Justice for Trayvon Rally in New York City

Earlier today, I attended the vigil in Manhattan for Trayvon Martin as part of the Justice for Trayvon National Day of Action. Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon's mother, vowed to keep fighting not just for her child, but for "all of your children". The crowd roared.

I was honored by the many people who asked to take a picture of my sign:

"Thank you," they said, each time, and each time I replied, "Thank you."

[ETA: I just realized, days later, that I left out the 'y' in Trayvon's name. How embarrassing! Just goes to show how our hands/eyes can deceive us, because I was certain I'd written it correctly. I'll get it right next time.]

More coverage of the rallies:
NYT: Demonstrations Across the Country Commemorate Trayvon Martin (w/ photos)
USA Today: 'Justice for Trayvon' rallies in 100 cities across USA (Note: Video plays automatically at link.)
Us Weekly: Beyonce, Jay Z Attend Trayvon Martin Rally in New York City

Donate to the Trayvon Martin Foundation here. The Foundation's mission is "to create awareness of how violent crime impacts the families of the victims, and to provide support and advocacy for those families, in response to the murder of Trayvon Martin."

Below are some more photos from the event.

Link roundup: #JusticeforTrayvon

The president made a pretty amazing address today about the acquittal of George Zimmerman for killing Trayvon Martin. The Washington Post has a full transcript.

"You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.

[...]

We need to spend some time in thinking about how do we bolster and reinforce our African-American boys? And this is something that Michelle and I talk a lot about. There are a lot of kids out there who need help who are getting a lot of negative reinforcement. And is there more that we can do to give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them?"

Some other important readings:

Trudy at Gradient Lair: Racism Hurts

When I heard those words “not guilty" as I watched the verdict live, I felt like I was kicked in the chest, the way I felt at the moment that I found out my mother has passed away 12 years ago. If the latter was a 10 in terms of emotional pain, the verdict was an 8. Truly. How? Because as I’ve mentioned before, I lost a relative to racist violence. Further, I could think of Sybrina Fulton and visualize so many Black mothers that I know and ones that I do not. Everything about the case is…familiar. Painfully.

Racism hurts. It doesn’t just anger. It doesn’t just disgust. It doesn’t just disenfranchise. It hurts. It oppresses. It kills.

G.D. Demby at PostBourgie: Black Violence and Concern Fatigue

To assert that black people simply shrug off the murders of their sons and daughters and cousins and best friends, that folks simply shake their heads and keep it moving is to assert that black people are constitutionally incapable of grief and outrage. It’s to assert, sideways, that black people aren’t fully human.

Jamelle Bouie at The American Prospect: Is 'Justice for Trayvon' even possible?

It’s not unreasonable to demand the system affirm the value of black lives. But I don’t think it’s equipped to handle the request. The United States was built on hatred and disdain for black bodies and black experiences. It was codified in our Constitution, promoted by generations of our leaders, and turned into public policy.

Aphra Behn at Shakesville: This Is Not a Post About Trayvon Martin

It’s a post about Emmett Till, a Black teenager who went to the store for some candy and unknowingly transgressed a white rule about Black men’s behavior. For that, vigilantes murdered him. When his grieving mother demanded justice, whites rallied around the murderers they had previously denounced. No one was ever convicted of his murder or as an accessory. Despite the fact that the killers of a Black boy walked free, newspapers focused on the anger of the Black community and their dangerous potential for retaliatory violence.

But of course that was all back in the Bad Old Days, and it was terrible, and we can rest easy that things aren’t like that anymore. So this definitely has nothing to do with Trayvon Martin.

Finally, an action item from Ana Mardoll at Shakesville: Boycott ALEC corporations

ALEC is the corporate-funded right-wing juggernaut behind 'Stand Your Ground' laws like the one in Florida, as well as tons of other harmful legislation around the country. Ana's created a great mobile resource that can help you keep an eye out for known ALEC supporters while you're shopping.

The Zimmerman verdict and fear of black anger

Jay Smooth gets the tweet of the month, I think:

The fundamental danger of an acquittal is not more riots, it is more George ZImmermans.
— jay smooth (@jsmooth995) July 13, 2013

As I write this, searching "zimmerman protests" in Google News brings up a disproportionate number of stories about arrests being made and protests turning violent.

And the coverage is not just disproportionate, some of it is downright false. Here's a great piece by Brad Friedman at Salon on false media (and police) reports of property destruction in Los Angeles. Friedman rightly takes reporters to task not only for wrong information, but also for the garbage framing that breathlessly anticipates violence on the basis of no evidence whatsoever and then pounces on any instance, no matter how isolated, to confirm what they wanted to believe all along about those people.

Meanwhile, no mention of the fact that white folks in some locations were setting off fireworks in response to the verdict. As Melissa at Shakesville points out, this is the exact same dynamic behind the original crime: white folks are assumed to be reasonable until proven otherwise (and if that extremely high bar is met, then they're written off as "crazy", aka Not Our Problem). Black folks are not. Their every move is subject to a heightened degree of suspicion. White people can provoke, and provoke, and provoke, but black people better not react, or their reaction will be used as a weapon against them.

In other words, black folks cannot express their full humanity, their personhood, without being swiftly reminded of their place. Sounds familiar.

See also:
National Action Network: Justice for Trayvon National Day of Action - Saturday, July 20 
Think Progress: 16 Moving Images From Trayvon Martin Rallies Across The Country
Buzzfeed: 27 Powerful Photos From The NYC Trayvon Martin March

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