This is the crux of it for me:
"If anyone wonders why African Americans feel so passionately about this case, it’s because we know that our 17-year-old sons are boys, not men. It’s because we know their adolescent bravura is just that — an imitation of manhood, not the real thing."
I teach young African American boys. And they are not men. They would like to think they are men, just as my white students would like to think that, but they aren't. Not that all grown men are reasonable, or intelligent- but teens are especially vulnerable to irrational fears. With the movies American teens see, of course they would be scared if someone started following them in an SUV. I'm not sure why the jurors didn't consider that maybe Trayvon felt he was fighting for his life. I've told my kids that when confronted by armed men who ask them to do something, they should run, or fight, or scream- because once you go somewhere with an armed man, he can do anything with you, and it will probably end in your death. I learned that in a class that was taught by the police. It's too bad Trayvon isn't alive to tell his side of the story. Because you know it would be far different from the side told by the man who killed him. I'm not sure why some people are so eager to believe an adult male who stalked an unarmed teen, who was walking home from the store, and killed him- but they are. |
