On February 26 2012, Trayvon Martin went to the convenient store to purchase a pack of skittles and an ice tea--he never returned. This eerie murder struck up a lot of discussion, almost everyone immediately jumped to the conclusion of a tragic case of racial profiling, but as the investigation advances some are beginning to question his killer’s motives. This wasn’t the first time that someone has been murdered due to racial profiling, and unfortunately it certainly won’t be the last. Thousands of mourners met in New York City to march for justice, remembering the innocent boy who fell victim to racial profiling and fear. George Zimmerman, his killer, wasn’t arrested based on claims that he was acting on self-defense. At the moment it is nearly impossible to put him behind bars, due to the lack of evidence and a conflicting self-defense law allowing Zimmerman to remain a free man.
Zimmerman was the self-appointed neighborhood watch leader, known to patrol the area is his car—looking for people who acted suspiciously. It is said that in the 56 days before Trayvon Martin’s murder, Zimmerman called 911 more than 40 times. This raises the question, is this what happens when people fear what they don’t understand. It seems to make perfect sense; one fears much of what he doesn’t understand because they are scared of what it may be. Before 1492 people feared the ocean because they didn’t know what lay beyond the horizon. If you don’t understand the nature of something, you are more likely to invent what you believe will happen then find out. One didn’t fall off the face of the earth if you went past the horizon, but it took someone like Christopher Columbus to discover that. In this case Zimmerman feared Trayvon because he didn’t understand that not all African Americans are criminals. I believe Zimmerman acted without really understanding the circumstances and the magnitude of what he was doing. Trayvon may have made what Zimmerman believed was an aggressive move towards Zimmerman, which he may have thought would put him in danger so he shot him.
One of the questions that comes to mind in this case is how can prejudice lead to injustice. In Zimmerman’s mind when he saw a black teenager walking down the street in a hoodie, prior prejudice must have made him instantly believe that Trayvon was a threat. That prejudice would later lead to the murder of an innocent seventeen-year-old. Most of the media surrounding this case focuses on the racial injustice aspect of it, knowing that it is the most intriguing part. Take the Japanese internment camps during World War two. The Americans used the prejudice that the Japanese are all enemies to unjustly throw them into internment camps. Had Trayvon been a white kid in a short sleeve shirt maybe the result may have been different, but there is no way to be positive. In life there are some basic rules that all human beings should follow; one being the responsibility to protect the innocent. When Zimmerman lethally shot Trayvon he believed that he was protecting the innocent citizens of Sanford, Florida; consequentially he ended up doing the exact opposite. Being the self-appointed neighborhood watch man in the community, Zimmerman believed that stopping the young man was the right thing to do, until it went all wrong. Things quickly changed from Zimmerman protecting the innocent members of the community, to thousands of people trying to protect the innocent boy who was murdered. The thousands of people supporting Trayvon are eager to see Zimmerman placed behind bars, but the deciding question in this case is who was the innocent person in the incident and who’s responsibility was it to be protecting them.
In 2002 the movie Training Day starring Denzel Washington won an Oscar, but not without stirring up a lot of controversy. In the movie a black police officer, along with other black drug dealers, are part of a scheme to corrupt police officers and control drug trade in Los Angeles. In the movie a white rookie takes him down and brings the corruption to a halt. This may seem like a lone act of racial stereotyping done by Hollywood, but the reality is that it is a stereotype made again and again until it becomes instinct for people like Zimmerman to think of all blacks as criminals. I find it hard to imagine that this crime wasn’t influenced by racism, bringing us to the question, how can racial and gender stereotypes affect people’s behavior? It is almost instinct to stereotype people, using what you know about people like them to figure out what they are like. Stereotyping is seldom harmful, but when the stereotyping becomes discrimination and scapegoating—it has gone too far. The stereotype that all black people are criminals made Zimmerman more vigilant, and finally caused him to kill the kid.
What occurred in Sanford, Florida on February 26 2012 was truly a tragedy, but one we must learn from and never forget. This act of racial injustice is a powerful reminder that racism is still an ever present reality in our world and we must strive to end it. Trayvon Martin was nothing but an innocent boy with his whole life ahead of him, whose death reminds us of what many people before him and many yet to come will face. Hopefully the extensive media coverage and controversy surrounding this tragic incident will help make people more aware of the need to end racial profiling once and for all.
