Remember, the approach never changes: Isolate – Ridicule – Marginalize

(repeat as needed)

(VIA BEN JEALOUS) One year later, the Trayvon Martin tragedy still stings – and some people are still throwing salt on the open wound. Last week George Zimmerman’s brother, Robert Zimmerman, posted a tweet comparing Trayvon Martin to De’Marquis Elkins, 17-year-old black teenager charged with fatally shooting a one-year-old baby.

The tweet showed a photo of Elkins side by side with a photo of Martin, both making inappropriate gestures, with the caption “A picture speaks a thousand words. Any questions?”

Zimmerman’s follow-up tweet read “Lib[eral] media [should] ask if what these [two] black teens did [to] a [woman and her baby] is the reason [people] think blacks might [be] risky”. The implication was that Trayvon Martin’s actions on the night he was murdered were equivalent to the killing of an innocent child.

This would be worrisome enough if it were just the opportunistic cry of a family embroiled in racial controversy. But this belief – that male “black teens” are inherently more likely to be criminals – is ingrained in our society. It has seeped into our institutions in the form of racial profiling, and too often it poisons the judgment of those who are supposed to protect us.

{snip} What a BS statement – According to President Obama’s own studies: “Blacks are disproportionately represented as both homicide victims and offenders:

The victimization rate for blacks (27.8 per 100,000) is 6 times higher than the rate for whites (4.5 per 100,000).

The offending rate for blacks (34.4 per 100,000) is almost 8 times higher than the rate for whites (4.5 per 100,000).”….. /SD (link)

Last year I visited Sanford, Florida in the wake of the Trayvon Martin case. The NAACP hosted a forum where residents could report incidents of police abuse. A number of African American mothers alleged that their teenage sons had been profiled, abused or even assaulted by the police. I found that the attitude of the local police department toward “black teens” was uncomfortably similar to that of Robert Zimmerman.

But the fact is that fifty years after the Civil Rights Act, racial bias still runs rampant among law enforcement in this country. And Zimmerman’s attitude infects an institution much more influential than the Sanford Police Department. (read more)