The unsavory actions of George Zimmermancoupled with the racial hostility he displayed in widely heard 9-11 call where he refers to Trayvon as a ‘F–king Coons and his paranoia (calling 9-11 over 40 times in the past year) are not out of the ordinary. He personifies the culture of suspicion.
The questionable actions and neglect displayed by the Sanford police department (not talking to key witnesses and keeping Trayvon’s body for 3 days without telling his parents) not only have the look of an outright cover up, but they too reflects this culture of suspicion… The message their actions convey is that; Trayvon must’ve been in the wrong. A young Black male wearing a hoody is always suspect. There’s no way Mr Zimmerman would’ve shot him for no reason.
In looking at Trayvon’s murder its also important to connect the dots to fear based incidents currently going on.. Look at the type of anger and hostility directed by those we are suspicious of…
The extreme measures taken on those ‘suspected’ of not being America are not just limited to hard-working, law-abiding immigrants. That anger and suspicion has been directed to President Barack Obama. We have a whole segment of society called birthers with people like businessman Donald Trump and Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio leading the charge. In a recent poll over 45% of folks in the south believed he was a Muslim and over 25% don’t believe he was born here in the US..
The suspicions of the birthers is unprecedented. First, they demanded the president show his birth certificate. After he did that they demanded he show a long form certificate. After he did that, they accused the documents of being forged and wanted original draft cards. In fact as we speak Arpaio is launching yet another investigationinto the president. Can you say Culture of Suspicion gone wild?
Whats at stake here is the death of an innocent 17 year old coming home in the rain wearing a hoodie and carry a package of skiddles..He was confronted by large, overzealous, suspicious wanna be cop who killed him.. We must resist the attempts to keep this tragedy isolated from these larger issues and histories at hand..We must seek justice and seek it in such a way that it puts a major dent in some of overarching problems and prejudices impacting us all.
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