Posted on 07/19/2013 1:30:16 PM PDT by John David Powell
People across the United States are hot under the collar these days, and not just because of record high temperatures. No, they are letting off steam over last week’s acquittal of George Zimmerman by a Florida jury.
For many, the blood began to boil about this time last year when word trickled out of Sanford (pop. 53,570) that a Hispanic neighborhood watcher shot and killed a teenage boy during a physical encounter at an apartment complex.
That is not entirely true. The story that caught the attention of civil rights activists and the national media was that a white cop-wannabe profiled an innocent, unarmed, teenage African-American boy wearing a hoodie and carrying snacks. Profiled him as a criminal, stalked him, then shot him dead as the boy tried to defend himself.
Rough justice on a Sanford street demanded quick justice in a Sanford court.
But justice from The Man (and not the man with the gun) was neither quick nor just to anyone connected directly to the case or to the angry surrogates on both sides. Now, the trial has moved from the courthouse to the court of public opinion, and possibly to a street near you.
The chances are quite good that on your street or wherever you get news and information you will hear some form of the word conversation, as in “we need to have this conversation” about some aspect of the story. And, it is usually about racism.
“We should not live in a nation,” one thread of the conversation goes, “where I have to talk to my children about what to do when the police stop them. Or warn them not to do something in public that could draw the attention of someone who might want to do them harm.”
Yes, let’s have that conversation, because that is what we told our daughters as they were growing up. Be respectful to a police officer, we said. Never talk back to a person who wears a gun and badge to work and who can throw your butt in jail.
This conversation could be about race, gender, or sexual orientation; but it is really about prudence, about acting correctly in an anxious situation. And, it is about respect for the law, a respect that transcends race, gender, or sexual orientation.
Because they are daughters, we told them to be aware of their surroundings and not to draw the attention of someone who might want to harm them. So, yes, let’s have the conversation about why our daughters (and their mother) have every right to wear whatever they want to wear, wherever they want to wear it, and not to worry about the twisted freaks at the other end of the bar or the one sitting outside in the van.
This conversation is really about taking responsibility, about not putting yourself into a bad situation just because you have the right to do so. It is about common sense that is not defined by race, gender, or sexual orientation.
And while we are at it, let’s have that conversation about racial profiling, and we can bring in the crack news team at that Oakland, Calif., television station, the one that ran the names of the pilots of the Asiana passenger jet that broke apart when landing. The names on the screen, however, the ones read with perfect diction by the nicely coiffed anchor, were made up by someone who thought it was cute to give South Korean pilots racist Asian names like Sum Ting Wong and Wi Tu Lo and another than cannot be repeated in polite company.
Let’s have that conversation about how no one in the newsroom, not the anchor, not the writer, not the graphics person, not the producer, and not the director, saw anything wrong before they ran the names.
Let’s have that conversation about how people in newsrooms across the country (mine included) laughed in disbelief (as did I), shared the video with friends on social media (as did I), but did not see the racism (as did I) until later.
Let’s have that conversation about growing up as a Chinese-American kid in a small town with no other kids outside your family who looked like you. Let’s have that conversation about kids coming up to you in school using words and phrases you later see on a television newscast. Let’s have that conversation about being on the receiving end of everything now gently called “insensitivity” on the part of children and adults.
But I guarantee we will not have those conversations, because the chances are good (and rightly so) that you have tuned out by now, tired of reading rants.
Note to protesters: The people you want to have conversations with have tuned you out. They cannot see that what happened in Sanford is personal to you, that it has an importance beyond the actual event, because they are tired of rants, tired of being yelled at, tired of being called names.
And that’s my point. As a nation, we do not have conversations about important issues. We yell at each other; we talk over the other person. And some people get paid well to talk and not listen.
So, yeah, let’s have that conversation, and let’s do it without confrontation.
Obama is a racist
Holder is a racist
Jarrett is a racist
End of discussion
“tired of being called names.”
