Posted on 08/04/2013 2:18:00 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I am an 84-year-old angry Black man. I am Mississippi born, Mississippi bred and Mississippi fled. I am the son of former slaves. My parents and I rode in the back of the bus. We rode in the front of the trains. We drank from water fountains designated for coloreds only. We picked cotton in fields owned by White people.
My parents attended separate but equal schools in Mississippi. I attended separate but equal schools in Mississippi and in Oakland, California. My wife was educated in Oakland public schools and at the University of California at Berkeley. She could not get a job teaching in Oakland Public schools in Oakland in 1954. I hold an undergraduate and a graduate degree from the University of California at Berkeley. I was profiled at a Washington, D.C., hotel in 2010, forced to sleep in a homeless shelter overnight.
I saw nothing in the Zimmerman case that surprised me. The system worked as it was intended. Zimmerman, a White man, was tried by a White justice system for killing a Black boy. The outcome was predictable. Many White people saw this as a non-racial event.
The O.J. Simpson jury found for the defense. The jury found reasonable doubt. The George Zimmerman jury found for the defense. The six White women on the jury found reasonable doubt. Zimmerman admitted that he killed Trayvon Martin. Simpson denied that he killed anyone. The press excoriated the Simpson jury. The Zimmerman jury was praised.
In both cases, the state presented weak cases. There are lessons to be learned from both cases. Laws are made to control the actions of people who can’t afford to break them. Both Simpson and Zimmerman bought as much justice as they needed. Their jurors were presented with reasonable doubt.
In the Zimmerman case, there are some facts that concerned citizens should understand. George Zimmerman is White. The juror of unknown ethnicity is White. The police who refused to arrest Zimmerman and who testified for him were White. The judge, and the prosecution were White. Every critical function carried on in that justice system was performed by a White person. Such is the case in almost every trial or plea bargaining case involving a Black man in this country.
George has been described as Hispanic. That does not mean that he is not White. The term Hispanic is a political designation that describes national origin, not race. Hispanic is a protected designation under our civil rights laws, but the term is not racial. I would guess that George Zimmerman, on his driver’s license under race, is designated White.
The most important fact to know is that the prosecution worked as hard for George Zimmerman as they did for the state of Florida. The prosecution did not challenge the lack of Afro Americans on the jury. The prosecution did not present its own theory of the case; it reacted to Zimmerman’s story of the case.
The prosecution’s case should have been presented on the theory that the wounds displayed by Zimmerman were self-inflicted. Zimmerman inflicted those wounds on himself. Zimmerman knew enough about the law to know he needed such wounds. Such a prosecution theory would have forced the defense to defend against this theory, and it might have caused Zimmerman to testify.
Instead, the prosecution introduced a tape made by the Zimmerman defense. The prosecution should have fought to keep that tape out of the trial. In a just world this prosecutor would be disbarred for malpractice.
The second worst flaw in the prosecution’s case was their failure to challenge Zimmerman’s voice recognition by his friends and relatives. The prosecution needed to recode several voices saying what Zimmerman was alleged to have yelled on the 911 tapes, replay them and ask each of the witnesses to identify the Zimmerman voice.
The third flaw by the prosecution was to bring in a skinny dummy. They should have brought in a live person of the same height and weight as Zimmerman and required that person to pull his gun with Trayvon on top of him. The prosecution should have punctured a heart with Trayvon on top to test blood spatter. If Zimmerman had a broken nose, who repaired it?
Finally, if Trayvon was on top of Zimmerman when he was shot in the heart, why was there no blood of Martin’s on Zimmerman’s clothes? Why was this question not asked at trial?
The justice system worked as it is designed to do. The system exonerated a White man who admitted killing a Black boy. The Justice Department will not bring an action in this case. Just because the man who heads it is Black does not mean he runs it. DOJ is a system that runs the same no matter who is at the top.
Racism is structured into most of the important systems in this country.
1.Communications – 99% of the TV, radio and print media properties are owned by White people.
2.Construction – 99% of the construction in this country is done by White people.
3.Education – 99% of all educational resources are allocated by White people.
4.Transportation – 99% of all transportation is controlled by White people.
5.Justice – this system is 99.9% controlled by White people.
6.Financial – this system is 99.9 % controlled by white people.
When Congresswomen Maxine Waters asked that 0.000001 percent of the $700 billion bailout money go to banks owned or controlled by descendants of former slaves, they tried to put her in jail.
If we think that we get fair treatment in any of these systems, we must re-examine our definition of fairness.
As an angry old Black man I have seen the diminution of racism in my lifetime. We are not there yet. It is unlikely that we will get there in the lifetime of my grandchildren.
****
Joseph Debro is president of Bay Area Black Builders and of Transbay Builders, a general engineering contractor, former director of the California state Office of Small Business, co-founder of the National Association of Minority Contractors and a bio-chemical engineer. He can be reached at transbay@netzero.com.
How many times does a simple arithmetic calculation about the man being too young to have been sired by former slaves, have to be repeated on a thread before it becomes not only annoying but idiotic as well?
