Trayvon Lives On

The news has been pouring with stories and different accounts of Trayvon Martin's shooting back in February. The simple story that has been spread around by major news sources such as the New York Times, is that a young African American in Florida-- 17 to be exact-- named Trayvon Martin, was shot by an armed community watch guard who suspected Trayvon of suspicious activity. Trayvon was unarmed at the time, and was carrying only an iced tea and a bag of skittles. Driving While Black is a pretty well known phenomenon, think of this is as Walking While Black. 


President Obama shared his sentiments on the atrocity later: "'I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this'". Obama understands that this is not just about one boy who was killed, this is about our entire attitudes as Americans towards people of different races. Mitt Romeny, the Republican presidential candidate, took a similar stance on the issue "'What happened to Trayvon Martin is a tragedy. There needs to be a thorough investigation that reassures the public that justice is carried out with impartiality and integrity'". 

Trayvon Martin

Some facts about the shootings that are much less well known are that Zimmerman, the community watch guard who shot Trayvon was a Hispanic American. I am not sure how exactly this affects my views on the shooting, but I definitely think that you could see this as an example of racial tension. Another lesser known fact is that Mr. Zimmerman had called 911 an astounding 46 times in the past eight years, which shows his paranoia and mental instability- no wonder the police did not come rushing to the scene when Zimmerman reported suspicious activity. Few people know why Trayvon was really there. He was there with his father to visit his father's fiance and son-- so he truly was minding his own business. Zimmerman is now in prison and has been charged with second degree murder. Thanks to the media, the police received enough public support to further investigate the case. Now, there is an extremely long Wikipedia page dedicated to the "Shooting of Trayvon Martin". 


I personally find this whole case a giant upset for American progress. It has been centuries since we have been importing slaves to America. Segregation in public schools has been outlawed for about 50 years now. America now has its first African American president. Yet, after all of these improvements, I wonder in light of the Trayvon Martin shooting, how much has really changed? Is it possible that America has not in fact progressed, but began to regress?




Sources:
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/trayvon_martin/index.html?8qa
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-27/dear-al-sharpton-leave-trayvon-martin-alone.html
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/03/23/obama-makes-first-comments-on-trayvon-martin-shooting/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin