smart, and to never accept less than we deserved without protest, and to not act meek in the presence of a bully no matter his/her density of melanin, as doing so was an invitation for a foot up your butt.

My mother's training has served our family well. She raised us alone because our father had the luck of being rundown on a Chicago sidewalk by a drunken white man who was "teaching" his 8 year old son how to drive a 2 ton truck. White father not arrested at the scene. White father not charge with a crime, not even drunken driving. Black Pullman porter and father of 5 plus one on the way killed. Black mother left to raise her family without her husband.

If I've been lucky in life it starts with having a mother who demanded more from her children and the world. Who taught her children how to love, how to fight, and how to be smart. She taught us that for every situation there's a wide range of appropriate responses to a threat, from running away to kicking ass; choose appropriately.

I've taught my children the lessons my mother taught me. I've added my own twist to her wisdom: people who expect bad things find them; expect the best, prepare for the worse. They have survived well as adults and parents with dignity in tact.

90
89) also means unassertive.
91
The details are important.

I think physical contact between the two men was accidental because Martin probably panicked when he found himself in a "box canyon" in the walkway between the apartments. Zimmerman made himself the door on the trap and probably never had time before an athletic 17-year-old ran right over the top of him and they got tangled up.

Zimmerman never should have gotten out of that truck and never should have followed Martin into what was the equivalent of a dark ally. No trained cop would have done that.

Black hoodies. Yeah. Earth to young males of all races. You scare us when you wear them and you know it. That's why you wear them. You're just too young and too stupid to know that scared people are really, really dangerous. You won't figure that out until you're 30 or so. If you survive.

I also think a white kid in a black hoodie would be just as dead right now. People like Zimmerman are tragedies just waiting to happen. That's why they won't let them be cops.

A white club jacket ... and ... a big, bright, highly visible, "NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME WATCH VOLUNTEER" sign on Zimmerman's truck ... and this thing probably never would have happened.
92
This crying about anti-black racism was written by the same Charles Mudede who wrote "Jewish leaders did not help their people but helped the Nazis kill them" in a film review recently, correct?
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/hanna…
93
hannah-arendt-not-all-films-about-philosophers-are-boring

link wouldn't copy
94
92) I love Hannah Arendt but know I find her close late relationship with Heidegger fucking problamtic. He was a Nazi. And even I dropped the fucker when I realized he was an unrepentant Nazi. Seriously barking up the wrong tree.
95
@59 Absolutely. I'm reminded of some words from James Baldwin: "I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."

You're never disappointed and you rarely ever criticize the heinous or the despicable. How silly it would sound for someone to be "disappointed" in a naked tyrant, or to "criticize" a genocidal regime.
96
And just for good measure (because it's impossible to hear enough from James Baldwin):

http://youtu.be/oFeoS41xe7w?t=15m11s

"It would seem to me the proposition before the house today ("Is the American Dream at the expense of the American negro?"), is a question hideously loaded, and that one's response to that question, or one's reaction to that question, has to depend, in effect, on where you find yourself in the world, what your system of reality is. That is, it depends on assumptions that we hold so deeply that we're scarcely aware of them."

I think Obama did an excellent job of asking Americans, in a way so subtle that it might actually work on some people, to question some of those deeply held assumptions about our country. The problem we have as a country, and I see this on my facebook feed from conservative friends, is not that so many believe in white supremacy (though many still do), but that far too many of them cannot abide the notion that whatever they've got in life they haven't earned entirely by merit, that we live in a just world, and that if young black men disproportionately end up in jail, or shot to death by strangers, it must be because they did something wrong. They cannot imagine an unjust world, many of them, because an unjust world is a world where they didn't build that, and, more worryingly, maybe God didn't either.
97
@94 You didn't explain your inflammatory statement. Jewish leaders did not help the Nazis kill Jews anymore than black leaders helped the KKK kill blacks. An explanation should be forthcoming. Otherwise it just sounds like you got caught in yet another instance of race baiting that you are shocked when called upon. You complain so much about racial insensitivity towards blacks yet act flippant and offended when called on your own bs.
98
Hannah Arendt did NOT say that "Jewish leaders HELPED the Nazis kill Jews" and Charles Mudede didn't say that she did in his review of the film about her. Claiming that she said that and Mudede repeated it is a vicious slur against both of them.

What they said was that those leaders didn't do much to help the community they were supposed to be leading to ESCAPE Hitler. This was not an entirely unfounded assertion. And it is neither demagogic nor inflammatory, because criticizing the leaders of ethnic/religious community is not the same at all as attacking that community as a whole. The leaders are never synonymous with the people. Ever.

