This woman goes in a drops lots of gems on this commentary around Trayvon Martin… She addresses the issue of race, white privilege and activism in the wake of Trayvon’s murder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBRwiuJ8K7w
Transcript:
I AM NOT TRAYVON MARTIN.
I AM NOT TROY DAVIS.
and to the middle class, white, socially concerned activist who wears a shirt emblazoned with those slogans, you are wrong.
I know you wear that shirt to stand in solidarity with Trayvon, Troy, and other victims of injustice. The purpose of those shirts is to humanize these victims of our society, by likening them to the middle class white activist wearing it. And once we’ve humanized the victims, this proves to us the arbitrariness of their deaths and thereby the injustice at play.
But the fact of the matter is that these men’s deaths are anything but arbitrary. The fact that the real Troy Davis and Trayvon Martin and countless other victims of oppression are buried under 6 feet of cold dirt while we middle class white activists are alive, marching, and wearing their names is an indication that our societal system is working exactly as it’s intended.
A more accurate t-shirt to display on my white body would be “I AM GEORGE ZIMMERMAN.” Zimmerman and I were indoctrinated in the same American discourse where we learned that the “other,” particularly black men like Trayvon and Troy, were less human and were to be feared. Society taught me that as a little white girl, I must preserve my purity and goodness, and that the presence of young single males threatened it. Society taught me that being in the presence of a BLACK man compounds that threat exponentially. I have been taught that male, black, bodies are an immediate threat to my safety and the well being of society as a whole, and Zimmerman was taught the same damn thing. We’re all taught it.
I look at George Zimmerman and think, “there, but for the grace of god, go I.” Had it not been for a decent education, intense critical thinking, and some truly excellent parenting, I would never have questioned the societal norms that Zimmerman and I were both taught, and I would have ended up feeling his attack on Trayvon was justified, just as he did, and the state of Florida does.
If we are to effect real change in the wake of Trayvon’s murder, we have to realize this. Realizing that you more closely resemble a homicidal oppressive force than a helpless victim is a really uncomfortable thing to do. I know. But wanting to identify with the victim is weak, and immature when it is not an accurate representation of reality. Real change is effected when we own up to our actions, our privilege, and our complicity with the system that murdered Trayvon and countless others.
Us privileged activists have to realize just how easy it is to be Zimmerman, and work to change this. Subvert stereotypes. Make it harder for others to buy into the bullshit that we’re fed our whole lives about race, class, gender, and other people by identifying and critiquing these messed up norms. Force adults to confront these norms, and raise children without indoctrinating them with the same old bullshit. Use your privilege to actively dismantle this messed up system. Listen to marginalized people like Trayvon’s family and Troy’s family and insure them access to the discourse. Listen to them, stand in solidarity with them. But do not, I repeat, DO NOT claim to be them.
An incredible amount of dim- wittedness, self hatred and probably strong booze, probably went into creating the tripe I just saw above.
white people of the righteous variety have a hard time dealing with racial injustice in this country (understandably) and often times they look for excuses for such people, often blaming poor upbringing, an ignorant educational system, the media, and of course the old favourite, ‘society’. to shoot an unarmed man who poses no threat to anyone’s safety is inexcusable, and i don’t believe there’s anyone in the world who truly believes otherwise. and considering that many of our favourite entertainers in this ‘society’ are black males, i see this woman’s argument as complete bullshit. maybe george zimmerman was taught to fear the black male, but i and many other white people have not and while i may not be trayvon martin, i CERTAINLY am not fucking george zimmerman or any of the other trigger-happy fucks who have ruined it for the rest of us.
Yall obviously missed the point.. I agree with this young sister.. Especially in emphasizing the indoctrination of priviledge in white kids particularly middle and upper class so that even if you are not taught to explicitly hate or fear people of color u are for damn sure taught that u r better than and even know better than, so look real hard at what this sister is saying and dont dismiss her just cuz she makes u uncomfortable…
: AGREED LAURA, IT’S WAY HARDER, BUT WAY MORE CONSTRUCTIVE, TO IDENTIFY WITH AND UNDERSTAND THE PERPETRATOR THAN THE VICTIM. IF YOU MAINTAIN THE UNCOMFORTABLE AWARENESS THAT YOU COULD BE A PERPETRATOR AND THAT WHITE PRIVILEGE MAKES IT HARD TO NOTICE SLIPPING INTO THAT STATE, YOU ARE LESS LIKELY TO FALL INTO IT. ZIMMERMAN OBVIOUSLY HAS A NUMBER OF ISSUES AROUND POWER AND DOMINATION, IT WAS EASY FOR HIM TO FATALLY TAKE THOSE ISSUES OUT ON A YOUNG BLACK MAN AND HAVE THE STATE BACK HIM UP. IN SUCH AN INCREDIBLY SKEWED SYSTEM IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO BE AWARE OF YOUR OWN ABILITY TO BE A PERPETRATOR. PS sorry for the caps. Formatting problem…. Apologies.
Greetings,
You words are not only true but refreshing. I am pleasantly surprised at the depth in which you comprehend this particular topic and more so at your will to make it be known openly.
I hope all is well with you and you continue to progress in this direction.
Peace & Blessings,
Razi’El
Privilege white young ..lol..”activists” need to can their “activism” and go become entrepreneurs,scientists,technicians and business people before the opening in your early life is closed and you realize you wasted it on someone ELSE’S concerns. Which should be true for ALL young people. The only lesson in any of this bullshit theater is the vanity of people attracted to this silly plastic “activism”. Including blonde here.
