Saturday, July 13, 2013

The Trayvon Tragedy: A Socio-Historical Explanation


Matthew C. Stelly, Director
Uhuru Sasa Research Institute


Shock? Dismay? Surprise? For what? The recent decision that ground George Zimmerman “not guilty” in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin is not new or nerve-shattering; it is an extension of the same sick shit that this country has been laying at the door of black people since the 1700s. As the song “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” asks, “when will we ever learn?”

Let me break this collective idiocy down for you so you won’t waste valuable paper, energy and conversation exposing your abysmal ignorance in the future.

When you act “surprised” at the verdict, such surprise implies that this system is capable of accepting any decision that has to do with black people. When jive-ass O.J. Simpson got acquitted, American whites weren’t satisfied. They kept hounding him and exploiting his love for them (the same love you obviously have) until they got monetary damages and painted a picture of him as “the nigga that got away with it.” In the long run, this system was able to overturn that decision and end up with a, “see, we told you he wasn’t any good” verdict that ultimately drove Simpson crazy and even had black people hating him

When you act “dismayed” at the verdict, it implies that this system has the capacity to act “fairly.” Where’s your proof? The Innocence Project, which has set free scores of black men who were “wrongly arrested” for tens of years in many cases, shows that if they say that a black man did it, then that’s all they need. Eyewitness studies clearly show that it’s not reliable and yet this system has accepted it and locked men up. Over 70% of all inmates are either black or Latino, and that includes states like Idaho, Wyoming, Vermont and Utah. Doesn’t that send you a message about the criminal justice system? Doesn’t that send you a message about the penal system?

When you act “shocked” at the verdict, it shows an abysmal ignorance of the duality of what “right and wrong” means in this country. I’m not arguing any case for Trayvon by any means. I’m arguing a case for the fact that we expected those outside of our race to understand that what happened to Trayvon is happening to black kids all over this nation. They are gunned down by cops, imprisoned by the penal system, mentally abused by their teachers, seduced by their ministers, and taught that they are “Americans” by their parents. These facts then, pave the reason why the Trayvon’s are so weak and gullible. They think they are just like any other teenager; they think that they can don hoodies and walk the streets with impunity like white boys do. Whose fault is that. YOURS.

The facts of the case don’t reflect a single instance that involves Zimmerman and Trayvon. They are a reflection and reinforcement of what has been happening to black males since the beginning of this country. This case is a reflection of that famous Dred Scott case, remember? Chief Justice Taney made it clear: “A black man has no rights a white man is bound to respect.” Now if this case doesn’t prove that verdict to be alive and well, then what does?

When our kids see you waving the flag and believing in a system that has you segregated or believing that progress means looking for a white man to adopt you (find a job), then they accept it. And when it doesn’t work and then you label them as “lazy,” disobedient” or “criminal,” then what do they have left to believe in other than each other. And since, as a group, they’re totally clueless, that means that you have created your own Trayvon. And you can see the product in their actions: sagging pants, hoodies in the summer, cutoffs that come down to their ankles. A short while ago it was visors worn backward, sucking on teething rings, and wearing their pants backwards, remember? “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”

And here’ something you might want to think about: the world is watching. When these people start whining about “why do they (they meaning people of color the world over) hate us so much?” you can look squarely at decisions like this and the long history of murders and lynchings of Latinos, Native Americans and Black people. Our kids may not learn it in school any more (with the demise of black studies), but those kids in other countries sure know about it. And when those atrocities are added to what this country has done to OTHER nations in the name of “democracy” and “freedom,” then is it any wonder that this nation is losing ground faster than George Jefferson in a race with Usain Bolt?

Why do we whine and sometimes even riot when we are being done a favor? Trayvon was a victim of racism, and when decisions are made that uphold racism, that’s a direct sign of what those people think of us. When Simi Valley made the decision about Rodney King, they were telling us how they felt about black people. When your Congress wants to cut pre-school programs and raise student loan interest rates, that’s a way of them telling us how they feel about young people in general. But the fact has been, and still remains, that when white folks have a cold, black folks have pneumonia. Whatever happens to them (inflicted by their own), happens more negatively to us.

We know all this is true. And we just can’t seem to see that in every possible way, we are being shown that we are hated. But we turn our energies and angers on everybody else because we’re afraid to confront our former slavemaster. We blame the Latinos for “taking our jobs.” Our jobs? Nigga, those weren’t “your” jobs; they were the white man’s jobs – he was just frontin’ your black ass off and making you more dependent on him with a new house payment, a car note and bunch of other debts that tightens the noose around your neck. We blame the Asians for coming into “our community” when it’s not our community. All the Asian is doing is the same thing that Jews did decades ago: take our obsession with conspicuous consumption and sell it back to us: urban gear, pedicures, fake fingernails and eyelashes, Indian hair that I would say 8 out of 10 sistahs either wear or crave, and so on. Can you blame them if they can sell us something and then laugh at us all the way to the bank?

America is sinking fast, and that’s why you see all these “mergers” and all that “outsourcing.” There’s a movie called “Elysium” coming out that shows what I’ve long been saying: they’re about to leave this planet to “the nigrahs” while they go out in space and build a paradise out there. They’re going to repeat what they did to Africa and the Native American and if there is life out there, it will soon be murdered off, captured and studies, placed in a zoo or made into a pet. You just mark my words.

Bruthas and sistahs, there are still too many “firsts” for us. We’ve been here over 400 years and y’all are still having orgasms about the “first president” of this, or the “first athlete to do that.” Movies like “42” and “Great White Hope” has us looking backwards and glorifying bruthas and sistahs who were “first in THEIR system.” And the more we canonize those so-called “accomplishments,” the more we tend to organize the potential for having our OWN system. And without our own system, we rely on the non-existent morals of people in other systems; hence, the Trayvon Martin decision and all those that preceded it.

Trayvon will be missed, but there are millions of Trayvon’s out there. What they need to do is get up off their knees and stop doing war dances on dance floors and take it to the field where it belongs. It is true, as the Last Poets once said, that “The revolution will not be televised.” But guess what? Your collective stupidity and cowardice, belief in goblins and goons in space, talk about “going to hell” when hell is right here, and expecting mercy from the merciless sure will be. And it will be playing on every single network. And you can take that to the bank.

The blood bank.



Check out my blog, mcstellyspeaks.blogspot and read my other “ahead of my time” essays. And for those of you who still feel hopeless, do what you do best: pray.


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