About Trayvon...

Greetings to all who read and support my blog. I know I have been away for a while but I finally got a minute to breathe so that I can write something. Ironically, its about someone who isn't anymore.

I just got an email from a family member on some one's take on Trayvon Martin's killing. And it inspired me to write something. I had so many things that I wanted to post about that I didn't get a chance to (Whitney Houston, new music, etc...) But, non of these seem as important as this. When I first heard about the killing I didn't feel much as I saw a blurb about it on the TV at work. It wasn't until I sat down and watched a couple of videos and listened to the 911 tapes that I felt some emotion. Anger. Sadness. Frustration.

But what really made me upset was not the case but my initial reaction. Nothing. I wish I could tell you that I was upset and ready to put on my hoodie and march but I wasn't. The reality is that I have been conditioned to situations just like this one. Where someone of color is arrested, wrongfully-charged, killed, or profiled and somehow justice is not in their favor. In fact, I have come to expect it. And that my friend, is a problem. We are conditioned to immediately react and be outraged when something of this magnitude happens but what happens a week, month, or year from now? We will be caught up in the next major story the news puts out.  I count myself as part of that cycle.

I don't want this to be the case this time. I don't want us as people to forget the outrage, sadness, or anger that any of us feel for this boy and his family. Because that means we are still human. Our humanity is intact when we can still empathize for one another. When we can still rally together for a single cause and make a change happen and our voices to be heard. And I want to believe in that change. The hope that we can still accomplish this.

So how do we keep this movement going? How do we keep the outrage of this situation from dying down? Continue to feel something. Anything. Don't fall into the trap of getting caught up in the next story that every one's talking about and forget. Because the reality is that unfortunately, there will be another Trayvon Martin out there. Because racism is still alive. It's more alive today actually. And though it's not going away anytime soon, we must take those feelings and share them. Talk about them with your neighbor, your coworker, your loved one. Because dialogue leads to communication. And hopefully a better understanding of each other and how we can coexist together in this world.

Sounds overly ambitious right? Impossible? But we fear what we don't understand. Or choose not to understand. And it was obvious by those 911 tapes that George Zimmerman didn't understand something about Trayvon Martin. He ignored signs and warnings because he believed that he had categorized Trayvon correctly. Enough to justify killing him. And as long as things like this happen, we have a lot more talking to do.