Statistically, food like McDonalds kills more blacks than crooked cops.
Actually, so does homicide by other blacks.
The only solution is to culturally divorce yourself from ALL of it and lambast the rest. There are no other “solutions”.
I wouldn’t jump the gun here. We don’t even know the full story, and the media has been jumping on the sensationalist “OMG this white guy shot a black kid he’s so racist and evil!” train, even though Greg, and his neighbors, have testified that Treyvon confronted Greg and started a fight. Am I certain that he’s not lying? No, but it’s just as short-sighted to say he *is* lying. Here’s racism in America: we hear that a white person killed a black person, and we assume it was a racially motivated murder before ever considering it could have *actually* just been self defense. If the roles were switched though — a black teen shot a white man — we wouldn’t hear a whisper of it, because “white privilege” actually means “racism is okay as long as it’s against white people”.
Black or white if you choose by callous wickedness that is capable working in the heart of everyone! It is your choice to choose not to be a mean spirited, know it all and care nothing at all for murdered people being murdered for no reason at all as though that gun cannot be pointed in your face or one of your family member’s face! You would want justice in at least that person to be taken off the streets. Complex cases are one thing but spelled out in your face voice on the tape??? I’m for one sick of blatent satanists running this nation and murdering anyone they find outside alone. See that’z what Jesus meant you treat Everyone the way you want to be treated, Murder is no light thing case you don’t know in the day of judgement you will find that out and in a world like this we can be here one minute and deceased our lease the nex minute…AND HELLO GOD ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO SHOW ME EVERYTHING I DID AND SAID? Life is not to play with a tornadoe could be heading any our way right now…AND WERE GONE. Let’s really be decent and reach out to care for all these families left with the biggest bull dozier wrecker there is and that is the never healing heartbreak of MURDER!
Murder is just what it is Murder…You don’t recover from it! I’m a mother my 22 year old was Murdered 9/22/05 shot in his face by his own best friend from little boys playing together. My son however appointed himself everyone’s helper and took his lazy grown 23 year old estranged buddy in and took care of him like his daughter, the thanXz he got was shot in his face. My son was a golden hearted boy but he was in with a betraying ungrateful boy and it took his life away…and i grieve for him and every mother and family in my predicament…You see we never appreciate it is our children’s fault for being Murdered, hope the hard hateful hearted never have to find that out, cause let it be understood no one deserves to suffer this kind of pain and a person’s life is the most precious thing you can take from them and their freedom unjustly locking people up like animals and the real criminals left free by some satan hooded system left to roam criminalizing the next individual whose blood they are thirsty for when they feel like it. That blood could be yours or mine! That is why we protest wanting murderers locked up and the innocent set free…IT IS CALLED HAVING A CONSCIENCE IN DOING THE RIGHT THING..and work “yes” we have ahead of us in so doing!
White Devils are so fake. They dont give a damn about black people.Never have since they were barbarians living in caves in Europe.Tell them cave bitch this isn’t her battle and to mind her fucking business !! Whites are not allies to Blacks just our open enemies for eternity.
The comment above by “SABUR MUHAMMAD ” is exactly why this lovely young cocasian woman should stay away from ghetto politics. They attract every loon job and their mom.
To Xyz we as black people don’t need a white saviour so please STFU.I use my name when I post while you’re probably a white weirdo who works for the KKK.
lol. You must really care for black people to exert your time and energy addressing weirdo’s like me and blondie. The only thing white people do to oppress morons like yourself is suck the attention out of them. Now go listen to another louie the fruity speech on how YOUR WHITE GOD Fard was responsible for the NOI. lol. Confused hypocrite.
I’m a black man from South Africa and Muslim since birth and never needed a mystery God in the sky or Jesus to save me.So GTFOH with your white supremacy garbage and save the whales,trees,dogs and cats or whatever nonsense white spoiled rich people do.
If you didn’t believe in a mystery god you wouldn’t be a muslim, or a christian or a jew or anything else silly silly. White spoiled rich people like Bill Gates have done more for humanity than any person I can think of. You just can’t get your head around it so you feel the need to demonize anyone cocasian and successful. I think you perceive yourself as being on the losing end of someone elses winning streak. You should really take a look in the mirror. That isn’t a healthy outlook to have. As far as blondie, she has nice intentions, she just needs to realize she is worth more than that this garbage and move on to something more productive. I think we both agree on that !!!
“The world of the Left is a dead world—a world of dead matter and lifeless abstractions. It is an anti-human, anti-natural, anti-aristocratic, anti-freedom, anti-beauty, anti-metaphysical, anti-truth, anti-life, reductionist, immoral, hateful, genocidal, necrophiliac, mendacious, predatory ideology that has sown death everywhere it’s gone.” — Alex Kutargic
Are you kidding me??? That is soooooo opposite from the truth, Brian. You sound like a very messed up moron. Stop with the generalizations.
Bella, do you have any thing more substantial than personal insults and ritual condemnation? Leftism is a cult.
Brian is another example of ghetto politics attracting more lunacy. The world of the “right” is as much of a “cult” as any political or religious affiliation, including the “left”.
lol @ Alex Kutargic.
Alex Kutargic is a white nationalist…another fruit cake irrelevant to the average person. lol
DaveyD and Blondie have adequately provided this weeks online entertainment.
You can all go home now.
The only answer you have for Mr. Kutargic is name calling, because that’s all you have.
You’re a real bastion of recursive intellectualism Brian. Did you get that from your white genes?
lol
Don’t make me use my tricknology on you.
what an airhead. cute but stupid.