7.13.13
The verdict came down earlier today. Initial feelings of anger and (strangely) surprise, which quickly mellowed into sadness. So we're still here. America, 2013, and it's a roiling stew of pent-up hatred, confusion, fear, and savagery. There's no need to add to the din of righteous outrage over the result of the trial. All I can do, for my attempt and finding some peace, is to clarify my own thoughts about the whole awful affair. From what I can tell, nobody has an objective, coherent, compelling story of what happened on the night of Trayvon's murder. Zimmerman has his story, of course. And the only other person who really knows what happened is dead. In April, he would have turned 18.
The sad, frustrating fact is that this case, for all of its ominous overtones and dreary, shameful context, was not open-and-shut. It's entirely possible that Zimmerman's story, as unlikely as it might seem, is true. What we can reasonably say we know is this: Zimmerman, in his rather ludicrous capacity as gun-toting community watchman, was following Trayvon. Trayvon, who was - uncontroversially - minding his own business, became aware of this fact. Words, likely angry and/or hateful, were exchanged. A fight ensued. Zimmerman, apparently, got the shit beat out of him. I say apparently because of those photos, in which it's clear that he's been in a fearful scrap - he's got a bloody, broken-looking nose, and a few other assorted cuts and bumps, including a couple of bloody scratches (although no visible contusions) on the back of his head. I suppose it's possible that the wounds were self-inflicted by Zimmerman as a desperate means of providing evidence for a trumped-up story. Although there were at least two witnesses, nobody seems to have seen what was happening with enough clarity to say one way or the other who started the fight, or who seemed to be winning it. If Zimmerman had tampered with the scene, including his own body, he would've been able to get away with it. And even if that's all bunk - even if, at some point, Trayvon had the upper hand and successfully inflicted serious damage - it of course doesn't follow that the murder was in any way justifiable. But that's what we have - a one-sided story that ends in a killing. For now, the truth of what happened is between Zimmerman and God.
But the real outrage results from viewing this tragedy through a wider lens. It starts with Zimmerman's profiling of Trayvon. It results from a recognition that to be Black (and especially male) in American is to be under suspicion. 2013, after all these years. Zimmerman never should have gotten out of the car. He had no reason - no reason, although he had more than enough irrational hatred and fear - to suspect Trayvon of anything. For that matter, he shouldn't have had a gun. Even professional cops, who all too often fall short of exercising restraint or probity (especially in areas marked by racial diversity and tension, which of course describes thousands, if not millions of American communities and municipalities, to varying extents) at least have the benefit of training, a chain of command, an awareness of protocol, and, eventually, actual practicable experience. Zimmerman's role in Martin's death would have been ignominious to any self-respecting police, as well as to his department, and for good reason. Not necessarily because he shot Trayvon, but because he put himself in the position where he had (if we accept his version of events) no other choice but to do so. But Zimmerman, even given the best possible benefit of the doubt, was an overzealous, bigoted bungler. He was a wannabe with a gun. As he found out, repeatedly, he is moving in a society that extends to him the presumption not just of innocence but of righteousness. He is vouchsafed the right to harass, to operate as a quasi-vigilante, and if he feels the need to dispense deadly force, he will not only be forgiven, he will be lauded.
This is the world we live in. It's not just Florida. The same kind of assumptions are made in enlightened, cosmopolitan New York City, where rampant abuse of state power leads to the routine, systematic, institutionalized victimization of the minority population, especially Blacks and Muslims, but also Hispanics. At least NYC has gun laws that are considerably more sane, even if the underlying bigotry is just as hateful and corrosive to the remaining tatters of the "social fabric." It's still the case - in New York, Chicago, and my new home city of Los Angeles, that the majority of the victims and perpetrators of horrific violence are the oppressed members of the minority population, relegated to their ghettoes, widely excluded from the workforce, daily fed "a spoonful of hatred."
It's exactly that context that leads to the distortions of the truth, to what is ultimately a form of madness, that makes it "sane" for people to claim that Zimmerman was just doing his job, being a prudent self-styled enforcer of the peace. The assumptions underlying the despicable characterization of Trayvon are so base as to barely merit mentioning. But ultimately they are worth examining, since they provide evidence of just how twisted the conscience of America is, especially when it comes to the matter of young Black men. Before the trail, Zimmerman's defense attorneys launched a lurid smear campaign in an attempt to at least score some pre-emptive public opinion points. They are of course guilty of the worst kind of minstrelsy, painting a vile caricature of the slain victim, with the tacit message being that "he got what he deserved." There were photos from his phone of marijuana and a gun. One where he was wearing a grill. One where he was flipping the bird. The implied conclusions are obvious, if only because of the ruefully poor state of affairs in racial stereotyping: Travyon Martin was Just Another Black Teen. Meaning, generally, that he was a dangerous thug who smoked weed, owned and/or played with guns, had an irrational and reflexive disrespect for authority, and was always only seconds away from a lethal, savage, outburst of violence.
Evil, finally, is both the cause and effect of these assumptions, and they are instances of their realization are devastating. It's the sub-rosa message of the trial. It's possible that the jurors performed their task to the letter. Based on evidence and argument, given the laws and statutes, they might have had no other rational choice. But even the solemn edifice of the judicial system is subject to the tides of cultural belief and awareness. This ideology, the vile caricature of the Black male youth as perpetual threat, is what causes tragedies like Trayvon Martin's death. History keeps rhyming until we change the tune.
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