DIVERSITY and BIAS: our split personality

 

This may or may not really be about Trayvon Martin – although his senseless killing inspired me to finally put some random thoughts in writing. 

What hasn’t already been said about it?  It must be said, though, that I’m appalled that a) a young man could be killed without cause and b) it took two weeks or more for the mainstream media to pick up the story.  If there had not been an online petition calling for an investigation, it might never have had national attention.

Apart from the terror of another young person dying because someone with a gun can’t control their actions, and someone making the wrong assumptions had the gun, I’ve been thinking about our society in general.

Was this another symptom of our split personality disorder?  One side of our societal personality values inclusion and acceptance.  Our other personality is racist and elitist.  Indeed, our nation was founded on racism and elitism and they are, therefore, systemic.

The wrong side of an indulgent approach to diversity even wants to allow that a Latino man can’t be racist enough to kill an African-American.   Really?

Another oddity is how we have the wrong conversations after these events.  Soon enough, I saw comments online that referred to a white kid being set afire – and why wasn’t that national news, etc.?  I looked it up. Sadly, there are several cases in the last few years – some victims white, others black – all the crimes are atrocious.

There was, indeed, a kid set on fire on his porch in Kansas City, MO.  He didn’t die but what a horror for him and his family.  Know what?  I didn’t see any report on whether or not he had been suspended from school or suspected of (even intending) any crimes.  In fact, all I read about him was that fact that he was a victim (true) and white, and that the perpetrators were black.

Would it matter if he had done anything to provoke an attack?  No.  Would it soften the crime that was committed against him if we knew he wasn’t a nice kid; he had problems in school or anything other personal detail in his life?  No.  If he was a rotten kid, he didn’t deserve to be set ablaze.   The punishment for poor choices and behaviors or even being a rotten racist is not a death sentence (or to be set afire while alive and conscious).

Why was it relevant (to some) that Trayvon Martin was not a saint?  There was no proof of crimes, only suspected intent – at least as of this writing.

But questions about black victims come up that almost never do with white victims: their character, any police record, whether or not they are “likeable,” even what they were wearing!   Why?   If we really pretend justice is blind, why does it matter? 

Why do some of our “wrong” conversations include too many “buts”? “But” what about black-on-black crime? Why is it different when a white person kills or attacks someone black?  It just is.  Understand me, violent attacks are wrong regardless of the ethnicity of the victim or the perpetrator. No matter what, we should all be horrified and the courts should treat them the same.  But our history has allowed for white-on-black crime far too much.

After all my rambling, I must – still – come back to Trayvon Martin.  After you and I are finished with our opinions, complete our self-righteousness, feel assured that “some” of us are, after all, correct and right-thinking people, someone’s son is still dead - unexpectedly, violently, and unjustifiably dead.  In the end, I still cry for Trayvon Martin, though a tear or two may be for our society.