In this case, the basic facts were clear: An older, white-looking man saw an African American child who he deemed suspicious. Ignoring police direction, he followed the child who was talking on the phone while walking home from the store. The child told his friend that the man was \u201ccreepy,\u201d indicating a sense of discomfort at being followed. At some point, the older man got close enough in his pursuit that he and the child had a direct confrontation. The man was armed; the child was not. The child was shot and killed. The man walked away.<\/p>\n
The basic facts aren\u2019t controversial. This means the court is no longer playing to its strength. Courts find fact; it is left to us the make meaning or tell the \u201ctruth.\u201d\u00a0 That truth will be determined, not by the courts, but by the way we each give meaning to the events and how we organize our lives in the aftermath.<\/p>\n
The truth for some is that killing an unarmed child is reasonable, even if the killer initiated the confrontation. The truth for others will be that the State of Florida\u2019s official position – as articulated in a state court by a jury of George Zimmerman\u2019s peers – is that the lives of Black children are meaningless.<\/p>\n
I agree that the system did <\/em>fail, but it did so by failing to create conditions in which this community could be strengthened, or by which families could have greater faith in the government or their neighbors. The system failed because the only approach to justice that was considered was retribution. The system failed because it was unable to restore the hope for the future that Trayvon\u2019s parents held when he was still alive.<\/p>\n Statement #2 – \u201cGeorge \u00a0Zimmerman is a racist; I can\u2019t believe the courts didn\u2019t hold him responsible.\u201d<\/em> <\/strong>\u00a0George Zimmerman may or may not be a racist but whether George is racist is inconsequential. He is<\/em> biased and it was his bias, conscious or unconscious, that resulted in Trayvon\u2019s death. But the source of his bias was not of his making. \u00a0With all the media portrayals of the dangerous nature of Blackness and the systemic exclusion of people of color from political and civic discourse, it is likely that George developed his action-oriented and life-taking biases as a result of this context.<\/p>\n The folklore, mythology, lies and wisdom, as well as the policies, practices, institutions and relational patterns that produce, reproduce, and sustain the existence of deeply held racialized biases, also have significant responsibility. So there may be diminished responsibility on his part.<\/p>\n At some point we do have to take personal responsibility for our actions. At the same time, it is understandable that some people don\u2019t hold him responsible for having and then acting on his biases\u2014because those biases have infiltrated the consciousness of each of us.<\/p>\n Statement #3: \u201cWe need Federal intervention.\u201d <\/em>Listening to the President\u2019s remarks and those of Attorney General Eric Holder since the verdict, and reading the tea leaves, it seems unlikely that there will be any federal prosecution for hate crimes or civil rights violations. \u00a0This to me is a great stroke of serendipity. A federal trial is a no-win proposition with three possible outcomes, each of which is bad for building just and accountable communities:<\/p>\n George Zimmerman was not held accountable for his action and in a perverse turn of events, he will for the rest of his life be looked upon with disgust or pity.\u00a0 Had he paid some penalty he would at least be able to say, \u201cI paid for my mistakes,\u201d and perhaps he could be welcomed back into civil society. The courts did not give him that opportunity so he will have to make his own path.<\/p>\n By the same token, the courts did not give an excuse to those of us who say we are committed to building just and fully accessible communities. If Zimmerman were guilty, we could spend our energy finding other \u201cbad actors\u201d and weeding them out one at a time. But we should acknowledge that the people aren\u2019t the problem, the problem is the problem.<\/em>\u00a0 We have to organize our response to this case (and Oscar Grant and Amadou Diallo and every similarly situated case) to address the actual problem, not just the latest symptomatic response to the problem.<\/p>\n Lethal racism is a sign that points to a deeper problem. This case is symptomatic of the cancer of fear that deeply infects these (yet to be) United States – fear that someone else is dangerous, or wants what \u201cI\u201d have (rights, women, territory, money, political power); fear that I am too fat or bald or old; fear that I won\u2019t be able to live out my dreams if everyone has equal access; fear that my life and the life of my children really does not matter. This cancer is deep in our system, and using false standards of the courts to cover the blemish or punishment doesn\u2019t deal with the underlying disease.<\/p>\n Our healing must be relational. Through deep and sustained dialogue we can eliminate the fears that make both George Zimmerman\u2019s life and Trayvon Martin\u2019s death equally unreasonable.\u00a0 That would move us towards justice.<\/p>\n\n
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