I am so ready for the day when people don’t turn everything into a racial issue. I can’t say I have faith enough in the human race that said day will ever actually arrive, but I guess I can hope.
Not a day has gone by since last Wednesday that I haven’t been pelted with reports and arguments spewing about the controversy over Trayvon Martin’s death. Martin died from a gunshot wound in Sanford, Fla. after an altercation with neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman on March 21. I totally agree that Martin’s death was tragic; every death is tragic. The loss of any life is sad, no matter to whom or what the life belonged. Many may disagree with me on this, but even Osama Bin Laden’s death last May was sad. Yeah, he did horrible things and he was a terrorist, but he was a person. I’m not debating whether killing him was right; I just think it is simply inhumane to feel joy upon the death of another. So my point here is not to say that George Zimmerman did either the “right” or “wrong” thing. My point is to say that a simple series of unfortunate events has been spun into a huge racial discriminatory tapestry. And my point is to say that it’s stupid.
At a house Democratic forum on the case attended by Trayvon’s parents, the Martin family’s attorney, Daryl Parks, stated that “[Trayvon] was another,” yes, another, “unarmed black boy whose life was lost because of unfounded stereotypes, suspicions and fears.” I hardly believe that Parks could say Zimmerman’s suspicions were unfounded and I’m not quite seeing how this incident can automatically be deemed a result of stereotyping. If we’re getting technical, here, Zimmerman was acting properly under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which states that “a person is justified in the use of deadly force and does not have a duty to retreat if he or she reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent imminent death or great bodily harm to himself or herself or another or to prevent the imminent commission of a forcible felony.” Of course, I wasn’t there and I don’t know anything about it firsthand, but as for all those people who have been making this into something crazy? They weren’t there, either.
Trayvon’s death was and always will be tragic. I understand that. I believe that. But I am exhausted and done with the people who think it’s okay to turn anything and everything into a racial issue. So at this point, I think the only thing we can do is hope and wait on our world to change.