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