I grew up in South Florida, in the late 1950’s, through the early 1970’s when I finally left the South for service in the U.S. Navy.
As a small child, I clearly remember seeing water fountains and restrooms segregated, with signs marked “colored only”.
I was a freshman in high school in 1969 before I sat in a classroom with a black person.
The storys in the news lately about the shooting of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida by what seems at first glance to be an overzealous neighborhood watch patroller has raised the spector of racisim in the South once again, and a lot of the country, indeed, a lot of the world is wondering how this is still happening in 2012 in the United States of America.
Despite all the legislation, all the progress in society, there are still hard-core pockets of people in the south who are not comfortable being around people who aren’t just like them. Be they black, mexican, chinese, filipino, chilean – any race of people determined to be perhaps less fortunate are subtly discriminated against, and sometimes not so subtly in some areas of the south.
There are members of my family, to my great shame, who still use the “N” word when speaking about someone of color.
Trayvon Martin was by all appearances a normal, good-looking teenager who was at his dad’s house watching a ball game when he decided to go out for a snack and a drink.
Walking back to the house, in a gated community of Sanford, a suburb of Orlando, he was spotted by George Zimmerman, captain of the local neighborhood watch.
Walking slowly in the rain, wearing a hooded sweatshirt, he aroused Zimmermans suspiciaons. Calling the police to report the teen, Zimmerman was told to stay in his car and wait until a police car arrived.
Unable to do so, for some reason, Zimmerman chased the kid down and ended up shooting him to death. He claims self-defense. I’m not sure how much damage a kid armed with a bag of skittles and a can of iced tea can do to someone who outweighs him by 100 pounds, but I wasn’t there. Witnesses stories are still being reported, and apparently there is now evidence that the police were trying to get witnesses to change their stories.
Mr. Zimmerman apparently also has a propensity for violent behaviour, and is not “squeaky clean” as previously reported by the Sanford police chief.
Florida has a “stand your ground” law that justifys deadly force against another if one reasonably believes that they are in danger of death or great bodily harm. Colorado has a similar law, as do other states. Mr. Zimmerman only has to prove he reasonably thought he was in danger of grave bodily harm. Really? From an unarmed teenager who he outweighed by 100 pounds?
Mr. Zimmermans fear of young black men walking slowly in the rain while wearing a hooded sweatshirt is what is unreasonable. That such fears still exist in todays world is unreasonable.
I left Florida as a young man in the early 1970’s, and traveled far and wide to many corners of the world. I learned that all people are the same. Black, white, latino, gay, chinese, latvian, nigerian or italian – we all want to live in a safe place, be able to work at a fulfilling job and raise our families, and grow old with someone we care about. We want to be reasonably sure that our teenaged son is not going to be shot to death on the way home from the store by someone who is afraid of a sterotype.
I hope that Trayvon’s family can get justice. I hope that eventually these little pockets of racism that still exist in small towns all over the south can gradually fade away. I hope that we learn from this that we are not at the end of our road to acceptance of others.