Dear Black People, It's not about race~ White People

 

I'm still trying to figure out how the white judge, the white prosecutors, the white defense team, and the white jury got to declare "race was not a factor" in a case about racial profiling, in a state with a documented history of racism.

Strike that.  Yes I do.  The white, male, dominated mainstream media enabled them with their media driven racial stereotypes of the scary black man.

Immediately after the verdict there was not one person of color speaking out about the verdict on TeeVee.  CNN even had Texas Governor Rick "N-word head ranch" Perry of all people on air saying justice is color blind.

President Obama said it was time for a real discussion about race and racism, but I can assure you that won't happen if the media has anything to do with it.

This is the media that forced candidate Obama to renounce, repudiate, and reject Rev. Jeremiah Wright for daring to speak truth to power.

This is the media that forced President Obama to tone down remarks made by Attorney General Eric Holder because he asked if Americans were cowards when it came to discussing matters of race.

This is the media that forced President Obama to have a "beer summit" with the Boston police officer who acted stupidly and arrested Dr. Henry Louis Gates for getting uppity  in his own damn house.

And so on, and so on.

So yes, let's have a real discussion about race and racism.  I mean a real hope-to-die, get it all out in the open discussion.  It's times to drain the poison off, so that this nation can heal.  The whole world is watching.  ~GrannyStandingforTruth

I HOPE the white, male, dominated, media won't stand in the way this time.

Knock. Knock.

Who's there?

If You.

If You Who?

If You can't dazzle them with brilliance then baffle them with Bull Poop.

After arguing unsuccessfully to eject the victims (Trayvon Martin) next of kin (Tracy and Sabrina Martin) from the courtroom, accusing the victims father (Tracy Martin) of cursing at a Zimmerman  supporter, and listening to an effective and powerful opening statement by the State of Florida,  the defense did what any good defense attorney would do when they try to defend the indefensible....tell a Knock Knock Joke that is so not funny.

According to the defense. the victim  armed himself with the concrete sidewalk and used it to smash George Zimmerman's head ... That is a deadly weapon."

If I were on the jury, my first question would be- what was Trayvon Martin's motive for arming himself with a concrete sidewalk and using it to smash George Zimmerman's head? I mean, really? 

Oh, and by the way, this is how most people look immediately after their  face has been smashed into the concrete.

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- William Frazier, who claimed police beat him and abused him in a Feb. 1 traffic stop, turned himself in to police today on three warrants from the incident in question.Frazier suffered minor injuries after police pulled him from his car, placed him on the ground and handcuffed him after he fled from police for about three miles. [Watch video of the pursuit and arrest]

Only in America do we have to "pray for justice".

 

 For Trayvon Martin's parents, faith in God, and in the justice system

“It’s supposed to get easier, the more you do this. The more I do it, the harder it gets,” Tracy Martin told the crowd. “God gives the tough battles to the toughest soldiers. I’ve been through tough battles, and this is one of the toughest, the toughest.”
“We’re going to be the voice for Trayvon,” Tracy Martin added. “We have to sit through the negativity. We have the prayers of family and friends and we have the prayers of our pastors.”

I knew when the prosecutors informed Judge Debra Nelson the 9-11  audio testimony was central to their case they  weren't going to be allowed to present it in court.  Chalk it up as another win for the defense.

One expert ruled out Zimmerman as the screamer and another said it was Martin. A defense expert argued there was not enough audio to determine who the screams are coming from. Zimmerman's attorneys also argued that the state experts' analysis is flawed.

 What Margherite said:

r.e. the Zimmerman trial: Now that the judge has excluded testimony that might "confuse" the jury and pre-emptied the use of descriptive language by the prosecution before the jury even hears it, the words "kangaroo court" leap into my mind before this political theater gets going.

The 100% female and 0% African American  judge and jury are already confused IMHO. One of the jurors referred to  the peaceful protest calling for the arrest of George Zimmerman as riots. Another one questioned why Tryavon was out at that time of night, despite the fact he was killed at 7:16 PM  while walking from the store where he purchased a bag of Skittles and an Arizona Iced Tea, wearing a hoodie because it was raining, to his father's house, talking on the cell phone to his girl friends, minding his own damn business.

I join Trayvon's parents, friends, and pastors, in their prayers for justice (not to be confused with revenge).  I pray the jury looks at the evidence and doesn't believe Trayvon Martin deserved to be profiled, stalked and killed because he was not told to not to dress/act/mimic thugs because of bad parenting. 

