I love it when President Obama has an unexpected conversation with the nation. Even the White House Press Corp. had no idea he would pay them and us a visit today, and his remarks continued for seventeen minutes. It felt unscripted. It was clear that he wanted to offer a perspective on the murder of Trayvon Martin in the broader context of how African American males still experience profiling in this country on a daily basis.
He shared with all of us what it's still like to be a young black man in this country. He talked about being watched in stores, hearing locks activated in cars as he walked down the street, and how entering an elevator could cause worry if a white woman was already in there, alone. Guilt is assumed..never the other way around.
Toward the end of his comments, President Obama asked if Trayvon had been of age and had a weapon, could he have used the stand your ground law to defend himself from someone who had been following him? Because that's what this really comes down to. Would he have been allowed to go home that night had the situation been reversed? Or would he have been arrested immediately? Does stand your ground only apply to white people? Or does it only apply to white men? It certainly didn't apply in the case of a black woman, Marissa Alexander, who fired shots into the air to stop her husband from abusing her. She was convicted and will serve twenty years unless the appeal is successful or someone intervenes and commutes her sentence. How did the law not apply to her? Why was she punished for defending herself?
The President suggested that stand your ground laws may be too ambiguous and may need review. I agree. I realize that technically, stand your ground was not part of the Zimmerman trial. Still, it is at the heart of this issue. It feels like the law applies only to certain people. If the woman who received twenty years had been white, would she be in prison now?
The American experiment is an interesting one. We're supposed to be united, but instead of a reality, it's more of a goal. At least it is for some of us. Too much nonsense keeps getting in the way. Sooner or later though, we have to figure out how to live together. Racism is still alive and well in this country. It's far too easy to be suspicious of others. Zimmerman decided all kinds of things about Trayvon and then got out of his car, instigated the altercation, and killed that precious boy. And he got away with it. He didn't care that Trayvon was someone's child. Zimmerman was so full of himself that he saw danger where there was none. A child is dead and his parents are heartbroken.
It feels different in this country now. Dealing with what happened on 9/11 was bad enough. The Bush administration used fear to take away our civil liberties. No one could speak out against Bush's response to the attack without being branded as unpatriotic or worse, a traitor. We finally elect an African American as President, and somehow conservatives think he needs their permission to actually do that job. So it should come as no surprise that conservative men also seem hell bent on living solitary lives because eventually even their women will leave them. Hint: women don't like being controlled and we actually think they're pretty stupid for trying and it's going to get really messy if they keep crap this up. And I guess, even though we have the Voting Rights Act, SCOTUS threw out Section 4, so our oh so popular and responsible Congress will have to fix that before 2014. Otherwise, I fear that voter suppression will win the day and ruin our lives all over again. And I'm not so sure that we can take anymore. And as far as Texas goes, Google Lewis Black's rant. He says it better than anyone else.
President Obama spoke about listening to his daughters interact with their friends. He made the observation that with each new generation of children, things seemed to get better. That with them, we have a chance for positive change. He's right. And I love that we have a President who gets that.
Can't we all agree that we've come too far to lose our way like this? It'd be nice if we could just care about each other. It'd be nice if kids could walk home from the store and not die along the way. It'd be nice if they could go to school and come home alive and well. And it'd be nice if women didn't feel that we need to fight battles that should have never been fought in the first place.
Misunderstanding results in fear. The world is a scary place, so it makes sense that we react this way. But at some point, we have to stop trying to control everything and everyone around us. We have to stop viewing others as the enemy and then use that belief to justify our behavior. Nothing good comes of it. Nothing.
Just ask Trayvon's parents..
UPDATE: While watching Melissa Harris-Perry's show, I learned that Marissa Alexander was given a choice between 20 years and 3. But if she had chosen three years, she would have lost her child. Her husband admitted he abused her. There was a restraining order mentioned by Melissa's guest. Marissa Alexander has a master's degree. What has the state of Florida done to this woman? And Angela Corey was involved. She was too gleeful at the verdict in the Zimmerman case. In her case, Madeleine Albright's words apply..you know, that special place in hell for women who don't help other women.
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