Yes, Racism is still a real issue in the United States of America, and I believe in our Judicial System.

The first thing everyone needs to do this morning is realize as much as we don't want to admit it, as far as we believe we have come in this society for equal rights whether based on race, gender, religion or even sexual orientation that yes racism is still a real issue in this country.  Too many people walk down a street and based on the color of their skin, their choice of clothes are "profiled" and people make assumptions based on race.  I hope that we have made progress, and that we have grown as a country to be less racist and prejudice, but as my good friend Cecelia has told me many times the first step in addressing the problem of racism is to realize we all have some prejudices and to realize them so we don't do and act wrong because of these tendencies.

Like it or not, if Trayvon Martin were white or Hispanic George Zimmerman may not have been as suspicious and may have actually talked to this child to find out where he lived and why he was just meandering home.  Truthfully, if George Zimmerman were black maybe Trayvon Martin would have asked George why he was following him so close and not have been so worried to tell his friend on his cell phone, and then made the decision to go back and confront George Zimmerman.

I do agree with the defense attorney that this is a tragedy on both sides of this trial that can't be remedied.   Trayvon Martin is dead because George Zimmerman shot him in what he believes and the verdict validated that he felt threatened and based on the law as presented to the jury he was not guilty of a crime.  That is not to say that living with the knowledge that because he chose to get out of his car, and in the end shot and killed this child that George Zimmerman will not have to live with the guilt and shame of his choices for the rest of his life.

What do we do this morning?  I am a white, Jewish, and Gay male who has been at times the victim of prejudices both for being Jewish and being Gay.  I have been in work meetings, and locations not too far back in years, where I couldn't decide if coming out as Jewish or Gay was more risky.  The difference in that meeting was I had a choice as to whether to come out or just leave the meeting and hope not to be in that position again.  When the prejudice is based on gender or race, the choice of the victim of the racist act does not have a choice to hide their race or gender.

I read the New York Times this morning and they lay out a time line that just seems to me to be quite direct.  There are choices made by both of these human beings that led to tragedy of the killing of Trayvon Martin.  We have a choice this morning to believe that these six women on the jury decided George Zimmerman was innocent because of of their race and the race of the victim.  We could decide that the judge’s orders to the jury and the way she handled the trial that led to an innocent verdict was race based, but frankly her reputation was to lean more to the victim’s family and prosecution.  We could question the way the State Attorney's office conducted their prosecution and that they failed because of the race of the victim. 

Or, we can sit here the morning after the verdict, and hope to hear from a few if not all the jurors to explain why they agreed to an innocent verdict.  What evidence was most in their mind, and hear from them and see that it may be as it appears that they were thoughtful, focused ont his trial and for four weeks sequestered and came through with what they felt was th only possible verdict. 

 

What I think, and yes I know it is clouded by my race, is that we agree this series of events is a tragedy.  That race played a part in how this came down, that given different moments and races this might have been a man wary of a teen ager walking down the street alone at night.   But, not rise to the level he felt compelled as a neighborhood watchman to follow Trayvon Martin, get out of his car, and in the end feel threatened enough to use his gun in what has been decided is self-defense.  We should leverage this moment to understand how can we learn from this and start to teach our children earlier to focus on the person and not the race.  That we try harder to educate adults and use this as an example of what tragedy can occur when we don't acknowledge that we can have racist tendencies, so we realize our initial reaction or assumptions in moments of fear may be based on some prejudice and not a valid realistic fear.  We need to learn in these moments, and maybe just for a quick moment to step back and take a second look at the situation and where our fear or suspicion is coming from.

That said, I also believe until we know more from the jury, we continue to believe in our system of justice.  I am not saying it is color blind, but as far as we know and watching other systems around the world our system is strong and the foundation on innocent till proven guilty is still the basis of our criminal justice system.  It isn't a perfect system, but it is the best we know of and one of the foundations that our nation was created.