This, Courtesy of MSNBC, PIC of Trayvon Martin's Dead Body. Get Angry. (983 hits)
A reader of mine sent me this photo last night. As the murder trial of George Zimmerman wheezes to its conclusion, the TV networks dutifully pipe in live pool video from the courtroom, as if it is force-fed to them and they have no choice but to excrete it, soft and undigested, into our living rooms, bedrooms, offices. Sometimes, the pool recorder or the networks' producers don't switch to a mundane image of lawyers being lawyerly quite fast enough, and we get to see snippets of the human cruelty, stupidity, and frailty that occasion trials such as this.
This is Trayvon Martin's body. These are the last skinny jeans he wore, cuffed once at the bottoms. These are his stylish kicks, his sockless ankles. There are Trayvon's taut neck, his slack jaw, his open eyes.
This is what happens. Not just when we input "black" and "teen" and "hoodie" and "night" into our onboard computers and output "DANGER," but also when we find the aftermath Newsworthy, and must consume it voraciously from start to finish, but insist that we cannot stomach seeing the bones and gristle on our plates.
This image has made its way to the internet on message boards and the like, but not on any notable sites that I could find. The Huffington Post and others have published some images of Martin's body—covered by a sheet—but none of his face.
I had a brief conversation by email and phone last night with the reader who wanted to send this to me, who felt compelled to save it, but seemed unsure why he had. Before he'd shared the image, I asked him what it showed. Was it newsworthy? He stammered. "It's... a dead black kid," he said, disturbed, hoping five words could convey many more. In email, he'd asked me: "What will you do with pic?"
To Trayvon's parents, Sabrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, I'm sorry that I feel compelled to share this photograph. Were I a slave to journalistic norms, I would say that it's somehow in the public interest to see him there. I would point out Florida's sunshine laws, and the TV network's incompetence, and argue the inevitability that this image would've gained a wider audience than it has already.
But those are rationalizations. They don't explain my motive: Good old-fashioned rage that this kid is dead because my home state empowered a dullard aficionado of Van Damme and Seagal movie cliches to choose his own adventure. Florida literally gave George Zimmerman license to make up neighborhood threats and invite violent confrontations, confident in the knowledge that he carried more firepower jammed down his sweaty fat waistband than every army on earth beheld before 1415.
I wish I were a better person than that, but I'm not. People come up short all the time, after all. I suppose it's a good thing I don't have a gun.
Gawker contributor Adam Weinstein is a Florida-based writer and editor. You can reach him via adamweinsteinwriter.com.
Because you have a lot of blog followers, I think we the Black Community should come together and lead a strategic Plan based on IT, a quiet storm, non-violent new civil rights movement. Do you agree, if so, how can you help?
Sunday, July 14th 2013 at 3:47PM
Linae Jackson
when we talk about unity and change it always come at a cost ,,,like someone black has to die in order to bring awareness that black must unite, I have been calling for unity before this tragedy happen ,blacks as a whole want to unite but dont have the formula if we open black owned businesses and unite our money then the person or group that owns the business gets rich and ends up forgetting about those that help get them to where they are !
I would like to see the church take a more productive roll in the black community keep there doors open more and build the neighborhood up ,having community meetings and seek government sponsorship , each one teach one no household left behind ! #yeswecan
what are your thought ??
Sunday, July 14th 2013 at 4:20PM
DAVID JOHNSON
Greetings to all my name is David Johnson ''The Blog King'' one of the senior members of ''BLACK IN AMERICA'' take a minute and read and understand what im about to say I thank you in advance for reading and your feedback, this is for every black person in america .
Here is a serious question im bringing to the community of ''Black In America'' HBCU and black people all over the United States.
Since President Barack Obama achieved what most Blacks (if not all Blacks) thought was impossible, this call for “Black unity” has been an overarching theme of everything the African American community (multiple and singular) desires to achieve in the 21st Century. People who have never agreed on the same thing, at the same time, EVER, since someone suggested we just walk away from slavery, suddenly got this “lovin’ feelin’,” conditional – of course.
The divide in Black America is as large as ever. The “my way or the highway” mentality is prevalent, despite Obama ‘s name being invoked at every turn. Stuff like, “If Barack Obama can be elected President of the United States, we mostly certainly can come together.” It’s sickening, largely because it’s most commonly voiced by many who didn’t believe Obama could be elected President in the first place.
The vision behind his candidacy was absent in many that now have had an epiphany. Most had to be run over, literally, by the change they were standing in front of. That epiphany is that “some people” realized they were about to be left behind, and Black people never met a bandwagon they couldn’t catch. Opportunities for change are often lost in the “debate” (if you want to call it that) of what change is and who is really capable of change.
