In 2013, Still Two Worlds: One Black. One White.
Monday's White House press briefing started out with press secretary Jay Carney telling reporters how he spent his weekend. After telling reporters he hoped their weekend was good, he offered an unsolicited take on his own.
"Since you asked", joked Carney who described his weekend as "great" and "unbelievable", "I had a great weekend".
"I took my son to see Paul McCartney Friday night", Carney said, calling the experience "fantastic".
"It’s just a fantastic experience because he’s amazing and his songs are amazing, but to be there with an 11-year-old who also knew all the words is pretty special."
Good for you Mr. Carney. Good for all fathers who still have their sons in their lives and can take them to baseball parks, basketball games, the movies, and Paul McCartney concerts.
The weekend for one father, and for one family, not as good.
As the world shook their heads over the weekend at a 'not guilty' verdict in the case of one George Zimmerman, the man who wantonly took the life of seventeen year old Trayvon Martin, it seemed odd listening to Carney celebrate his weekend with his son who will probably will never have to experience what young Trayvon Martin experienced.
Carney's son will probably never be racially profiled by police officers, or wanna-be police officers, or over-zealous 'neighborhood watch men' for just going to a nearby store for a snack and drink. Carney's son will probably never have to experience racial injustices such as stop and frisk, driving while white; because in the world that Mr. Carney and his son live in, those things just simply don't exist, if you're white.
While some say the murder of Trayvon Martin was never racially motivated, many know in their hearts that it was indeed racially motivated - from the very beginning.
"These thugs always get away", said Zimmerman to a 911 dispatcher who explicitly told Zimmerman not to follow Trayvon. Zimmerman did anyway.
So, here we have a nation torn apart, yet again (by race), and mothers and fathers of African American males coming to the conclusion that America has once again shown them that their lives aren't worth anything when a man can kill you in your own neighborhood for minding your own business.
When the president suggests that the way to "honor" Travyon Benjamin Martin is to "ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this", we'd like to suggest the following: that our legal system (such that it is) put in place laws and enforcements that make it illegal to racially profile an individual on the basis of skin color; and make it illegal to stop and frisk people on the basis of skin color; and make it illegal to give people felony records and 20 years to life in prison on the basis of skin color for trying to defend oneself by firing warning shots to ward off a would-be attacker; and make it illegal for events like the Jena 6 to happen; and make it illegal for an African American high school student to receive a felony charge just because her science project went awry; and make it illegal for employers to harass African American workers by planting nooses at places of employment; and make it illegal for old men to shoot African American teens because he believes the teen's music was too loud.
Get the point?
At the end of the day, and in the final analysis, we all know that if Zimmerman had been African American and Martin had been white...
It's time America stopped having two different judicial systems in place: separate and unequal.
That is how we can honor every Trayvon Benjamin Martin, every Emmit Till, every Medgar Evers, and every Trayvon Martin, yet to come.
Related
Attorney General Eric Holder on Zimmerman Verdict: Justice Must Be Done
AG Holder and President Obama petitioned to file civil charges against Zimmerman
Black Men Go To Jail - just for killing dogs; white men go free for killing African Americans
Zimmerman's MySpace Page shows he's a gangsta/hoodlum
Article reposted from our Political blog.
Monday's White House press briefing started out with press secretary Jay Carney telling reporters how he spent his weekend. After telling reporters he hoped their weekend was good, he offered an unsolicited take on his own.
"Since you asked", joked Carney who described his weekend as "great" and "unbelievable", "I had a great weekend".
"I took my son to see Paul McCartney Friday night", Carney said, calling the experience "fantastic".
"It’s just a fantastic experience because he’s amazing and his songs are amazing, but to be there with an 11-year-old who also knew all the words is pretty special."
Good for you Mr. Carney. Good for all fathers who still have their sons in their lives and can take them to baseball parks, basketball games, the movies, and Paul McCartney concerts.
The weekend for one father, and for one family, not as good.
As the world shook their heads over the weekend at a 'not guilty' verdict in the case of one George Zimmerman, the man who wantonly took the life of seventeen year old Trayvon Martin, it seemed odd listening to Carney celebrate his weekend with his son who will probably will never have to experience what young Trayvon Martin experienced.
Carney's son will probably never be racially profiled by police officers, or wanna-be police officers, or over-zealous 'neighborhood watch men' for just going to a nearby store for a snack and drink. Carney's son will probably never have to experience racial injustices such as stop and frisk, driving while white; because in the world that Mr. Carney and his son live in, those things just simply don't exist, if you're white.
While some say the murder of Trayvon Martin was never racially motivated, many know in their hearts that it was indeed racially motivated - from the very beginning.
"These thugs always get away", said Zimmerman to a 911 dispatcher who explicitly told Zimmerman not to follow Trayvon. Zimmerman did anyway.
So, here we have a nation torn apart, yet again (by race), and mothers and fathers of African American males coming to the conclusion that America has once again shown them that their lives aren't worth anything when a man can kill you in your own neighborhood for minding your own business.
When the president suggests that the way to "honor" Travyon Benjamin Martin is to "ask ourselves, as individuals and as a society, how we can prevent future tragedies like this", we'd like to suggest the following: that our legal system (such that it is) put in place laws and enforcements that make it illegal to racially profile an individual on the basis of skin color; and make it illegal to stop and frisk people on the basis of skin color; and make it illegal to give people felony records and 20 years to life in prison on the basis of skin color for trying to defend oneself by firing warning shots to ward off a would-be attacker; and make it illegal for events like the Jena 6 to happen; and make it illegal for an African American high school student to receive a felony charge just because her science project went awry; and make it illegal for employers to harass African American workers by planting nooses at places of employment; and make it illegal for old men to shoot African American teens because he believes the teen's music was too loud.
Get the point?
At the end of the day, and in the final analysis, we all know that if Zimmerman had been African American and Martin had been white...
It's time America stopped having two different judicial systems in place: separate and unequal.
That is how we can honor every Trayvon Benjamin Martin, every Emmit Till, every Medgar Evers, and every Trayvon Martin, yet to come.
Related
Attorney General Eric Holder on Zimmerman Verdict: Justice Must Be Done
AG Holder and President Obama petitioned to file civil charges against Zimmerman
Black Men Go To Jail - just for killing dogs; white men go free for killing African Americans
Zimmerman's MySpace Page shows he's a gangsta/hoodlum
Article reposted from our Political blog.
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