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White People, You Will Never Look Suspicious Like Trayvon Martin!
I will never look suspicious to you. Even if I have a black hoodie, a pair of jeans and white sneakers on...in fact, that is what I wore yesterday...I still will never look suspicious. No matter how much the hoodie covers my face or how baggie my jeans are, I will never look out of place to you. I will never watch a taxi cab pass me by to pick someone else up. I will never witness someone clutch their purse tightly against their body as they walk by me. I won't have to worry about a police car following me for two miles, so they can "run my plates." I will never have to pay before I eat. And I certainly will never get "stopped and frisked." I will never look suspicious to you, because of one thing and one thing only. The color of my skin. I am white.
I was born white. It was the card I was dealt. No choice in the matter. Just the card handed out by the dealer. I have lived my whole life privileged. Privileged to be born without a glass ceiling. Privileged to grow up in the richest country in the world. Privileged to never look suspicious. I have no guilt for the color of my skin or the privilege that I have. Remember, it was just the next card that came out of the deck. But, I have choices. I got choices on how I play the hand I was dealt. I got a lot of options. The ball is in my court.
So, today I decided to hit the ball. Making a choice. A choice to stand up for Trayvon Martin. 17 years old. black. innocent. murdered with a bag of skittles and a bottle of ice tea in his hands. "Suspicious." that is what the guy who killed him said he looked like cause he had on a black hoodie, a pair of jeans and white sneakers. But, remember I had on that same outfit yesterday. And yes my Air Force Ones were "brand-new" clean. After all, I was raised in hip-hop...part of our dress code. I digress. Back to Trayvon and the gated community in Sanford, Florida, where he was visiting his father.
I got a lot of emails about Trayvon. I have read a lot of articles. I have seen a lot of television segments. The message is consistent. Most of the commentators, writers, op-ed pages agree. Something went wrong. Trayvon was murdered. Racially profiled. Race. America's elephant that never seems to leave the room. But, the part that doesn't sit well with me is that all of the messengers of this message are all black too. I mean, it was only two weeks ago when almost every white person I knew was tweeting about stopping a brutal African warlord from killing more innocent children. And they even took thirty minutes out of their busy schedules to watch a movie about dude. They bought t-shirts. Some bracelets. Even tweeted at Rihanna to take a stance. But, a 17 year old American kid is followed and then ultimately killed by a neighborhood vigilante who happens to be carrying a semi-automatic weapon and my white friends are quiet. Eerily quiet. Not even a trending topic for the young man.
We've heard the 911 calls. We seen the 13 year old witness. We've read the letter from the alleged killer's father. We listened to the anger of the family's attorney. We've felt the pain of Trayvon's mother. For heaven's sake, for 24 hours he was a deceased John Doe at the hospital because even the police couldn't believe that maybe he LIVES in the community. There are still some facts to figure out. There are still some questions to be answered. But, let's be clear. Let's be very, very clear. Before the neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman, started following him against the better judgement of the 911 dispatcher. Before any altercation. Before any self-defense claim. Before Travyon's cries for help were heard on the 911 tapes. Before the bullet hit him dead in the chest. Before all of this. He was suspicious. He was suspicious. suspicious. And you know, like I know, it wasn't because of the hoodie or the jeans or the sneakers. Cause I had on that same outfit yesterday and no one called 911 saying I was just wandering around their neighborhood. It was because of one thing and one thing only. Trayvon is black.
So I've made the choice today to tell my white friends that the rights I take for granted are only valid if I fight to give those same rights to others. The taxi cab. The purse. The meal. The police car. The police. These are all things I've taken for granted.
So, I fight for Trayvon Martin. I fight for Amadou Diallo. I fight for Rodney King. I fight for every young black man who looks "suspicious" to someone who thinks they have the right to take away their freedom to walk through their own neighborhood. I fight against my own stereotypes and my own suspicions. I fight for people whose ancestors built this country, literally, and who are still treated like second class citizens. Being quiet is not an option, for we have been too quiet for too long.
Michael Skolnik is the Editor-In-Chief of GlobalGrind.com and the political director to Russell Simmons. Prior to this, Michael was an award-winning filmmaker. Follow him on twitter @MichaelSkolnik
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Re: White People, You Will Never Look Suspicious Like Trayvon Martin!
You know what, I'd disagree with that.
If I worked in a convenience store or a bank in an area where there had been a rash of armed robberies, and you walked in with your hood over your head - you'd look suspicious to me, even from the back before I ever got to see what color you were.
