So, okay. If you're following the news even a little you've probably heard the
Trayvon Martin story.
I know I have my biases. So I try not to rush to judgement. Maybe there's more to this story, maybe it's not what it seems.
But here's what we know, for a fact, and what is not being disputed:
A guy shot an unarmed 17-year-old, after being told by a 911 operator not to engage him, and was not arrested for it.
I really can't think of any set of extenuating circumstances that would make that okay. And yeah, it's pretty fucking hard to escape the conclusion that Martin's race had something to do with it.
And we talked about this awhile back, when the Stand Your Ground laws became trendy -- they invite precisely this sort of shit. They're an excuse to shoot somebody on completely spurious grounds because you feel "intimidated" -- and yeah, I happen to think "intimidated" is a code word.
Personal anecdote: I've got a cousin who's biracial. He's the sweetest, most unassuming kid you'll ever meet; I've known him all his life and I've never heard him say an unkind word or raise his voice. And he LOOKS unassuming; he's medium height, doesn't swagger, and looks skinny. (He's actually not; he's on the swim team and the boy is ripped. But you wouldn't know it from seeing him in a T-shirt and jeans.)
Anyhow, about three years back -- he'd have been 15 or so -- we took him to a concert, and on the train ride there he bumped into somebody. Because, you know, it's a train and you sometimes accidentally bump into people.
He immediately apologized but the guy got aggressive, like he wanted to start something. He was bigger, and looked a few years older than my cousin (probably late high school/early college).
And I can't for the life of me see any other reason why he would have reacted that way except that my cousin is black. (And, presumably, because he didn't realize the three people standing by him were his family and it was perhaps not advisable to pull the tough-guy act under those odds. But of course the reason he didn't realize we were his family is, again, because of his race.)
So yeah, speaking of my biases, that's where my mind goes in situations like this. My cousin -- who's about as far from a Scary Black Man stereotype as you can get -- has to deal with this shit on a regular basis, has to deal with people who get twitchy just because of the color of his skin.
And maybe that's not what happened here. Maybe this guy shot an unarmed 17-year-old for some reason OTHER than his race. Maybe race played no part, conscious or otherwise, in his motivation.
But that's frankly hard to believe. And it's even harder to believe that if it had been a black man shooting an unarmed white 17-year-old that the police would have just sent him home.