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| Trayvon Martin who died at the hands of George Zimmerman |
However, what was interesting was the fact that both defence and prosecution tried to minimize the issue of race within the case. This was in contrast to the US mainstream media and black activists like Al Sharpton. The narrative for Sharpton and others throughout this case was racist white man (Zimmerman is of white and Hispanic heritage) profiles and murders innocent black child.
I genuinely grieve for Trayvon Martin’s parents and what they have gone through and will go through for the rest of their lives. But I equally mourn for all the other black parents who have lost their sons and daughters through the unprecedented levels of gun violence happening in African-American communities up and down the country.
Sadly, this trial would not of received wall-to-wall national media coverage if Zimmerman was black or Trayvon Martin was walking from a convenient store with his purchase of skittles and ice tea in Chicago and was unlucky enough to be caught in drive-by shooting. It would not of made the local press, black people would not be marching in protest and certainly would not of taken the interest of Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton or the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People).
The murder statistics of African-Americans is frankly grotesque. Between 1980-2008, African-Americans were six times more likely than whites to be victims of gun violence and seven times more likely to kill with guns than whites, according to the American Justice Department. African-Americans represent a mere 13% of the US population yet more than 50% of federal prisoners are black.
The question is why aren't black leaders outraged by these figures. This type of violence is played out in many inner cities in America. For instance in Chicago during the recent 4 July holiday weekend, 62 people were wounded by gun violence and 12 others killed. The holiday shooting spree raised Chicago's homicide tally to 200 for the year. Last year about 500 people were killed, and most of those killing and being killed in Chicago are black. According to the Chicago Tribune, "blacks make up about 33% of the city's population, they accounted for nearly 78% of the homicide victims through the first six months of 2012".
With the mainstream media's national attention on the Zimmerman murder trail, I think it's stunning that scant, if any, attention was given to the violence raging in Chicago or other cities across America. It seems that black Americans, have come to accept blacks killing other blacks as normal.
To me it is rank hypocrisy, when a white person (or mixed race in the case of Zimmerman) is accused of killing a black person African-Americans seem to care more. Whereas black children can be killed in there hundreds and nobody cares, no one is there to organise marches, rallies or make passionate speeches on behalf of the deceased.
I am a great admirer of President Barack Obama but in my opinion he was wrong to get involved in this case when he said, "If I had a son he'd look like Trayvon". Yet the president has been a lot less vocal on the killings in Chicago, the city from which he served as a US senator.
The awful tragedy is that black America is not offering any real solutions, to the epidemic violence gripping African-American neighbourhoods. Thus it is far easier to concentrate on cases like Trayvon Martin where racism or perceived racism can be attached and see yourself as the oppressed victim, whilst ignoring what’s happening in your own back yard.
Many commentators see the death of Trayvon Martin as a watershed for all America to have a frank discussion on the issues of racism and racial profiling in particular. For me it is nothing of the kind. It would only fall into this category if African Americans added to the debate the self-inflicted violence, which is destroying their own communities.
I have always believed that the biggest impediment holding black people back is black people. What African-Americans so desperately need are fewer self-appointed black leaders and organisations whose sole aim is to hog the media spotlight and cry racist at every available opportunity. The Travyon Martin case has been the perfect vehicle for this.
However, beyond this clarion call, these black activists and interest groups have no remedies to offer black people as a way towards greater economic prosperity and less violent lives. Regrettably, they are assisted by a black community who are in collective denial, which has resulted in an incalculable cost of lost generations of young black people who are now dead or languishing in prison.
Truth is that for every Travyon Martin there are a hundreds of other black teenagers who have met the same violent fate, but mostly at the hands of other young people of the same skin colour. It shames us all that as a black community we refuse to shine a light on this gargantuan elephant in the living room.
