I’ve been avoiding
the Zimmerman trial. I can’t bring myself to watch it. This man is a murderer
who thinks a perfectly good defense is “my victim was a black man.” I have a sense of dread for how this is going to play out…the intersection of
poverty, race, gender, and violence on the national stage.
Melissa Harris
Perry’s segment below touches on how poverty comes into play here, specifically
during Rachel Jeantel’s testimony. Perry and her guests discuss how Jeantel has
been criticized for being a detriment to middle class blackness (the black lady
archetype) and her speech patterns/poverty make her an unreliable witness.
Poverty, it will be used to silence you know matter what. I want to mention
again that I’m no authority on race…I am constantly learning more, which is as
far as I’m concerned what everyone should be doing especially those classified
as white by society at large.
Jeantel was
criticized for her behavior (not calling the police when she was on the phone
with Martin) and her language (slang, raced diction, which is often perceived
as ignorance and a lack of intelligence). While, we’re going to discuss
blackness, violence, and masculinity, let’s table that for a moment and discuss
poverty, blackness, and femininity. Some of the more straight-up racist
descriptions of Jeantel include emphasizing her weight, dark skin tone, and
language. The “black lady” and respectable black womanhood are stereotyped as
church going, polite, often matriarchs, etc. This is an impossible standard
and the least threatening to whiteness (except the Mammy figure, which some
argue has morphed into the black lady). Jeantel however, is classed by her
poverty much in the same way she is raced by her blackness. Jeantel is
immediately not a good representation of middle class blackness, and thus is
less credible. Now, whether this is because the black community says so or
because people in power (white people) prefer only to deal with the forms of
blackness we deem non-threatening, I do not know. Jeantel was also called a
liar, for lying about why she didn’t attend Martin’s funeral…She did lie, but
she didn’t want to see her friend dead. That seems perfectly reasonable to me,
but of course is being used to demonstrate that Jeantel can’t be trusted.
Question, did she ever have a chance to be trusted?
In addition to
Perry, Mychal Denzel Smith wrote a piece for The
Nation on Trayvon Martin and black manhood, which is insightful and
wonderful as always (Smith’s work is excellent on blackness and masculinity). Smith
points out what the trial is coming down to is Zimmerman’s right to
self-defense (stand your ground) vs. Martin’s right to walk alone and defend
himself. Zimmerman ignored the 911 operator who told him not to follow Martin.
We know Martin hit Zimmerman, though not to the degree that Zimmerman claims,
most likely in self-defense. We also know that Zimmerman shot and killed
Martin. Zimmerman claims Martin was the aggressor, while Jeantel’s testimony
directly contradicts this. So it is up the jury to determine who they believe
in that moment.
Smith points out that Perry and her guests, specifically Amy Goodman explain why this case is of national importance, Perry said, “It does seem like part of what hinges here is whether or not Trayvon Martin hit George Zimmerman and whether or not he did so first…but why is it that if this person hit someone who was prepared to use lethal force against him…why wouldn’t he have a right to stand his ground? Is that not radicalized?” Preach.
The question is, do
black men have the right to stand their ground? And the obvious answer is no,
not in this post-racial American. That was a little tongue and cheek given
SCOTUS’ gutting of the VRA. The lead investigator asked Zimmerman if he thought
Martin was scared of him, but Zimmerman had trouble answering the question because
our society says, no, black men are never afraid. Instead they are always the
cause of fear. They are dangerous so what could possibly scare them? Zimmerman,
and many other people, believes black men are inherently violent. Because of
this mistaken belief, black men will always be targets for “preemptive violence.”
Martin was perceived to be a criminal and violent because he was a black man,
while Zimmerman is cast as the victim. This is what the trial is about, whether
six people believe Martin was a criminal or not. It isn’t difficult to imagine
that six people can see a young black man as a criminal regardless.