As I was screaming and raising my banner all I could think about was Trayvon’s parents. Wondering how they’re enduring such agony and hurt. How they’re sleeping at night knowing what happened to their son. I also thought about the many reasons why I attended the march that day. Trayvon Martin could have easily been me or someone that I love. As the federal department of justice takes over the investigation of this case I hope for the facts to be revealed and for justice to be served for Trayvon Martin and his family. May his death not be in vain.

Amen and Amen.

"Trayvon belongs to all of America. And until you see him as your child too, we all remain in bondage."

Racism is alive, well,  and flourishing in the United States of America

 43 days and counting and still no arrest in the killing of Trayvon Martin, I seriously doubt there will be one.  Why?  Because George Zimmerman was standing his ground with a 9 mm against the unarmed, but  suspicious, black, 17 year old, hoodie wearing, thug, and the majority of white Americans think that's the American Way. 

Another reason I don't believe there will be an arrest is because the  city of Sanford, FL is mobilizing. because white folks are skeered the ni**ers are going to riot when/if it's announced the Prosecutor won't being charges against George Zimmerman, because that's what they do when they don't get their way.  Remember?

What I can't understand is why they are mobilizing against these guys, but not these guys?  Strike that.  Yes I can. Snark

Black folks will be disappointed if charges aren't bought against George Zimmerman, and although the mainstream media is itching for a race war for ratings, black folks aren't stoopid enough to start a war they can't win.  To quote the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr~

God grant that we wage the struggle with dignity and discipline. May all who suffer oppression in this world reject the self-defeating method of retaliatory violence and choose the method that seeks to redeem. Through using this method wisely and courageously we will emerge from the bleak and desolate midnight of man’s inhumanity to man into the bright daybreak of freedom and justice.

No, black folks will not resort to violence, nor will we sit around waiting on the government to take care of us, because we've learned from experience, that just ain't going to happen.  Black folks know how to make a way out of no way.


Wanna know why we African Americans are so upset about Trayvon--aside from the obvious? The obvious being that a child was senselessly slain. It's our history. Probably 85 to 90% of present day African Americans are here as a result of slavery. While none of us are alive that remember being slaves some are still alive who knew slaves and were the children of slaves. More importantly, we have a collective cultural memory of slavery after 400 years of it.

 If you know anything about American slavery at all, you know that black children were taken from their parent and sold far away at the whim of "owners" and there wasn't a damn thing that could be done about it. Black parents had to watch as their children were brutalized overworked, underfed, uneducated, sexually assaulted and there wasn't a damn thing to be done about it, because the law sanctioned it.

 Later, in post slavery years, in the southern states especially, the legal system continued to allow inhumane and differential treatment towards people with black skin until the the 1970s when the federal government finally stepped in again. In between was 100 years of brutal lynching--both north and south-- black men and boys swinging from the nation's trees, or forced to work southern mines with no pay, and locked away for the slightest crime or no crime at all.

The brutal murder of Emmett Till took place in 1955. As you no doubt know, Emmett was 15-year old kid from Chicago, visiting family in Mississippi, who's 'crime' was whistling at a white girl. White men came and snatched him out of his house, and there wasn't a damn thing that his family could do about it, except of course show his hideously battered and disfigured corpse to the nation. Had his mother not insisted on doing so, we probably Emmett Till would have been another nameless faceless murdered black boy. His murderers were tried and acquitted, then later bragged about the killing.
    
        Fast forward to 2012. A black man holds the highest office in the land. Undoubtedly, we've made progress. But 3 weeks ago when Trayvon Martin was chased down and shot for simply walking in his own neighborhood--unarmed and minding his own business-- and now we watch as the law of the sovereign state of Florida shielded and protects his shooter, all of us are instantly plunged back into the dreadful reality that if you have a black child in America, he can be taken away at a moment's notice and the law will not help you. In fact, it will protect the person that harmed your child. Maybe we haven't come anywhere at all. You might get to be president, but your children can still be slaughtered legally. Only this time we're not taking 'no' for an answer. We will see that justice is done.
    
        One last thing. To those of you who sit silently watching and perhaps not sensing the same outrage at this miscarriage of justice, because your children are safe, or because you don't feel this is your problem, ponder, if you will, Martin Niemöller's words:
    
        First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--
        because I was not a communist;
        Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--
        because I was not a socialist;
        Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--
        because I was not a trade unionist;
        Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
        because I was not a Jew;
        Then they came for me--
        and there was no one left to speak out for me.
    
        Trayvon belongs to all of America. And until you see him as your child too, we all remain in bondage.

