Wake up, America! Justice must be done for Trayvon Martin
By Lindsay Johns for the Daily Mail
Published: 18:40 BST, 22 March 2012 | Updated: 17:54 BST, 27 November 2012
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Today Black America is in uproar, its eyes fixed on a small town north of Orlando, Florida. In fact, right now, every sentient, right-minded American should be in uproar. Irrespective of their ethnicity or hue, everyone should be both incensed and repulsed by the deeply shocking case of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed, 17-year-old African-American youth killed last month by George Zimmerman, a neighbourhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Florida for acting suspiciously (effectively wearing a hoodie) – and it seems, for being the wrong colour.
Almost one month on from this incident, Zimmerman has not been arrested – even though he confessed to the killing – because he insists he acted in self-defence. Under the permissive Floridian law, with no other witnesses and a lack of further evidence, the legal technicality of “stand your ground” combined with the use of deadly force has thus far ensured that he cannot be arrested.
The black teenager Martin had merely popped out whilst watching the game on TV to get a snack at the local shop, and was walking back to his father’s fiancee’s house when he was spotted by Zimmerman. The neighbourhood watchman, armed with a gun, trailed the boy in his car, then called 911, telling the operator that there was a “suspicious person in the area.” An altercation between Zimmerman and Martin duly ensued and neighbours heard gunfire which subsequently proved to be fatal.
Many black Americans believe race played a major part both in this killing and in the resultant lack of prosecution. We will never know for sure whether Zimmerman shot Martin because he was black, but there is certainly much empirical evidence to suggest that the American criminal justice system does not value black lives as much as white ones.
At the time of his death, police found that Trayvon was carrying a packet of skittles in one pocket and a bottle of iced tea in the other. Correct me if I’m wrong, but since when have a packet of skittles and a bottle of iced tea become the de rigueur weapons of choice for criminals and wrong-doers?
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Are we seriously expected to believe that this was merely an over-zealous community stalwart engaged in nobly protecting his exclusive gated community from potential marauders? Or was it a case of a racist, trigger-happy thug claiming a wholly innocent life? Unfortunately, at the moment it seems there will be no trial to resolve the issue, but many Americans have already made up their minds. They believe the only thing “suspicious” about Trayvon Martin was his black skin.
Although it seems to many as if the shooting was racially motivated, we cannot be 100 per cent sure. What we can, tragically, be sure of is that Martin is dead. Moreover, being a neighbourhood watchman does not make one a policeman, or give anyone the right to take matters into their own hands, however well-intentioned they may initially have been. What is also clear is that Florida’s “stand your ground” law has much to answer for and is quite possibly one of the major culprits here.
Finally on Tuesday, only after much pressure from the NAACP and other civil rights organisations, federal prosecutors opened an inquiry into the killing. Yesterday, a “Million Hoodie March” took place in New York. Today a rally is scheduled to take place in Sanford to protest this appalling injustice.
I am, as it happens, no particular fan of hoodies. I think that baggy jeans, bandanas, hoodies and other such accoutrements of “urban streetware” (as purveyed by many rappers) have much to answer for, as I believe they are detrimental to the positive representation of young people. But let us make no bones about it: a wholly innocent, unarmed kid does not deserve to be slain for an innocuous sartorial statement.
If I were an African-American, I would be taking to the streets right now to protest for justice for Trayvon. As a mixed-race Brit, I am merely thankful that such a climate of pernicious racism – a climate of palpable hatred, suspicion and distrust upon which much of American history and culture is sadly based – is, for the most part, noticeably absent in Britain.
Speaking out: Trayvon Martin’s parents Tracy Martin, centre, and Sybrina Fulton, right, took part in the ‘Million Hoodie March’ in New York’s Union Square
Race and gun laws are a veritable minefield in the US. They have never been easy bedfellows and I don’t believe they ever will be. Although it will be scant comfort to his grieving family, I can only hope that the senseless death of Trayvon Martin can seek to highlight the viciously unfair part that race continues to play in justice in the US.
Yet again, a great nation – and let me unequivocally state that I do think America is great in many respects – is seen on the world stage to be blighted by the iniquitous canker of racism and divided by the ugly spectre of justice not being done because of a man’s race.
In 2012, when at the same time we can send men into space and to the bottom of the ocean (only yesterday film director James Cameron descended to the bottom of the Mariana Trench), the fact that life-changing judgements are still being made based on the colour of a man’s skin needs to be rectified immediately.
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White America simply cannot be allowed to ignore such an apparent injustice or let it pass unheeded. This case is quickly becoming a crucial cultural touchstone, one which is in grave danger of defining the current zeitgeist. Sadly, this is yet another body-blow straight to the solar plexus of post-racial America, a post-racial America that we all hoped was possible (albeit unrealistically) in the wake of Obama’s election.
The raw embers of civil-rights era racial tensions in Sanford have, unfortunately, been stoked by this incident. One can only hope that such tensions will be diffused in the town and that it will not descend into a racial feud. But for that not to happen, those with power must be seen to care about the lives (and deaths) of the little people, and in this case, an unarmed black teenager walking to the local store for some sweets.
Not only must justice be done, but justice must also be seen to be done. How else can African-Americans ever feel that their lives are worth as much as those of their white compatriots? A country which was effectively built on the back of centuries of their (free and, it should be said, coerced) labour without a doubt owes them much more.
As the English post-war playwright Terence Rattigan famously implored in his seminal masterpiece The Winslow Boy (a play about innocence, decency and truth), “Let right be done!”
Wake up, America, wake up! Trayvon deserves as much, and so much more besides.
Hear Zimmerman’s 911 call here:
