Posted on 03/01/2014 3:27:31 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
I imagine you taller now. I imagine you ready for college or the armed forces, or sulking because the world isn’t kind to those who are fresh out of high school. I imagine you annoyed that the economy sucks and that tuition is high and scholarship opportunities are limited and the paperwork is endless.
I imagine you unsure of your next steps and grateful for the anonymity that hoodies provide when you don’t feel like talking or being seen. I imagine you unafraid. I imagine you fearless. I imagine you scared of everything and hiding behind a scowl because hip-hop taught you that. It taught me, too. It taught most of us, ranging from vanilla latte-hued to unlit charcoal, which is why we still mourn you.
We are you. I was you.
Before I became this guy, a writer of marginal success who believes in the weight of words, I used to be Trayvon Martin.
I used to mug and grimace and stare people down and look silly while doing it because I was thin and not convincing. But Washington was brutal back then, and gangster rap was the soundtrack played on repeat. I wore my pants two sizes too big because we all did, and they hung loose on my frame because I, like other black boys, was playing man. I was playing tough. It was an actual grown black man who picked up on my thug impression and would call me “Tinactin: tough acting.”
Truth is, I was struggling to carry the weight of my blackness in rooms that didn’t seem to want it or me around. I had grown my hair out wild to have it braided. I wore a Polo hoodie most days with the hood up so it hid my earphones....
(Excerpt) Read more at miamiherald.com ...
Life follows your thoughts and becomes what you focus on. Choose wisely.
God made lots of colors, but no favorites. Get over it.
We all have to answer for what we've done, not done and what we've not forgiven.
I think the author mis-typed something. I fixed it for him.
I think BenLurkin got it right.
LIGHTER
Blackness is the all excusing characteristic or sumfin?
Maybe this fellow was a tad more honest than Tray when it came to not robbing, but I’m not so sure how honest he is being about comparing Tray to himself.
At best, he'd probably be in some county jail for B&E...
At worst gunned down in the street by another gangbanger...
Military or college? Does anybody here believe that?
He’da made his first million by putting Purple Drank in pouches & selling em to the brothers in Miami Gardens.
Funny - I just imagine him dead.
Trayvon is NOT dead because of Zimmerman!
Trayvon is dead because of his behavior and refusal to recognize there were consequences for his behavior.
If George had not been armed, Trayvon would have killed him, and the media wouldn’t have said a word about it.
Trayvon would have felt more invincible and escalated his violent behavior, only to end up dead in some other venue.
In these times, with you-know-who as chief executive? Sure. Why not OCS or West Point? High School to Flight School. Pararescue.
Dead....There’s always someone tougher and braver.
sounds like a plan
I shoulda thought of it.
It could just be some grape Kool-Aid and nobody’d know the difference.
FDC#137682
Trayvon, th felon would be in prison for attempted murder or perhaps murder
The Saints died for what they believed. They bravely forfeited their lives for the Kingdom of God. They were heroes.
Trayvon was a thug-in-training who thought he could beat up on whitey and get away with it. He was wrong. He was no hero. He was a fool. Unlike the real martyrs, he didn't die for a noble cause.
And unlike the saints, Trayvon will eventually be forgotten.
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