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| Screen Cap of Racist taunts. Source: Daylight Disinfectant |
Note from Editor: I asked AM to write this post because the left is now raising money on the Trayvon Martin death. The MoveOn.Commie missive is disgusting. It says in part, “As parents, we all have to warn our children about the dangers of the world—strangers, bullies, which streets not to walk down. But there’s a special pain in explaining to my sons the suspicion and dangers they face, simply by being young black men.” How well we know, MoveOn, how well we know. I also asked AM to write this post because she and her two sons, who are black, were called racist names, hurled insults at and intimidated by socialists, leftists (but I repeat myself) at last April 15th’s Tea Party in Portland, Oregon’s Pioneer Courthouse Square. Here’s what AM has to say about the Trayvon Martin situation.
As I continue to read the absolutely tragic and senseless murder of Trayvon Martin in recent weeks, I run a spectrum of logical thoughts and feel an immense passion that his death was horrifying. It was a beautiful, young life shot down for absolutely no reason.
As a mom, with children only a few years younger than Trayvon, I am reminded of the things I must teach them. I live in a neighborhood probably similar to Trayvon’s. It is racially mixed of working class people. After dark, the neighborhood has a different feel. People occasionally walk down the street you have never seen in daylight. The neighborhood park gets a cursory check from the local beat officer to check for nefarious activities. It has a dark side that comes out at night.
What do I teach my kids?
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| The Author & One of her Sons |
If you ever get pulled over by the police, do whatever they say, even if it is absolutely unfair. Do not put your hands in your pockets. Call us when you can. We’ll be there. Getting into a misunderstanding with the police can cost you your life.
You wear a belt. If I see your “business”, you walk around the rest of the day with no pants, because it’s the same result. Plus, you are sending a signal that you identify yourself a certain way. It is a signal you don’t want to send.
Don’t wear certain colors, and no bandanas. Wearing those can send wrong signals again.
So apparently, I also need to cut my kid’s wardrobe in half because hoodies seem to send an inadvertent message too. I am in the same boat, in this case. As the 43 year old mom, I wear hoodies all the time.
However, in all of this sadness, I will not do this. I will not sign any petition that delineates the lines of color in this situation. Why?
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| Yelling Racist & Homophobic Taunts at Tea Partiers 4/15/11 |
Two reasons. I am out and about in my neighborhood late at night. I am a runner. I run four plus miles through my neighborhood after 9 pm, often. I also run late at night wearing a hoodie. I have seen people in hoodies walking through my neighborhood. In the dark of night with the only light coming from an occasional street light, I know you cannot identify a person’s race unless you are under a street light right next to them.
That communicates to me one thing, the race issue of this outrage is media induced, not racially motivated.
Also, violence is violence is violence is violence. The alleged shooter is 26 year old George Zimmerman. In this tragedy, while I don’t think George could necessarily see Trayvon’s race, I think he acted in pure, unadulterated violence. He shot a person who showed no immediate threat of life or limb. There was no immediate threat. George acted in violence because, at best, he was spooked.
So give me a petition to sign that speaks out against spooked neighborhood watch volunteers that are armed, I will sign it.
Send me a petition to require neighborhhod watch volunteers to attend safety training, I will sign it.
Place the petition in front of me demanding justice for senseless violence and murders of unsuspecting victims minding their own business, I will sign it.
Ask me to message my civic leaders warning them that middle aged moms runs in hoodies late at night, I will sign it.
However if you place a petition in front of me adding any delineation of race, I won’t sign it. Don’t ask me to send an email to a community leader in protest of racial violence. I won’t do it.
As long as we continue to make senseless violence race-against-race based, the argument will always focus on race instead of on the victims, the violence, the injustice, and perpetrators. We will always have our focus in the wrong place.
Guess what? My kids and myself have been the victims of what Portland’s city code defines as “hate speech”. We were standing at a peaceful rally 4/15/2011 while having racial charged epithets hurled at myself and my kids. Does it matter the perpetrator of such hate speech towards my kids and others is a black man himself? It makes it kind of twisted and ironic, but it doesn’t change the fact the man broke the law yelling those hideous words.
I have asked numerous times for Mayor Sam Adams meet with me, discuss this with me, and speak out against this kind of behavior. He has refused my requests each and every time. My kids learned several racially charged words that day that, as a mother, I had hoped they would never hear. Instead, I got the privilege of explaining them.
So while I get my story is not in the same camp in terms of severity as the Trayvon Martin case (thankfully) if you take the idea of race out of what happened to me, then the focus is no longer on the races in my family. It is on the violence and keeps the focus where it belongs. It also gives leaders of our community (Hello! Calling Sam Adams to speak out against hate speech!) laser focus, go after the perpetrators instead of who is giving and receiving the violence. Same for the Trayvon Martin case. The focus is to bring justice to the perpetrator instead of what race the players were.
Violence is violence is violence. All of us have the potential to be a victim of a senseless crime and I will always speak out against that and keep the focus where it belongs.
Tell ’em where you saw it. Http://www.victoriataft.com
