Don't be black in Florida

I didn’t know how to begin. I blog in advance, so I had Monday’s post written and ready to go by Friday evening. It is on Ohio’s Democratic challenger to Gov. Kasich and women’s rights. That post will go up on Wednesday.

On Friday evening we found out Texas passed HB2, which is brutal and lethal legislation. Then on Saturday, we heard that George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering a black teenager. I see a very simple connection between these two issues. It is that the value of “life” decreases after birth, and at a more alarming rate if you are black.

First, let me say “stand your ground” legislation, which has been up in multiple states, is bullshit.  Stand your ground or as I call it “Kill at will” is more often enforced when it is white men shooting other people. The assumption is white dudes have something we all want, and they need the option to kill to protect it. They are right. It is called privilege, and we see them killing people all the time to protect their privilege. We see it with the death penalty, mass incarcerations, forced pregnancies, which can result in death, lack of funds for domestic violence issues, and even one woman is still in jail after shooting a gun in self-defense at the ceiling to scare off an abusive partner and she invoked stand your ground, which goes to show who this legislation is for. However, this post is about the Zimmerman trial.

Zimmerman was found not guilty by six women, five of them white. I don’t know if that is relevant. I don’t know if these women were taught to fear black men the way most women (or people) are. But is a fact so do with it what you will. They didn’t convict Zimmerman of second-degree murder or manslaughter.

Zimmerman’s attorney said this following the verdict, “I think the prosecution of George Zimmerman was disgraceful. As happy as I am for George Zimmerman, I’m thrilled that this jury kept this tragedy from becoming a travesty. For that, we are eternally grateful.”

Happy? Thrilled? Really? Maybe relieved? But happy and thrilled. This man is an idiot. It was his job to get Zimmerman off, but why not use better language? You know, demonstrate you're not a heartless bastard. A teenage boy is dead. An unarmed teenage boy is dead. Naturally, the supporters of Martin’s family felt failed by the system that so often fails people of color and the low-income.

Zimmerman claimed self-defense, though I’m still confused how it is self-defense when you follow a boy. Zimmerman had a bloody nose because Martin defensed himself after Zimmerman followed Martin for several blocks. Zimmerman was stalking Martin on his way home. Martin defends himself, but obviously stand your ground can't be applied here because Martin is black. Then Zimmerman killed Martin.  

NAACP chairman, Roslyn M. Brock said the case had “reenergized the movement to end racial profiling in the United States.” Best of luck on that. I’m pretty sure this case created more Zimmermans. It is worth mentioning that Zimmerman was charged after 44 days of nothing as an attempt to quell the public outrage, but he may actually be innocent by Florida state law, which is stand your ground. I'm not really sure because I haven't read the entire case, and I'm not completely clear on stand your ground after all I have no idea when it can and can't be applied except women and black males can't invoke it. What we know, is the community where this went on is 80% white, and they acquitted Zimmerman.

However, the message here is clear: the lives of black males aren’t worth the freedom of their assailants. There is no doubt who was the aggressor here, and who is responsible for the murder of a child. But this is what conservatives (largely white men) want. They want children, people of color, and women to be in fear. Fear of what rights they can take next, and in the case of black children that right is their lives. 

I would like to close like the Guardian article by Gary Younge, "'Fucking punks,' Zimmerman told the police dispatcher that night. 'These assholes. They always get away.' So true it's painful. And so predictable it hurts."

It is true, these assholes get away with murdering black children. I'm not outraged. I feel like I should be, but I'm not. I'm not shocked. I am at a loss for words. And I'm tired. It has been a long, rough couple of weeks. But nothing that has happened in particularly shocking or surprising. This is how things are, and I'm beginning to wonder if anything will ever change that.