Feminism @ Rhodes

For obvious reasons, I haven't really been able to think of much other than the Trayvon Martin slaying.  I would encourage everyone to go to the wikipedia page,   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin
and just listen to Zimmerman's initial 911 call where Trayvon is called suspicious and possibly on drugs.  I'm not going to go into an angry tirade calling for Zimmerman's arrest-- Al Sharpton, and many others have already done yet (and rightfully so).  It's needless for me to argue that this was indeed a hate crime, and that Zimmerman found Trayvon suspicious  because of his race and he was killed because of his race.  To me, this is perfectly clear--in Zimmerman's and in the minds of many Americans--black men are dangerous and threatening.  What I will point out is what the handling of this case tells us about the American imagination--and when I use that phrase I'm talking about everyone in America--everyone including people of color.  Even though it is now clear, through surveillance footage:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bFpZnJAkiQ    that Zimmerman's story is botched, the Sanford police department is sticking by Zimmerman's claim of self-defense.  This tells me and the rest of the country that they all agree with Zimmerman--that black people (particularly black men) are threatening and dangerous, that Trayvon probably was going to rob someone, and that Zimmerman had every right to kill him.  If that's not what you read into this, tell me.  When there's so much evidence that this was racially-motivated and that it was needless, this is the only thing I can gather from the blatant injustice. 

I also want to argue something that you already know but probably haven't thought about.  I want to assert that Zimmerman's racism really isn't that unusual.  Maybe it was unusual in that he killed someone simply for being black, which isn't new (lynching) or even that infrequent as we'd all like to think:
 http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/08/06/mississippi.hate.crime/index.html

I think we're all doing ourselves a big injustice by rallying together in support of Racists like Zimmerman without acknowledging the racism within all of us.  I think the reason this scares so many people is because so many people think what Zimmerman thinks, he's just one of the smaller number that was brave enough to act on his hate.  Another one of my friends was almost robbed this week by some men downtown.  In her description, she said first that they were black, second: that the car had big rims, and third: that they looked high. 

This brings me back to our discussions of justice recently, and our discussions of the justice system.  What kind of power and authority does the justice system have when they ignore acts of racial violence or sexual violence?  Who is really safe in our country, considering the recent murder of Shaima Alawadi and the constant harassment of Muslims and people of Middle-Eastern descent in America since 9/11?