Race relations has influenced the slaying of many blacks in modern America. George Zimmerman’s slaying of Trayvon Martin, a black teen, he approaches as he walked home in the rain with a bag of Skittles. Black communities in the United States spent much of late March of 2012 expressing outrage about Zimmerman’s actions and the Sanford, Florida, police department’s
There is no evidence that shows Martin at any point committing any crime to the point that it resulted in such violence. He was innocently walking back home with the hood of his sweater over his head when he was confronted by a white Hispanic who considered Martin to be part of the stereotypes that has been placed on blacks of them being criminals. When reading about the case, it was very hard for me to understand what Zimmerman used to base his accusations of Martin looking suspicious. I mean are all black people with a hoody suspicious? It simply makes no sense, then everyone who is walking on the streets at night with their hoody on is a criminal.
Martin was shot and killed by neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman at the age of 17 after a disagreement between the two. According to Zimmerman, Martin appeared “suspicious” while he was outside purchasing candy and a drink from a 7-11, which caused Zimmerman to follow him by car and then by foot, and eventually fatally shoot him in the name of self-defence. The circumstances leading to Martin’s death provide an example of negative stereotyping as Zimmerman spotted Martin, a young black male wearing a hoodie, and made the assumption that he is someone suspicious. It is likely that the common stereotype that black men with hooded clothing are “dangerous” or “ghetto” may have created his belief Martin was someone suspicious. Before approaching Martin Zimmerman alerted the police of Martin’s presence and that he appeared suspicious, and though a 911 dispatcher told him that following Martin to the extent that Zimmerman was following him was unnecessary Zimmerman continued to pursue Martin and initiate the altercation (Lee 2013).
Author Walter Mosley argues that in order to seek justice in cases such as Trayvon Martin's, one has to separate the racial identity of those involved from the actual crime. Mosley says that people identify the race of the accused criminal and focus a majority of their anger on that instead of the crime itself. He discusses that when people focus more on the race it becomes more of a race problem that is perpetrated by the media, which takes the focus off of the actual crime itself (Mosley). While, Walter Mosley addresses a valid point about the legal case of Trayvon Martin, he does not give enough reasoning in his article to effectively argue his
The deadly shooting of Michael Brown by Officer Wilson, unveiled numerous issues within local law enforcement, that resulted in social controversy aimed at all of law enforcement. According to the BBC news, Brown was unarmed when he was fired upon by Wilson (“Ferguson unrest”, 2015). A projection from this incident has emerged, claiming that African Americans are killed more frequently than other races when confronted by law enforcement. The statistics have revealed that African Americans who are unarmed have been victim to violence with
On February 26, 2012, a 17 year old boy named Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a man named George Zimmerman. George was found not guilty in July of 2013. President Obama spoke upon the ruling of this case. “It could have been me 35 years ago” stated Obama. Most African Americans went through being followed in the stores, hearing the doors on the car lock as they passed by, or had a woman move her purse closer to her as they walked in the elevator.
The shooting footage of Keith Lamont Scoot forms part of an outgoing debate on race and abuse of power. Recently, the shooting of black people in the U.S by the police is causing a lot of protests. But, what are the reasons that are leading to this crisis? Is it because of race? To take a posture in this situation is difficult because there is not enough information released and the judicial process of these cases are mostly carried out in secret by the police.
In the article, “From Trayvon Martin to Andries Tatane - Cognitive Dissonance and the Black Male Body [analysis],” author Gillian Schutte reflects on the ongoing issues of racial profiling and how many blacks are viewed as skin and surface level human beings. To connect this main point to a real life scenario, Schutte notes the shooting of Trayvon Martin, an innocent 17-year old boy who was walking home from a cafe, unarmed and posed no threat. Zimmerman, the gunman, viewed Martin as a threat, and proceeded to call the police five times to express his concern. Schutte addresses the issue that no matter where blacks are in society, they face danger from whites. Schutte describes how the people think the color of their skin determines their
Wow! Another young unarmed black teenager killed. Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old African American boy from Miami Gardens, Florida. Trayvon would usually have a hoodie up with his earphones on and it could be 100 degrees and Trayvon would still have a hoodie on. The hoodie became a symbol of being a thug.
In February 2012 a racial war began. This war was fueled by the bias in the coverage from news broadcasters. This war brought grief, destruction, and unbalance in society. The shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman created unrest in the nation mainly because of the coverage by different popular news broadcasters. This tragedy stretched far beyond a shooting, but became a racial matter.
After the trials of the four murderers had been held, people started to realize that they were treating African Americans horribly. Much time had passed before people realized they needed to do something about this racial prejudice. About a year later, the Civil Rights Act was passed by congress stating that it “ended segregation in public places and banned employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin…” (History.com) The act helped vanquish segregation in cities forever, yet it still did not fully do the job. The assassination of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. followed in years after the law was made and showed that people still broke the rules and people still treated African-Americans with rotten
The horrors of having the “wrong” colored skin during the 1940s showed an injustice that led to bloodshed across a country that was meant to be free. A fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was killed due to the lies of a racist woman and the insane acts of her husband. The devastating beating and brutal murder of Emmett Till fueled people to take action for the Civil Rights Movement and shed light on the need for societal reforms. Emmett Till entered an environment completely different from the one he had once experienced in Chicago.
On that note; does ‘Black Lives Matter’ mean that only black lives matter; or is it the concept that Black lives mattering is a precondition for all lives mattering? This paper will discuss in the rationality of the movement. The movement was created by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors, and Opal Tometi in response to the acquittal of George Zimmerman for Trayvon Martin’s death. It underlines the “racism and policing that shatters the illusion of a colour-blind , post racial United States” (Keeanga-Yamahtta, T., 2016).
One example that will remain prevalent for years to come is the killing of Trayvon Martin, a seventeen-year-old African American male. On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin wearing a black hoodie walked back from a convenience store through a predominately white neighborhood in Sanford, Florida was gunned down by George Zimmerman; a neighborhood watch volunteer because he looked suspicious (Dahl). Unfortunately, due to Florida’s “Stand your Ground Law,’’ Mr. Zimmerman was able to portray himself as the victim and used deadly force as self-defense. After one year of investigations and interrogations, George Zimmerman was found not guilty. This was a huge concern not just for African Americans, but people of other minority
On February 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by former officer George Zimmerman. Instantly media had blown up with headlines involving the tragic fatality. Protests occurred titled as “Black Lives Matter” during the trial of Florida v. Zimmerman. These protests led to distrustful actions toward American government and American Law Enforcement. This protest wasn’t just a segmented time period event, it’s lasted from 2012 to present day and occurs daily and is expanding rapidly.
Para 1.) “After police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old. The fatal gunshots, fired by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, on 9 August 2014, were followed by bursts of anger, in the form of protests and riots. Hundreds and then thousands, of local residents, had flooded the streets. The killing of Michael Brown created a new generation of black activists, with thousands taking to the streets, and a hashtag used more than 27m times.