1960s racist
1970s racist baby-killer
1980s racist, baby-killer sexist
1990s racist, baby-killer, sexist, homophobe
2000s racist, baby-killer, sexist, homophobe, nativist
I stopped listening to the blather in the 60s.
Oh good. We’re going to have that conversation. And the other side is going to let us talk and say what we need to say. And they are not going to call us racist for a few hours,so we can talk. And there will be no hypocritical outrage when we say what they don’t want to hear.
Good.
This story cannot and should not be told without a visual aid — the picture of that 6 foot 2 Trayvon Martin wearing his hoodie in the 7 Eleven.
Imagine encountering that on a dark and rainy night.
What’s missing is the aspect of societal class in this discussion. I keep seeing the internet meme repeated where they simply switch races and ask would Zimmerman have been acquitted if he were black.
Yes... Zimmerman would have been acquitted if he had been a well spoken middle class black gentleman, precisely because the jury of his peers were middle class women who understood his plight.
Trayvon would have been a half white and half hispanic, lower middle class teenager. His friend who testified to being on the phone with him, would be a fat white girl who spoke like June Shannon (Honey boo boos mother), and all the listeners especially those in the press would deride her for being trailer parkish.
A conversation is a two-way street. We’re not going to have one. It’s just going to be more hectoring from the race pimps and white guilt crowd about how racist we are.
That’s not a conversation.
There will never ever ever be a honest discussion about race relations because TRUTH left this country a long time ago and was replaced by VICTIMHOOD.
The question no one has asked: if Trayvon felt threatened, why didn't HE call 911?
I've learned one thing working in a diverse and sometimes weird environment. It's racist to fear that your responses to something are racist. grrr...
Conversation about something that doesn’t exist, something that was invented in the 20th century, by, some say, Leon Trotsky? Oh, OK. Let’s also have a conversation about global warming, shall we? A more up-to-date invention. Hipper, you know what I’m saying?!
As long as we’re having that conversation, how about airing the facts of what actually occurred that night and who, exactly, was the racist. Was it the hispanic guy who a year before had actually stood up against police brutality being wrought on some black guy? Or was it the wannabe thug who was, in fact, spouting racist comments moments before he attacked the retreating “self-proclaimed hispanic” guy.
Yeah, let’s talk about racism. Let’s talk about blown cultures that have no family cohesion and ran wild in the streets. Let’s talk about generation after generation of drug-addled dependency and self-loathing slaves still picking cotton for their masters in Washington and the White House. What kind of culture and families promoted slef-destruction and helplessness? Where are the fathers and what the hell are wrong with the mothers?
Let’s talk crime stats. Let’s talk about abortion. Let’s talk about race-baiting pimps and hustlers that make millions on lies and hatred and the lick-spittle journalist and media that kiss their corrupt asses. Let’s talk about the ugly business of eugenics and the people who profit.
Yes, let’s do. Shall we?
When no one is civil they can accuse you of being racist and insensitive. Having the "news" media on their side and politicizing LEO ("hate" crime laws and "inciting to riot" laws only being applied to the Left's political opponents) helps them shut down the backlash to their own screaming and yelling and running around (protesting) like the childish creatures they are.
“We should not live in a nation,” one thread of the conversation goes, “where I have to talk to my children about what to do when the police stop them. Or warn them not to do something in public that could draw the attention of someone who might want to do them harm.”
Every parent should have that conversation over and over.
Include scenarios of what might happen, show them current news stories, etc.
Make no mistake, they don't want a conversation, they want us whites to submit to them, to give them anything and everything they want. Unfortunately, too many of us are such pu**ies we will simply do their bidding, hoping they won't hit us.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Facts are irrelevant. George Zimmerman voted for Obama, dated an African-American girl, and is of Latino heritage, and was found innocent of murder and/or manslaughter.
No matter. The High Priests of Tribalism have decreed that he is a witch (racist). He must be given Trial by Fire (civil prosecution). If he burns (found guilty), then he is a witch (racist). If the Angels (press) save him, then he is not a witch(racist.
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