H/T Edie Lee Harris

Edit~RedEye's Week in Review~Trayvon Martin Edition

33 Days and Counting

"Would you, would fellow African American Congress members care as much if Trayvon were white?"  When I heard Brooke Baldwin ask Representative Corrine Brown (D. FL) this question I had to check my TeeVee to see If I had accidentally tuned in to Fox News. Shudder

These are The Things White People Say about the Trayvon Martin case, in an attempt to marginalize and minimize legitimate complaints.  In other words, it'a cop out, a weapon of mass distraction.

Psst Brooke!  We care about all crime, we express outrage and work for justice in our community everyday, the problem is y'all don't hear us because that's not considered news worthy.  We are not as depraved as they would have you believe.  It's the media.

This is proof Attorney General Eric Holder was right (no pun), America is a nation of cowards about race.  At the time there were some who thought he was putting us down, but there were others who understood  he was asking us to have courage.  Maybe if we had done that, Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Kenneth Chamberlin,  Rekia Boyd and countless others would be alive today.

If a video and an eyewitness is not enough  to arrest George Zimmerman, and the fact their case is falling apart , I don't know what is.  I wish I could say I had faith in our justice system, but I just can't.  Maybe if there were investigating a gambling bingo bill and corruption......

Today's Must Reads
Trayvon Martin, Troy Davis and the 2012 Election

Excerpt

On the other hand, in the interest of making some whites feel better about themselves, the hacks at CNN sought out the tiny and deceptively named “New Black Panther Party” which seems to exist purely to be called upon by the likes of Sean Hannity and Anderson Cooper when they need a comic black racist bogeyman. The NBPP dutifully rendered its standard performance, complete with scowling and on-camera chest-thumping about bounties and “citizens arrests.”

Don't Let Them Fool You, Keep Fighting for Justice! 
Excerpt

As Bob Marley said, don't let them fool you. Don't let those those punk police fool you. Don't let uncle toms like Rev. Bryant sidetrack you. Don't let those buffoons masquerading as Black Panthers or anyone else trick you into doing something crazy. Keep marching, keep petitioning, keep speaking out, keep blogging until we get justice for Trayvon!

Let us march on until victory is won.

Stand Your Ground in "Plain English"

After reading Left in Alabama's resident righty, and  Legal Contributor's explanation of Self Defense and Stand Your Ground in plain English, I still can't understand why I was banished and barred from participating in the Informed, Involved, Progressive, discussion because I dared to whine about it.  But I digress.

I felt threatened so I shot them.  That's Stand Your Ground in plain English. Ironically,  Trayvon Martin was killed for standing his ground. He was threatened after being stalked by George Zimmerman .  Unfortunately, Trayvon was  threatened by a man with a 9 mm pointed at his chest, and all he had to defend himself with was a bag of Skittles and an Arizona Ice Tea.

It's a good thing Arizona Governor Jan Brewer didn't have a 9 mm when she felt a bit threatened by President Barack Obama.  I'm just saying...

Law Enforcement officers and Prosecutors tried to tell the pro life republicans in 21 states, including Sweet Home Alabama, this law would cause an increase in racially motivated killings.  But did they listen?  Nooo. That would have been too much like right. Snark

The  Sanford Police Department have declined to arrest  George Zimmerman claiming Florida's Stand Your Ground Laws prohibit it.  Oh really?  it didn't prevent 69 year old  Trevor Dooley (pictured above) from being arrested and charged with manslaughter , after shooting a WHITE man claiming self defense after TWO DAYS of PUBLIC OUTCRY.

Today's Must Read(s)

The Bullet Next Time:  An Open Letter to My Unborn Black Son

Black Manhood and the Racist Imagination

No Apologies:  On the Killing of Trayvon Martin and Being Good

A rant.........Because I need one

What Joe Scarborough said all the damn way!

Excerpts:

"Zimmerman wasn't standing his ground, Zimmerman was chasing this young man and harassing him."

"This isn't about standing your ground, this guy (Zimmerman) hunted him (Trayvon Martin) down"

"They better move in fast on this case because a lot of people have acted in a shameful way."

"They (Police) say let him (Trayvon) go and he (Zimmerman) still chases after him, and you can hear him in the background yelling 'help" and they still don't arrest him?"

"Here a young man gets killed and the police don't arrest this murderer for anything?"

"This law is literally getting in the way of action being taken." Mika

"It's not the (Stand your ground) law, it's the (Sanford) Police Department down there it's the State Attorney's office down there".