And part of the reason that Arendt was vilified for her comments that Eichmann was an ordinary person who did monstrous evil simply because he believed it was part of the job, rather than going along with the claim that the Eichmann himself was a monster(saying that a non-monstrous person is capable of monstrous actions isn't the same thing as saying that the actions themselves weren't monstrous, they clearly were and Arendt didn't say that Eichmann did nothing wrong) was that, at the time of the Eichmann trial, David Ben-Gurion, the Israeli prime minister, wanted to normalize relations with what was then West Germany in order to set up Israeli-German trade arrangements. Eichmann's trial was meant to be a symbolic cleansing of Germany-it was meant to say that, once Eichmann was dead, West Germany was now free of the taint of Naziism and that there was no longer any moral argument to be made against Israel h
having diplomatic and trade relations with the nation that built the death camps. Arendt's argument about "the banality of evil" meant that it wasn't absolutely certain that Germany, or any OTHER country was, in fact, incapable of creating another Hitler, and therefore, it could still be taken as a betrayal of those who died in the camps to normalize relations with Germany(especially while the Christian Democratic Union, a party filled with former Nazis, was leading the West German government). Therefore, Ben-Gurion had a vested interest in demonizing Arendt and discrediting her book-because her arguments supported the position that normalized trade relations with West Germany were, in fact, a moral betrayal of the victims of the Holocaust.

99
90) Unassertive or meek, conceding your right to be who you are is asking to be controlled by someone else. White people get to be stupid or smart, aggressive or submissive, whatever without unrelated factors like race. They can question why they're being stopped without a "you getting smart with me?" response from the traffic cop or the expectation of receiving a ticket just for the asking. Black people will not be treated fairly without expecting and demanding we be treated fairly. Expecting someone to relinquish the power to intimidate and control someone is no different than expecting a slave holder to free the slaves that form the basis of his/her wealth.
100
And as to those who keep citing "black on black crime" as justification for harsher police and "neighborhood watch" treatment of young black men(and, implicitly, an argument that Trayvon Martin somehow "had it coming")what, exactly, do you guys WANT from black people?

The black community has been fighting against black-on-black crime for decades. They've been doing everything they could possibly do to stop it. Why do you folks keep acting like none of it is enough?

It's not like the black community itself could somehow just STOP black-on-black crime but is refusing to do so. That community obviously doesn't want its young people to kill each other. Nor do they want them to harm anybody else.

Are you saying that the black community owes it to the country to simply accept that young black males should be denied the presumption of innocence? That they should teach those young people that it's simply their station in life to be perpetually hounded and persecuted by the police? That they should simply see the occasional jail sentence for a crime they may not have even committed as "necessary for the greater good"?

Black people are trying harder than anybody else to end black-on-black crime. We all know it. The black community is trying every it can do to get young people into work(work that the white corporate power structure does all it can to keep them from getting, most of the time).

And what the hell does the size of government have to do with anything on this? It's not as though there'd be less crime in any ethnic or racial community if the federal government were Coolidge-sized, or if the poor had to all go to finger-wagging, judgmental Salvation Army soup kitchens to keep body and soul together when work was kept unavailable.

Why do so many of my fellow white folks feel so goddamned entitled to be judgmental towards the black community-or towards the brown communities-or towards anybody who happens to end up poor in this country?

Why is the response ALWAYS to lash out at those below, rather than to fight the REAL enemy-those on top who feel that they have the right to treat the majority of us as either pawns in their games or sacrifices to their godlike egos?
101
there was a typo in the middle of my post #98...the line SHOULD read "there was no longer any moral argument to be made against Israel establishing diplomatic and trade relations with West Germany". Sorry, bad keyboard on my laptop.
102
Sometimes I wonder how it must have been living through the civil rights era and marvel at how uninformed and oblivious I am . It's also kind of amazing to me that we consider driving a privilege but gun ownership a right . i didn't wright the laws but i'm not amazed at the outcome of the case mentioned in the article , is this guy still allowed to carry a firearm?
104
@102

Why wouldn't he be allowed to carry a gun? He's not been convicted of a crime.
105
Zimmerman is still allowed to carry a gun. It would be decent of him to melt the gun he used to kill Trayvon rather than to just go on using it as if the trial proved he was right to kill the kid, but I doubt Zimmerman has any decency given the fact that he felt he had the right to smile as he walked out of the courtroom after the verdict, rather than look ashamed or embarrassed as a person with any sort of a conscience would have felt obliged to do in the situation.

And it remains totally disgusting that Zimmerman would dare to tell that scumbag Sean Hannity that Trayvon's unjustified killing was "part of God's plan". People who really believe in God don't use God as a justification for taking anyone else's life.

The fact remains...there was no reason for Zimmerman to disregard the 911 dispatcher and follow Trayvon and that anyone would have felt threatened and fought back, as Trayvon may have done, if a much bigger person was following and them and treating them like a criminal for no reason.

The only reason Zimmerman was acquitted was that the judges's instructions to the jury(the judge told the they could only convict if they
could say for certain that Zimmerman didn't "feel threatened", and there's no way for one person to ever know for a certainty what another person might be feeling)made a conviction virtually impossible.
106
I marvel at the hate and vitriol that seeps out whenever anyone suggests things could be different, or even better. Why is it so hard to conceive that we do have obligations to ourselves and each other? Is it so scary or insulting to ask that everyone's lives be improved, to dare suggest that maybe we can try harder or care a little more? The us and them mentality is a trap (one I fall into myself).
I am sad to say it was a reasonable and responsible thing for Mr. Mudede to have this conversation with his son. It is perhaps more problematic that millions of parents are not having this conversation with their children. I suppose I should be happy for the people who do not have to have this conversation but that returns me to my question of our responsibility to each other. I'll try harder, will you?

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