Whether the debate is generational or ideological, neither side of the debate really believes that the other has the answer to bring real change into reality. The “age of Obama” has changed one reality about America, but whether it changes the state of Black communities has yet to be seen.
When you look into some of the things Harry has been trying to push on the members of this site ''black people need there own land ,and black AMERICA needs a prophet'' we got to many high priced prophets now that pass around the offering plate every 5 min in a 3 hr span by the time I leave church im worst of then when I got there because we need the community churches to open there doors everyday. Harry said we need our own land it made me think .why does it take something bad to happen for black people to come together ,look at Travon Martin killing and how black people came together yes white people came out and support the cause but it was a black thang now just the other day a 17 year old got killed by another white man for playing his music to loud, im sure there will be a cry of black unity if the Justice system dont act properly Al Sharpton , Jesse Jackson and all of the so called freedom fighters will join hand again singing we shall over come !
The fact is, if we had waited for Black unity to come about on the simple question of whether Barack’s candidacy was credible before we supported him, Obama would have never been elected, because the divide was in evidence and deeply entrenched. One side had to do what they had to do. The other side jumped on the bandwagon after the outcome was in evidence. That’s a fact. The call for Black unity is often a call to disrupt the opportunity for change. So when certain people call for change, why don’t I believe them?
Whether it was the runaway or the enslaved, the freedman (emancipated slave), or the free man (Blacks who had never been enslaved), the emergence of the so-called “Black leader” voice in Frederick Douglass or Martin Delany, Booker T. Washington or W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey or A. Phillip Randolph, Walter White or Charles Houston, Martin Luther King or Roy Wilkins (or Thurgood Marshall), Elijas and Malcolm, the Panthers and US, Farrakhan and Jesse, the Baptist and the Methodists, Christian and Muslims, the Crips and Bloods, Rich and poor, dark skinned and light skinned and the examples go on and on, Black America never operated from a single united point of view.
The largest (and most disruptive) divides in the history of Black America stemmed out of questions of when it was time to change, why we needed to change, how the change would occur, and of course something we can never ignore, who would lead the change. Many times, most change agents were of the same ideology, all wanting to change our realities. Others were just agents…period. Change was no where on their agenda, though disruption was. Provocateurs are as common as activists in our community and we don’t recognize interlopers like we once did.
There is no test for “change agents.” Just like there is no test for change. It just happens when it happens, but change is stonewalled more times than not. Blacks in America just have never agreed on how the progress we say we all want can ever come about. The divide often stems from realities of what’s real versus the realities of what could be. There’s always someone who either can see the new reality or won’t see the new reality. The investiture in the status quo always seems to conquer the idealism that encompasses change. The call for unity is often a fraudulent call to accept compromised realities. At other times, the call is made by false prophecies and even more false prophets. The legitimacy questions of who’s more legitimate than whom. And, of course, legitimacy is defined by no construct of one’s own.
Whatever the reason, ideas about progress somehow never give way to unity. It’s never about unity, but the “winners” and “losers” in the cause of change. Rarely, change is the winner because of the mindset that if we all can’t win, none of us will win. We can’t move the ball up the field ten yards at a time. It’s a touchdown or interception on a “Hail Mary” pass. Some of us can’t win now and others win later. Because those at the bottom of the well don’t trust that there will be a later. So nobody goes anywhere. Just look at the absence of change in every city in America. The evidence of “lost battles” are in evidence. Change is not in evidence.
Every organization, group, cluster, “movement” I’ve ever been involved in, over three decades, was undermined on the “unity” tip. Even in the 21st Century “change movement,” the vestiges of Black disunity that causes the Black divide in the 19th and 20th Centuries continue to persist. It doesn’t mean change won’t occur. It just means some will catch the bandwagon on the other side (if they ever catch it at all). The call for unity is the toughest challenge for Black America. It’s almost as impossible as electing a Black President. At least I can say I’ve seen one of them in my lifetime.
Now let me ask your ,what are your thoughts towards unity ,real unity in black america ,,Put all religion aside RIGHT NOW and lets brainstorm this thing called UNITY IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY !
Liston to the words of unity by MALCOLM X Wake Up, Clean Up and Stand Up !
Posted By: David Johnson Thursday, November 29th 2012 at 1:53AM
Sunday, July 14th 2013 at 4:25PM
DAVID JOHNSON
@MY SON, ALL THINGS BEGIN WITH THE #1 AS IN 'THE INDIVIDUAL' AS IN "I" AS IN FROM WITHIN ONE'S OWN SELF...
(S-M-I-L-E)
Thursday, April 10th 2014 at 6:47PM
ROBINSON IRMA