Hispanic is an ethnic term, not a political term. There are more races, distinct skin colors and physical characteristics than black and white. Even though my grandkids range from extremely dark, Central American, Indian Hispanic to blond, blue eyed white, Hispanic in name only, most Hispanics are as much a different race as angry old black men. I’ve known white Spaniards who would never have thought to call themselves Hispanics.
George is not white. Not all Jews are white. George’s Indian grandmother wasn’t white, and his black grandfather wasn’t white. I’ll trump the angry black guys nonsense even further. If George’s name had been Jorge Garcia instead of Zimmerman, Trayvon would already be forgotten. The race mongers would have found themselves in a politically correct quandary, especially with the amnesty debate going on. Zimmerman’s name allowed the Hymie hating blacks to come raging out of the bushes.
I also bet this angry black guy is lying about his hotel experience.
I was sitting in a university classroom of about a hundred white, Hispanic and black students when OJ was found not guilty. I made the announcement. Everyone cheered, even though they knew OJ was guilty as sin. OJ’s violence was just a reckoning of scores to the convoluted thinking of most black people. Screw that.
If the democrats had prevailed his alleged parents would have remained slaves.
Incidently, the media did everything but strap Zimmerman down and stick a needle in his arm.
Trayvon Martin illustrates the bankruptcy of the modern civil rights movement.
This line here is all you need to understand what is going on: increasingly, to the embittered portion of the black community, there are only two colors. You are black or you are white. There is no "Hispanic" or "Asian" to them. You are a member of their race or you are "White," which is quickly becoming a code word for things beyond color.
Fixed it for you.
Leaving off the fact that Martin was slamming Zimmerman’s head repeatedly into the concrete sidewalk in an apparent effort to beat him to death does not seem to me a relevant fact?
Those were “self-inflicted.” The little known meaning behind “cracker” is that white folk commonly lie on the ground and crack their heads against the pavement. Yeah...that’s the ticket!
12% of the U.S. population, but ask (or better yet, axe) any young American of any ethnicity, educated by public schools, what they think that percentage is (I base the assertion that follows on results of several polls I read about) and he’ll tell you he thinks it’s about 50%. How the nation’s perceptions got hijacked by a loud, economically and culturally insignificant, minority.
Latinos have already passed them by, in numbers and significance. If the post office does mass layoffs or closes down for good, there goes the “black middle class” for all intents and purposes.
So his mom and dad were at least 64 years old when he was born?
Hummmm?
Liar.
2013 - 84 = 1929, that’s when he would have to be born.
1929 - 1865 = 64 years old in 1929, to have been born slaves in Mississippi. It’s rather unlikely that his parents would have been born slaves; quite possibly his grandparents could have been. Maybe he was raised by his grandparents?
“We picked cotton in fields owned by White people.”
At age 6 I picked tobacco in the fields leased by a white tenant farmer for 25 cents per day.
At age 17 I cleaned toilets in public restrooms used by both whites and blacks. My boss was black. He tried to cheat me on my pay.
I made something of myself through hard work, not family contacts or affirmative action. I’ve lost jobs but have never collected unemployment and I’ve never been unable to find work.
I’m tired of the victim mentality. The wealthiest man in my community is black and owns several McDonalds franchises. He started at McDonalds flipping hamburgers and cleaning floors at age 16 and went to work for them full time upon graduating from high school. Again, lots of hard work and no affirmative action.
I’m tired of the victim mentality and have zero sympathy for those wanting something for nothing because ancestors were slaves.
This geezer laments that racism will not be better in his grandchildrens lives. He is right, as long as he spews this garbage. As others have pointed out on this thread, I think he is confusing stories has heard from family with his own life.
In the early 70’s my fil always planted 10 acres or so of hybrid cotton. He wasn’t young or in the best of health so my hubby and I would go every other weekend and hoe so he and my mil wouldn’t kill themselves. There were a couple of years that his crop was ready to be harvested, but the big farmers were the first served. So we went and picked most of his crop until the harvesters were free to service the small farmers. Young love...ain’t it grand? :)
I can’t say any of this was fun, but you do what you have to do. This guy sounds like a major whiney-hiney.
And with witnesses watching. **rolling my eyes** This guy is not only a math-challenged racist, he is about as brilliant as a doorknob.
Is that you Kidd Rock? :)
There is none so blind as he who will not see
He’s right-the jury should have been all black, the judge and the prosecution should have been black and only blacks should have been allowed to present evidence. It was ridiculous allowing whites to be spectators in court and the fact that Zimmerman didn’t have two black lawyers defending him tells us all we need to know about his racism.
it is amazing how anyone, black, white, whatever, can live84 years and still be that stupid.
the reason that most banks are controlled by whites is that there are more whites in the country.....also that most banks were started by whites WITH THEIR OWN MONEY...most businesses are also controlledby whites for the same reason...THEY (whites) USED THEIR OWN MONEY TO ESTABLISH BUSINESSES... why does it not become apparent to some that if you drop out of school, procreate a few bastard children, hang on the streets doing and selling drugs, never develop a work ethic nor seek the wherewithal to do so you cannot expect the “system” to validate your piss poor life style. (YOU DIDN’T MAKE IT) and it was your fault....not mine......and I refuse to support your asinine life style....
Trayvon Martin was white.
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