Survival

You guys I've been procrastinating talking about Trayvon Martin for months now and I just can't.

George Zimmerman is a bad guy. And he hurt more people after his acquittal. And now he's profiting off of the murder of a kid just like me.

And frankly I just don't understand how the justice system is able to incarcerate one in three Black men, the vast majority of whom are nonviolent offenders, but not one guy—a murderer, abuser and rapist (he's got to be at least one of those things)—we've decided is white for some reason.

All I really have to say is that every Black man in this country is Trayvon Martin, and every Black non-cishet-male is Renisha McBride. I heard Melissa Harris-Perry say that her friend's young son slept in her bed on the night of the verdict out of fear—that's what it feels like.

In the words of Emmett Till's cousin, Ollie Gordon, “Number one, Trayvon was killed by a white boy that got out of his truck armed to the teeth, chased him down then killed him, and then the jury did the same thing they did in 1955 with Emmett Till, they came back with a not guilty vote[.] ... That broke my heart, that tells me that things [have] not changed as much as people would like to say they have changed.”

I hope this reminds you all that survival will always be a motivator for my interest in social justice.