Posted on 07/06/2012 11:34:57 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The city’s first known Trayvon Martin mural is going up on a wall of an East New York laundromat - adding to a brewing campaign to make sure history doesn’t snub the slain teen’s image.
Teenage boys will start painting the 100-foot picture July 16 on New Lots Laundromat’s wall underneath the elevated tracks of the IRT No. 3 train.
The East New York mural will join a growing list of similar street art popping up in black neighborhoods across the country.
“We want him to become a martyr, and it’s sad that we even have to say that,” said Catherine Green, executive director of ARTs East New York Inc., who is overseeing the project.
“We want to see change coming out of this. People see a young man with a hoodie and they think he is a criminal.”
The seven young painters will show off the outline for the giant image in mid-July but are set on drawing Martin dressed in the his famed sweatshirt.
“It goes back to hip-hop and how people dress. When you see that hoodie, it signifies what people think about our young men in our community,” Green said.
Neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman gunned down the hoodie-clad Florida teen in February telling cops he thought the boy appeared suspicious.
Initially, authorities didn’t arrest Zimmerman, citing the state’s controversial “Stand Your Ground” law. A national debate on racial profiling ensued and officials later charged Zimmerman with second degree murder.
Martin snapped a picture of himself in a gray hoodie before his death. The image went viral as buzz surrounding the case intensified and is now on countless t-shirts and posters.
State Sen. Eric Adams (D-Crown Heights) used the picture on a June 7 flyer inviting young Brooklynites to a rally against a floundering Stand Your Ground bill stalled in Albany.
“The story of Trayvon Martin will find its way into the history books,” Adams said. “It symbolizes the frustration and anger of young men of color losing their lives — by their own hands, by the hands of the police, and by vigilante groups.”
The Martin family copyrighted their son’s hoodie photo earlier this month, along with the phrases “Trayvon Martin,” “I am Trayvon Martin,” and “Justice for Trayvon Martin,” said Michael Hall, co-founder of the Justice for Trayvon Martin Foundation, an advocacy group tied to Martin’s legal team.
“We want to stop people from making a profit from [the image],” said Hall, explaining that while he was unaware of the East New York mural, he doesn’t have a problem with the plan.
Still, Hall was skeptical about whether street art will push history book authors to include the Trayvon Martin case.
“History will dictate what it wants to acknowledge. They will dictate what they want to pay attention to,” Hall said.
I think it was TRAYVON!! Zimmerman???? doubt it.
Well then it sounds like a perfect area for a shrine to him. But who will win out in the portrayal??? The gangbangers and lowlife wannabees won't want him portrayed as the little 12 y/o. They will want him shining through on that mural as the pot smoking lean drinking street fighting head-banging bus-driver beating badass no-limit-nigga that he had become in the end. No matta how they start it out, that is how it will wind up.
Anyone seen that toxicology report yet. Why is Corey holding it hostage??? Will we need a bailbond hearing to get it released???
“America has gone insane....”
No, just parts of it. Stay out of the urban hellholes & their ghetto culture, and stay healthy.
It’s no more than a matter of thinking for oneself & making sensible choices. Most of the worst that happens in society can be traced to a prevailing mob mentality. Sometimes it’s best to be both a rock and an island, like the old Simon & Garfunkle song.
Any thinking citizen who can see beyond their own skin color will look at the Trayvon case & decide that the matter will be sorted out in a court of law when all the facts & motives are known. Requires only a small leap of faith.
Meanwhile, consider those parts of America that have not yet gone insane. IMO they’re still in the majority. For some reason these are also the places where gun rights are strong. East New York is not one of them.
Twit (did I use the proper vowel?)
Would not want to get off IRT #3 at that locale by mistake. Might be a fatal error.
From a zero thug to a BLT national hero. A joke of reality in the mind of those domestic terrorists.
Ah!! The patron saint of “hoodies”!
The same we’ve done following the DOJ-assisted murder of Agent Brian Terry. Whine. Where are we going to place the murals for all of the innocents that have been mobbed and beaten in the rage following the Travon killing? When are we going to lose ‘black’ focus as racist just like ‘white’ focus was racist? Why is ‘racist’ only a black issue? Why is ‘black’ this and ‘black’ that perfectly perfect, but no one dares designate anything ‘white’. They don’t even like White Christmas.
Martyr? What, now he’s a muslim?
Truth don’t matter no more. The public (mostly) and blacks specifically would depict GZ standing over tm pumping 45 slugs into the poor innocent yout who only wanted an ice tea drink and some skittles. (Plus some cold meds to make “Lean”) so reality doesn’t matter. Martin Luther King’s (I think) the truth will set you free is out the window.
My sister (when she first heard about the incident which was before me surprisingly) said it sounded like some “red neck jerk” and he should be strung up even though she had no details of the event other than the initial headlines. As I did my due diligence and read everything I could about the incident I was able to change her mind. Plus I told her I would much rather hang around a bunch of “red neck jerks” than a bunch of effeminate elitist snobs any day of the week. I’ve mingled with all of them from the bottom to the top and I know where I’d rather be.
Sounds like a waste of good paint to me.
Helping keep mankind warm for 65 years.
They might as well all hail the drug cartels and put a statue of the Zetas ganglords.
Has anybody thought that maybe, just maybe, GZ went to Miami and planted the weed bag and burglary tools on tm to get him suspended from school knowing he would be sent to his dad’s girlfriends apartment in Sanford where he could then ambush the little punk? I mean if we’re gonna stretch this dang it, let’s REALLY stretch it. I think the cops should track GZ’s cell phone records to make sure this isn’t what happened.
Helping keep mankind warm for 65 years.
How is that NOT incitement to riot?And that “our own” government is aiding, encouraging and abetting this?
Ant how long are We the People expected to continue in our support of such government?
One of my college professors used to say, “Men must have their illusions.”
Skittles, aka extasy, $50 a pop in the ghetto. I suppose it pays for nice murals... of pieces of crap glorified by liberal homos in love with Che ruling our courthouses and non profit organizations.
What about treyvon urinal targets?
And draw him leaving school wearing a backpack with suspension papers, women's jewelry, a screwdriver, a bag of marijuana and a pipe falling out the pockets. I'm assuming the artists are black so it'd be ok for them to spell out the N word from his facebook handle.
I had to check to make sure the article wasn't satire. Obama, setting race relations back a hundred years or more, mmmmmm, mmmmm.
I am a little surprised this article is so unbalanced....GZ did in fact gun down Martin, but it at least according to GZ and the evidence so far he did it in self defense
One would think that missing fact would be worth a few words or a sentence in the article...
Kind of hard to work up sympathy for a cause that chooses foul-mouthed gangster wannbes who claim showing up late for class every day as an accomplishment for their martyrs.
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