As most of you are aware, I have spent the last few weeks working on the Million Hoodies campaign trying to pressure the Florida authorities to indict George Zimmerman for the shooting of Trayvon Martin. It has been an emotional and exhausting few weeks. The shooting of Trayvon is a heavy tragedy and seeing the pain of his family is heart breaking.
However, it has also been incredibly inspiring to see people from all over the world come together to demand justice and show their support. I have received emails from people all over the country, hoodie pictures from elderly white ladies, and music videos from young rappers who put their heart and soul into this cause. High school students, church groups, and even politicians have put on their hoodies and raised their voices. It’s incredible, but what do we do next?
I don’t claim to have any pat answers. The issues of race, power, and justice are emotional, complex, and sometimes deadly. It obviously will not be an easy road. I will just add this reflection. On the first night we had an organizing conference call with people from around the country, we discussed what message we were trying to communicate to people about these issues. At some point in the call someone pointed out that if we want to have any real solutions to these problems it was going to involve Americans, all Americans, having some very uncomfortable conversations with each other. That stuck with me.
While our problems about race, violence, and the justice system are obvious to most of us, we have a really difficult time talking about what we can do about them. We are fearful of each other, and that fear has made it impossible for us to have honest conversations. African-Americans do not believe that their white neighbors care about their problem because often white activists only appear when there is a high-profile tragedy like Trayvon’s, but disappear when the real, long-term work needs to be done. Sympathetic white people are often afraid to speak out on these issues because they fear being rejected by black community members as out of touch, or that they will themselves be labeled as racists. Meanwhile, our inaction cedes the field to the real racists and opportunists who fan the flames and sap our sense of solidarity as Americans. That’s not the way it should be.
So it is time to reach out and have these uncomfortable conversations. It will be painful and scary at first, but it is the only way that people who want justice can work together. The alternative is continue to allow many of our neighbors to be harassed and intimidated in their own streets, and for many of our young people to be denied developing to their full potential for lack of resources and care. The alternative is more Trayvons. I am ready for those uncomfortable conversations.
I want to give a very special thanks to all of you who have helped the Hoodies in the last few weeks. I am really proud to be a part of this community. Love to EtNerd, Panda, Enesbit, and Cube for helping spread the word about #Tuesday4Trayvon. Thank you to Dancing Queen for helping me with press materials and fact sheets. Thank you to Charlie and KothBR for helping me with the great video you see below. A special thanks to all of you for your encouraging words. If I forgot anyone, please let me know.
Here is a list of a bunch of things you can do today to help us demand justice for Trayvon and his family. Please help.
- Write a blog post about Trayvon, gun laws, race in America or the justice system.Tweet it to us or post it to the event page.
- Make a YouTube video sharing your thoughts about the case or the issues surrounding it. Tweet it to us at @millionhoodies.
- Use you FaceBook and Twitter to ask people to sign to sign the petition Trayvon’s
- family created to demand justice from Florida authorities.
- If you haven’t already, submit you hoodie photo to show your solidarity.
- Join our organizing page so you can create change in your own community.
- Sign our petition to Florida Special Prosecutor Angela Corey.
- Send a free postcard to Angela Corey asking her to indict George Zimmerman.
- Sign, seal, and deliver a letter to US Attorney General Eric Holder asking for federal investigation into the case.
- Know the facts and educate others. You can download a fact sheet about Trayvon’s
- case and one about Stand Your Ground laws here.
- Tweet your support directly to Trayvon’s mother Sybrina Fulton (@SybrinaFulton).
- Whatever you do, tweet it to me @millionhoodies, put it in the comments here, or put in on our FaceBook page so we can show the world that we want justice for Trayvon.
