That's the bottom line. I don't know why America is still so disgustingly racist that they feel the need to defend a murderer like George Zimmerman, but the facts are the facts: We as a country are still extremely racist. And the sad part is we're going to continue to be that way for a very long time to come. It makes no sense to me. But I blame the parents more than anything. If you grew up in a family of Ku Klux Klan members you'd most likely grow up to be a Klan member yourself. Or if you were raised a vegetarian you'd probably view eating filet mignon as a wrongful act. Or if you came from a family of religious zealots you'd unfortunately grow up thinking that all gay people are going to hell. I don't pigeonhole myself when it comes to political parties and stances, so it's easy for me to poke fun at those that do. But I don't want to create enemies for no reason either, so I try not to be too offensive and immediately turn off an enormous group of people. At any rate, I was fortunate enough to grow up in a very diverse environment between the schools that I attended, the friendships I made, the situations I put myself in, etc. Because of this I learned one enormous fact and invaluable life lesson: There are good and bad people of all colors. There are worthless white people. There are great white people. There are scumbag Asian people. There are incredible Asian people. There are shitty black people. There are amazing black people.
You get my point.
Here are the facts: Treyvon Martin was killed on February 26th, 2012. George Zimmerman followed him around his neighborhood into an apartment complex even when the dispatcher advised him not to do so. As a result of Zimmerman's racial profiling {call it what you want} a young man's life is lost and his family continues to mourn. It doesn't matter what happened after the pursuit began. It doesn't matter if Treyvon threw the first punch or called Zimmerman names or even if he said he had intercourse with his mom {I made all those things up, by the way}. It doesn't matter. That's entirely irrelevant. What matters is that a life is now lost forever for nothing. For no good fucking reason at all. Zimmerman never saw Treyvon commit a robbery. He never saw Treyvon steal a car. He never saw Treyvon abuse a woman. George Zimmerman never saw Trayvon Martin do anything outside of walking around his neighborhood to purchase some skittles and a drink for himself and a friend/family member {in other words "look suspicious"}. And now he's gone. For what? And why? Should it be okay to get a suspicion about someone that's merely walking the streets and then go follow him and ultimately kill him even though he was innocent the entire time? Because that's what happened. And it makes me sick to see all the comments and posts people are making on the television and the internet defending what George Zimmerman did. They're saying he's innocent. That he was "defending himself." Essentially what they're saying is that Treyvon Martin deserved to die that night. It's ridiculous. It's absolutely sickening, revolting, and flat out ridiculous. How would you react if someone was following you in their car late at night and then approached you asking what you were doing? Zimmerman already made up his mind that he was following a criminal. He approached Treyvon Martin as such. How would you feel? Would you be kind and understanding? Would you explain that you were merely buying some Skittles for a family member or a friend? Or would you be angry as fuck and want to hurt the person that had been following you in his car at night with the high beams on for the last 20 minutes and scaring the shit out of you?
No matter what your reaction may have been, at the end of the day Treyvon Martin is dead and he didn't deserve to die. Call it racial, call it a misunderstanding, call it what you will. A life is lost and it didn't need to happen. George Zimmerman is to blame for an innocent life lost. Treyvon Martin is dead because of an overzealous, trigger happy Paul Blart Mall Cop/Seth Rogan in Observe & Report scumbag motherfucker trying to play cops & robbers in real life. Taking an innocent life is not a game. And what happened in this case will hopefully open a lot of eyes to the kind of things that still happen in our country on a daily basis. This case says a lot about how severe the problem of racism still remains in America and I can only hope we can learn from this. Privileged white people love to say that racism doesn't exist and they often cite having a black president as a major example of proving said statement. The fact is -- and anyone with a brain can attest to this -- electing a black president has in a lot of ways only acted as a blanket to cover up just how prevalent racism still is in our country. I was born and raised in San Diego, and most people will tell you that they consider our city to be one of the most liberal places to live in the good ol' U.S. of A. If that's true I'm even more scared about the current state of America. I never thought I'd see so much racism in San Diego till I started working in North County five years ago. I felt like I was in Mississippi the first month I was there. To hear the way people so nonchalantly made racist comments and summarily dismissed anyone that wasn't white as being obviously inferior, it really shocked and disgusted me. It still does. It always will. And it really woke me up to how enormous of a problem racism still is in our country. We all have to take it upon ourselves to change it. We have to raise our kids the right way and show them that color doesn't define who is good and bad. We have to put people in their place when they make bigoted comments. If we don't, who will? Martin Luther King can't. He was assassinated. Malcolm X can't. He was also assassinated. So who's going to step up and do their part in making this world a better place for all of us? Stop looking around for someone else to raise their hand. Raise your own hand and start making a difference right now.
-- Christopher Lane Johnson
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