The shooting of Trayvon

[Christian Science Monitor]


[Getty Images]


Trayvon Martin, and his killer, George Zimmerman

Reading the news today about Travyon Martin's death and the rage it caused across the nation, I am deeply frustrated. Don't get me wrong, I have empathy for the boy and his family, but the peddlers of racial guilt called injustice before they even knew the whole story. On Thursday night, Rev. Al Sharpton descended on the majority-black town in Florida where the boy was fatally shot by a police officer, further flaming fears and rallying the crowd towards something far more dangerous:

"Some people said to me in the media — ‘Let me get this straight,’ they said. ‘Reverend, it seems like there’s a lot of people who are angry — are you afraid of violence?’” Sharpton continued: “I said, ‘No. I’m afraid of the violence you already had.’”

He added the caveat that violence was not the key, but Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, didn't stop there. He tweeted "Where there is no justice, there will be no peace. Soon and very soon, the law of retaliation may very well be applied." In our ignorant furor, protests are being held across the nation, students are staging mass walkouts in public schools, racial outbursts are disrupting college courses, and even Obama himself, after weeks of silence, has stated that "if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon".

This doesn't change the fact that the accused killer, George Zimmerman, was Hispanic "and grew up in a multiracial family", according to his father, who also wrote that George did not confront the boy and was involved in a scuffle with him before he shot in self-defense. Who knows if what Zimmerman's dad says is true? But we do know that most of us jumped to a conclusion before we had received all the facts. That won't change the ultimate story of the incident, however, even if Trayvon ends up being guiltier in the incident than what was initially perceived. The Huffington Post ran an article recently saying that the tension was amplified by previous incidents in the community, with some worrying that a new race war is on the horizon. The death of this young man is feeling a lot like what happened in Tunisia where one man's sacrifice set off revolutions across the Arab world. And this rage is being stoked by hosts like Karen Finney, who blamed Limbaugh, Gingrich, and Santorum for the death of Travyon in an MSNBC monologue. Many liberal groups are working to shut down hosts like Limbaugh, and one band called for his death in a video on Youtube. Interesting the state of free speech in this country.

Why does this frustrate me so much? In my view race is a limited view of self. When we start to identify completely with what our skin color is or where we are from, it blinds us to our foes' humanity. "Our group" becomes the ultimate hero or victim, and we can justify doing anything against the perceived enemy. This, of course, is the result of individuality (an extension of materialism) which liberals are so eager to wage a philosophical war against. "Our group above all else" is their unspoken mantra, and I have no idea how they can justify such ignorance within their own party. There is a deep hypocrisy in all this. Why is it okay for one group in America to threaten violence against all the others? Why is it okay for a figure like Louis Farrakhan to stand completely for his own race, even above his own country and still be respected in the media and by politicians? Why can so many black leaders be so racist and not be reviled by the rest of society? I understand the anger when a young black man dies under suspicious circumstances, but they seem so eager to call injustice before they know what actually happened. Why? Because that's how they hold onto power. They are evangelists of race. This is a limited view of humanity, a weak one, a dangerous one, and one which is dying. Once a leader emerges who preaches the capacity to love our fellow man without stupid things like race, sex, or age getting in the way, I will consider what he says. It is easy to exclude and hard to include. Standing on a precipice and staring down into the pit of boxing, of groups, of stereotypes, the result of left-brain hierarchies, we must hold back and not let ourselves fall in. No matter what your politics, or the group you perceive yourself to be in, you must not forget the humanity in the mirror.