"Black people are, by virtue of white racism, perpetually rendered "suspicious" and worthy of rapid white "Stand Your Ground" execution, or the slow but often equally lethal treatment of entrenched poverty, crumbling school infrastructure, zero tolerance school policies, and mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex.
But when Trayvon, or one of his historical kinfolk, is killed, we feel enormous pain and fear and rage and grief. So often we want to believe that such killing is an aberration.
It's not. And just signing online petitions won't produce the systemic change that is needed.
It may produce a hastily-cobbled together investigation. But whatever the outcome, and even if George Zimmerman were found guilty and warehoused away for a few years, justice would not be served. Not nearly.
That's because what killed Trayvon is systemic, not the action of an extremist, a lone "bad apple."
What killed Trayvon is a systemic devaluing of black lives, and especially young black lives.
What killed Trayvon is a systemic willingness to erase black people from any authentic vision of justice and community well being.
What killed Trayvon is a systemic investment in policing the borders of whiteness by legal and extra-legal violence.
What killed Trayvon is systemic white failure to challenge and dismantle structural racism. "
Thank you - as always
nancy
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