Hopefully there will be equal justice in both cases, and the perps will get their consequences. I have no reason to believe that the majority of the "black and white" community would agree with me..
The emotional racists on both extremes want a vigilante war, and they must be exposed as part of the problem so we can move forward in a positive direction.
Still, history demands perspective and deconstruction. For over 200 years, USA justice was colossally unlevel for African American males. How many lynchings, how many hate crimes?? Its has been a disgusting attack on the intent of our Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence, as was the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision which reflected the unfortunate fabric of our society's underlying racism. We've made significant progress, but as Texas Representative Ron Paul of all people (rather courageously) pointed out in the recent debates, injustice is still skewed toward African Americans.
As upset and vitriolic as the anti-Martin people feel on this board when a an African American commits what appears to me to be a horrible race crime -similar to Reginald Denny- this is what African Americans dealt with routinely including the racism and profiling that takes place into this new century. Politicizing the dialogue is a form of denial. As a defense for Zimmerman, it's the juvenile defense of "Daddy, don't punish me, Joey does it too!!!"
What concerns me here isn't that there won't be justice in these cases, we don't know that yet; its the racists on both extremes that want to reverse the progress we have made and get us back to "us vs. them" and the natural order that brings back for some hateful people. These citizens, of all races and religions too, many armed, have no consciousness of what is driving their bigotry and rage. |
