The riots FOX News and others in America were predicting have yet to materialize. All the people implying that blacks would riot like a bunch of savages are as racist and ignorant as the man who profiled a 17 year old and shot him to death on that February night in 2012.
What they failed to realize is that most of us (black folks) expected this. People of color in this country did not expect justice for the Martin family. We know, that because of prejudices and other imperfections in American life, that lady justice is not truly blind. And we understand, that sadly, children who look like Trayvon Martin will never be looked at like the children who look like the Judge (or five of the six jurors) who presided over the case. ...Field Negro
Okay. Part of me agrees with Field. Though I think "imperfections" in American life hardly covers the territory. This isn't a pimple on the neck or a boil on the behind. This is heart failure. We're alive but under threat from our own system, our own selves. Nothing/no one from the outside could destroy us as quickly our own actions are destroying us.
#IAmGeorgeZimmerman was recently trending on twitter.
I think I will go on twitter and start another trend: #AmericaisGeorgeZimmerman ..Field Negro
Boy! Ain't that the truth! George Zimmerman is us! There we are, a sniveling, self-indulgent, pudgy, gun-totin' nobody who believes some guy on the same sidewalk (munching on a snack and drinking soda) is a terrorist out to get us. And all that poor guy sees is us and the weapons we carry. We are the scary threat. The guy who ends up assaulted and murdered was just a guy wishing fervently is that we'd ignore him. That we wouldn't pull the gun.
___
Charlie Pierce makes a good, ugly point, though maybe the newly exonerated Zimmerman won't do it (and might not get away with it).
But someone is bound to...
... He can drive around Sanford, Florida until he spots an asshole or a fucking punk and then he can get out of his SUV, his piece tucked into the back of his pants, and he can stalk the asshole or the fucking punk, the one who is in the wrong neighborhood, or who is dressed inappropriately, at least according to George Zimmerman, protector of peace. If the asshole, or the fucking punk, turns around and objects to being stalked -- or, worse, if the asshole, or the fucking punk, decides physically to confront the person stalking him -- then George Zimmerman can whip out the piece from the back of his pants and shoot the asshole, or the fucking punk, dead right there on the spot. This can happen tonight. That is now possible. Hunting licenses are now available and it's open season on assholes, fucking punks, and kids who wear hoodies at night in neighborhoods where they do not belong, at least according to George Zimmerman, defender of law and order, crimebuster, and protector of the peace, because that is what American society has told George Zimmerman, and all the rest of us, is the just outcome of what happened on one dark and rainy night in February of 2012. ...Pierce,Esquire