Maybe we should start a new thread "Chicks, you ain't scaring no one!"
Dude needs some new friends.
Signed,
The girl who started a (second) FB war with her DH's new friends over this last week, because she has ZERO restraint on other people's FB feeds, apparently.
(FTR, he went out of his way to be nice to me on Sunday, and pointed it out to DH. I don't think he agrees with me, but at least I put the fear in him. The first FB war was sparked by DH sharing something about Santorum, and a pile-on ensued.)
ETA: As to the OP, yes. I agree I will never look suspicious. I believe that was my point in the FB debacle. The fact that he felt the need to call 911 because of a black pedestrian is what is indicative of racism, not the content, editing, results, etc.
I know a white guy who is so thug that he gets pulled over by the police when walking. True. Between the tats, the sagging pants, the attitude, the way he walks, you can tell he's always up to no good. And usually is.
Right??
He's got white power written all over him, no lie.
Also, I disagree with him. White people, especially white men absolutely can and often do look suspicious. However, that suspicious stems from more than just the color of their skin.
Click me, click me!
White man says other white men never suspicious....? Spoken like someone who has never walked across a college campus at night as a young woman.
Or as someone who's never worked retail. Anyone wearing a hoodie over his or head will be tracked.
Exactly.. The guy who robbed me when I was a teller was white, wearing a hoodie, and holding his fecking hand in his pouch pocket to look like a guy.
So yeah... I disagree.
Our white male minister doesn't wear the white robe to most services to avoid looking too "creepy" to new/young families.
Zeus and Bubba
CRAFTY ME
my read shelf:
Oh FFS people.
Your average run of the mill white person without tats, a shaved head, Dukes of Hazzard paraphernalia is NOT going to look muthaeffin' suspicious. I'm sorry but you simply are not. Deal with that shiznit. Because the faster you deal with it and stop sitting around saying "Un HUH! We do TOO look suspicious" and then throw in every dayum caveat about how scary white people look is not the same.
People don't fucckings clutch a purse when a white dude in a hoodie and some sneakers gets on the the elevator. But, purse clutching happens the minute a black man in a hoodie, sneakers or like my H, a dress shirt and tie gets on the elevator.
No one is running your tags because you are white and just so happen to be in a luxury vehicle. But let a black man be in a luxury vehicle, his azz ain't supposed to drive that because he couldn't possibly have a good enough job to afford it because he's surely a drug dealer.
All of ya'll need to go somewhere and sit down. Folks running around actin' like people pull this shyt out of the air. We can be suspicious too!!! That's not the dayum point. The point is I'm suspicious because my azz is black. It doesn't matter what I do or don't have on, the automatic assumption is that all black males are gang, bang, crack cocaine slangin', killing, pants saggin' deviants and a menace to society. And black women are welfare queens dropping babies like it ain't nothing.
When you are automatically assumed to be a menance to society on a daily basis just because you are white, then talk to me. Until then, go to Starbucks and get a Frappe.
*drops the mic*
Welp, Nitaw dun broke it down so it can forever and consistently be ba-roke all up and through here today.
You are insane. LOL
The problem with this guy's article is that the premise is easy to dismiss. White men do look suspicious.
However, they don't, as I've said look suspicious solely because of the color of their skin. That's the point this dude should have made. Instead, it's easy for people to be all, that's not true and give no further thought to this. Had he made the points Nitaw did, this would be a well thought out, helpful editorial that would explain better why we are so upset over this. Instead, it just sounds trite.
And this is a good example of how sometimes even well intentioned white folks just make things worse.
Click me, click me!
Did he try to wash your windows?
I guess to me what he's missing is that white people are suspicious by circumstance, Black people are inherently suspicious (<--societal observation, not my opinion).
I hold out hope that any day now everyone will be viewed as equal. But I won't hold my breath.
I think the issue you're missing here is that he looks so thug. My brother who does not look "so thug" still had to deal with a cop at the local hockey arena approaching him with his hand on his gun, demanding to know what he was doing in the trunk of the car he was rummaging around in. It was his car. He was getting his hockey bag out of. In the parking lot of the arena he was getting ready to play hockey in. At 5 o'clock in the goddamn evening. I can assure you no other kid in the lot had to deal with that ish. Your guy gets the assumption of not suspicious until he definitely proves or implies otherwise. My brother gets the opposite.