When Will Being Young, Black and Male Cease to be a Crime?

When we think of racial profiling and subsequent murders leading from the act, so many of the stories host a common thread, “A suspicious black male…” This is the thread that binds many young, black men across regions, through time, and through shared history. This is something Emmett Till, Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin and numerous others can count as their experience in life and…in death.

Trayvon Martin will never graduate from high school or college, straighten his tie for his first day of work, dance the first dance at his wedding, or hold his own young son close as he prepares him for how the world will view him. Martin will never face the man who considered him suspicious and ask why his life was cut irreversibly short, why his life should be forfeit because he “fit the description” in one self-important man’s view who had neither the right, nor the training, to make assumptions about young Mr. Martin.

That night Trayvon Martin was not viewed as a person who had a life to live, a life’s worth of accomplishments to achieve, someone’s son, or brother, best friend, or future mate. Trayvon Martin was a disregarded black body. A vessel that held only evil intent. A less-than-human interloper who did not belong, an aberration in the picturesque setting his killer viewed in his line of sight. A blight. Nothing more. Only this time, his killer was armed with the means to remove the imperfection, because why not? This black boy had no value. He wouldn’t be missed, or loved, or mourned, or celebrated, or be a symbol of what young black boys face too often in their lifetimes. The freeing of killer George Zimmerman says that black boys do not matter. That black life is of less value. That ascribing any scenario you deem appropriate onto another person is okay. That no one will fight for a future where anyone can walk down a street in America and not be gunned down simply for being there. He is wrong. And a system that continues the proliferation of taking the lives of black boys with no consequences is wrong.

Trayvon Martin’s death has brought back into focus like nothing else in recent memory the “rules” to being a young, black male in this country. And when we say “rules” we mean rules for survival. Rules taught before that first outing to the mall with friends, on the day a driver’s license is received, and for whenever one walks alone in an unfamiliar neighborhood. “Don’t run.” “Always make your hands visible, and your face placid.” “Answer questions with ‘No, sir. Yes, sir.” “Don’t do anything that could be misconstrued as being disrespectful, argumentative, hostile or aggressive.” On the surface the rules seem pretty innocuous, but for black people, deviating from these seemingly small adjustments could set a course in motion that could end in death. Largely guilt is perceived long before innocence surfaces as a possibility. Words like “thug,” “wannabe gangster,” and “suspect” are thrown into the mix upon a glance. Never words like “victim” or “citizen.” No. Black boys like Trayvon Martin are not gifted with words like these when it seems the “rules” have been broken.

And now how have the “rules” changed? Should black boys now run screaming for their lives when they encounter an unknown? Will they receive help? Should they carry recording devices with them lest someone else claim self-defense and there are no witnesses? How will the rules now have to be amended not to create another Trayvon Martin situation?

Because somewhere in the midst of these “rules” one thing still remains. There is something there so fundamental and so human that it can’t be ignored. To do so would mean that as a person you are submitting yourself to victimization. So in households with black children this is also taught: “If someone hits you, you hit them right back. And if you are in mortal danger — you fight until your last breath.” It is a high wire act — the delicate balance between “driving or walking while black” and fighting back and standing your ground. It is an act others do not have to traverse. That others have the luxury never to have to ponder. It begs the question, “Can young black men defend themselves?” Are young black men “entitled not to be victims?” If the Trayvon Martin case and others are any indication, young black men aren’t afforded this piece of the survival instinct. They do not have the right to protect themselves from mortal danger. They only have the ability to submit to death since they inherently brought the action on themselves by nature of their color, their clothing, their mere existence — and even in death could still be labeled the criminal.

“Unfortunately, teenage boys, especially those from within Trayvon’s cultural demographic, are not known for their temperance, much less “keep[ing] a wide safety margin.”

The Conservative Treehouse 5/24/2012

Meaning the temperance of a boy armed with candy and a fruit drink when running away from his pursuer is not the widest of safety margins? Yet, he is the one who is dead, and George Zimmerman will have his gun returned to him because as his attorneys have stated, “he needs it more now than ever.”

“The most damning element here is not that George Zimmerman was found not guilty: it’s the bitter knowledge that Trayvon Martin was found guilty.”

Jelani Cobb, The New Yorker

So, we ask. When Will Being Young, Black and Male Cease to be a Crime?

travyvon_martin_verdict_rally

This is why the peaceful marches and protests we’ve witnessed in the last 48 hours are so very important. It is marking the will of the people. A clear sign that we feel that justice has not been served. That it is not acceptable to hunt young black men. To stalk them, to instigate a situation where they have to fight for their lives, just to then be put on trial for enacting their rights of liberty in this country. That is not what our forefathers and mothers in the Civil Rights movement fought and died for. We can now add Martin to the list. He is now evidence to those who seek to cut short black life that someone is watching. The world is watching. You may not deem that a black boy does not matter. That he has no name.

We are Trayvon Martin.

We will not forget. We will be heard.

Images Source: Flickr, Alice Anderson

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