"How is someone standing their ground against someone who is screaming for help?"~Mika

"They (Sanford Police Department) have known since February 26, that this young 17 year old man, Trayvon  Martin, armed with nothing but ice tea skittles and a cell phone, minding his own business, walking through a neighborhood, was chased, hunted down, screaming for help, then shot to death, they have known this...and they have not arrested the man who they know very clearly wasn't standing his ground who killed him".

"If the facts are as they appear now, whoever is running the Police Department, whoever is running the State Attorney's office down there are not worthy of the public trust, have betrayed the public trust.  They are unworthy of representing the people of Florida..

"It sounds like they (Sanford Police Department) were trying to cover some tracks"

"They drug test the dead 17 year old who had ice tea and skittles, and they don't drug test the person who has just killed another person"?

"Who are these people"?

"The State of Florida needs to act aggressively".

"They better not get away with it."

"It does have to do with race.  If anybody watching this show either live or on the Internet, does not believe if an African American  shot a 17 year old  white boy walking through a neighborhood carrying ice tea and skittles, if they do not be believe there would have been an arraignment the next morning for the African American shooter, and the white boys family would be notified immediately, that an officer would not have driven to the white boys parents home,  sat on their couch and consoled them because they just lost their 17 year old son...if you believe this case, and the handling of this case by the people in Florida has nothing to do with race, you are living in a fantasy world."

"The Justice Department and the Attorney General Pam Bodi in Florida need to do more than investigate the death, because it seem to be fairly obvious what happened, they need to investigate the (Sanford) Police department and the State Attorney's Office and see why the parents weren't notified immediately, and why this guy hasn't been arrested.

"You don't have to have an open and shut case, arrest the guy, throw him in jail, they got probable cause, they got a 9 mm, they got him chasing him down the street, they got the gun shot on the 911 tape, they have  reason to lock this guy up this morning, they had it the night that it happened.

What Reverend Al Sharpton said all the damn way!
"I must say this has been the most inspiring morning  I've had with Joe Scarborough"

You can see/hear the entire segment  in context here,  then compare and contrast it with Matt Laur's  UNfair and UNbalanced interview of the grieving parents of Trayvon Martin, and the family attorney, on The Today Show.

Today's Must Read
Fox News commenters react to Trayvon Martin:'Good shot Zimmy'.

White House comments in Trayvon Martin case

Actually, it should read,  the white male who speaks for the White House comments in the case of Trayvon Martin by passing the buck back to the Sanford Police Department.  I wonder what part of the Sanford Police Department is part of the problem doesn't he understand?

What do you want to bet if the Black militia group who wants to arrest George Zimmerman gets involved there will be plenty of comment from the white male who speaks for the White House?

As with the cases of  the Jena Six, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Sean Bell, Shirley Sherrod, and Troy Davis, the first African American President can't take a position, because it might offend 39% of  white voters.

Is it too much to ask the President of the United States of America to stand for something other than killing Osama Bin Laden?  What about the killing of Trayvon Martin ?  His family does not trust the local police department, with good reason.

See this is why I didn't want an African American President, because he's the African American President of everybody but African Americans.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

"What if I had looked "suspicious" that night"?

This is the question screaming in the head of  13 year old Austin McClendon, Trayvon  Martin killing's youngest witness.  McClendon's mother says his initial statement to Sanford Police was  twisted to imply George Zimmerman was the one screaming for help.

"They still haven't arrested him yet.".  Says Austin, his chin tucked low. "That's pretty much the thing that's upsetting me.

That's pretty much the thing that's upsetting a lot of people, so as Barney Fife would say, let's nip this differ in interpretations of who was calling for help on the 911 tapes in the bud.


"Interpretations "my Donkey


Why would George Zimmerman be screaming for help?  Trayvon Martin didn't have a 9 mm handgun aimed at George Zimmerman's chest.

Why did the screams for help stop after the shot(s) were fired?

If George Zimmerman was so afraid for his life, why did he disobey orders from dispatch not to pursue Trayvon Williams, much less get out of his car and confront him with a 9 mm handgun?pistol?

How can you claim self defense when you are the aggressor?

Did the Sanford Police collect shell casings, or perform lab test on blood allegedly  found on George Zimmerman to see whose it was?

Why is the case being turned over to the Seminole County Attorney General instead of the United States Attorney General?

The Jena Six were charged,  tried, convicted and jailed for attempted murder of a white classmate  . 

Remember?

Today's Must Read
The Killing of Trayvon Martin is not a "Black Problem".