Manhood: Who would Trayvon be now?

The Miami Herald ^ | February 28, 2014 | Stephen A. Crockett, Jr., The Root

[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....

[MrEdd]

Actually, he was a good student until his CRIP father divorced his stepmother. Then he went over the edge and started remodeling his life after his father’s life.

[skeeter]

You don’t want to get caught in Miami Gardens trying to sell beat bag purple drank.

[MrEdd]

Dead of liver failure if nothing else by this point, if you paid attention to his autopsy.

[HiTech RedNeck]

I knew there was a hitch. Also it needs to be authentic Skittles, it is not the same with SweeTarts.

[oldenuff2no]

You used to break into houses and steal jewelery? You used to take drugs to school and get kicked out?? You used to physically attack people who never said a word to you or touched you in any way??

Yes I get a picture of you today but the bars and high fences are in the way of a clear image.

[sten]

he’d be thug-wannabe #354665 in county lock up

or just as dead by another hand

[BerryDingle]

The writer could never be Trayvon Martin until he goes after an off duty cop or an armed citizen.

[exPBRrat]

I suppose the author could have filed a report on how Travons closest friends are doing in the here and now...

...but the ‘kick out game’ probably put the fear of God into that lib brain.

[a fool in paradise]

MSM reporting likely 2016 Democratic presidential candidates: Hillary and the memory of Trayvon.

St. Tray-von-dutch is eligible, he had an' old soul...

[PhiloBedo]

Freddy’s dead (from Super Fly).

[2ndDivisionVet]

Rachel Jeantel got a full scholarship from some hip-hop star and Trayvon’s brother is an intern in Rep. Frederica Wilson’s office.

[a fool in paradise]

Trayvon would be a father by now, and he might have even met his virtual “girlfrien’” too!

[SpaceBar]

Trayvon was on his way to three squares a day on death row.

[Rides_A_Red_Horse]

Before I became this guy, a writer of marginal success who believes in the weight of words, I used to be Trayvon Martin.

---

He attacked Latino homeowners?

[RedMDer]

Less than $4.3k to go!!

[a fool in paradise]

Several of the “victims” of the Bernard Goetz shooting later were busted in subsequent acts of thuggery.

[Stepan12]

As a freeper said, Trayvon Martin is the Horst Wessel of our day. Horst Wessel was a young SA type killed by the Communists and made into an icon by Josef Goebbels. There was even a Nazi song named after him called the Horst Wessel Lied. I have my own Trayvon Martin Lied, but there will be riots if I put it up on youtube.

[2ndDivisionVet]

I wrote a poem for Trayvon, perhaps we could set it to music.

[RedMDer]

Did she study cursive?)

[Old Yeller]

I imagine him robbing liquor stores and pharmacies.