Trayvon Martin could have been your son

 Trayvon Martin, killed at age 17, on Feb. 26, 2012

Most of us didn't know much about the murder of Trayvon Martin until it blew up on Twitter when the 911 tapes were released on March 16. The tapes essentially documented that a teenage African American kid was murdered in Florida while walking back from a store where he had bought Skittles and iced tea. Apparently those actions were grounds for "suspicious behavior," to be shot and killed.

When I listened to the tapes, I flew into a rage, a mama rage, and joined in the shared outrage on Twitter.  

If you've been paying attention, you know this story by now. You know that his shooter, Geroge Zimmerman, a "neighborhood watch" volunteer, has not yet been arrested. You know the Department of Justice is finally involved. And you know this story was silent in our national headlines for far too long. How did it take almost two weeks for most of us to learn about this? Somehow the senseless death of a black teenage kid just doesn't make the lede. But thanks to social media and a few dedicated journalists, the outrage, by this week, could no longer be ignored.

If you haven't been paying attention, catch up now. One of the best sources is NY Times journalist Charles M. Blow, who was one of the first to bring this story to a national audience in his March 16 column. He also has been relentless in his pursuit of the story, chronicling it all on his Twitter account. Another good source is Goldie Taylor, again on Twitter. Or Google "Trayvon Martin."

But here's the deal. The outrage is mostly polarized. Like it was with so many slain young African American men before Trayvon. And it is polarized in a specific way. We white people don't get how each death is so much more than the horror of the individual incident - it is most certainly that - but it is also the hundreds and hundreds of murders and lynchings that have come before, and the daily threat to any black person, but especially any black male over the age of 12, that this too could be your story. Any day. Any time. For any reason. 

The Grio just published this slideshow which sets Trayvon's murder in the terrible history of young men and women who have been killed before him. Watch, remember, and carry it forward. Because there will be more.

A couple of days ago, someone wrote a piece about white privilege and how we white people will never look suspicious like Trayvon Martin because of that privilege. Yes, but please stop. That is an obvious truth and not what this is about. This is about the senseless death of a young man, a young man that could be anyone's son. 


Your son. Our son. My son.


Write about that instead. Write about how white people, even if we are terribly upset about what happened, cannot begin to understand the depth of the outrage, sorrow and worry that black and brown people feel. Unless we have a black or brown son, spouse or loved one. Only then do we begin to step a little bit closer to that outrage, the despair, and the worry - because only then do we feel it from within the context of love and the deepest parts of our hearts.

I never would have understood this had I not raised a black son. He was first stopped and searched by the police at 13 and has been stopped many times since for no reason. His daily existence equates to "suspicious behavior" for far too many. I live with a constant worry of "what if." He has already been dragged under by the streets, by "the system," and by his own foolishness. Yet still he survives, trying to thrive. Actually just trying to live. And he knows, as sure the air he breathes, as sure the depth of his love for his own young son, that at 29, at any given moment, he could be the one in the cross hairs for "acting suspicious." 

Even if we have a Black president. Even if he was president.

That is our country's shared disgrace. That is the thing we must all understand and fight. 

March 21 Update: 
NPR has excellent coverage of this issue this morning. 

First, listen to this story about the response in a community in central Florida. Listen carefully to the differences in the black and white responses to this murder. My point exactly. 


Also, listen to this story that documents how the Black community forced this story into mainstream media through social media, the black press, individual journalists, and thousands of outraged individuals.