Racism

Emmett Till - Trayvon Martin - Jordan Davis

Emmett Till's story took place in 1955, almost 60 years ago. He was brutally beaten and kill for allegedly flirting with a white woman while visiting family in the south. Both of his attackers were tried for murder, but were acquitted by an all white jury. He was just 14-years-old. The injustices here are too many to number. He was an innocent minor, unarmed. His life cut short because men decided to "take matters into their own hands". But what matters? He had done nothing illegal, he had caused no harm to anyone and what they did accuse him of was under considerable question as to whether or not he actually did it. 

Fast forward 57 years to 2012. What has changed? Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old visiting his father's fiancee near Orlando. He went to the store and purchased Skittles and an iced tea and was walking home. A member of the local neighborhood watch, Zimmerman, determined that he was "up to no good". After calling the police and being told not to follow the teen, Zimmerman ignored their request and followed Martin. An altercation ensued and Zimmerman shot and killed the unarmed minor. What was his crime? He wore a hoodie. A similar case was Jordan Davis'. He was playing music too loudly in his car with some friends. After a gun that never existed was pointed at a man that had asked them to turn down the music, 8 or 9 shots were fired at the teens, killing Davis. 

After nearly 60 years...what has changed? If anything these cases have gotten worse. Racism cannot be denied. It exists today more than ever. The spectrum of discrimination has widened to include Hispanics and those of middle eastern descent. To some every Hispanic is  here illegally and came to take your job while all people from the middle east are terrorist that want to murder Americans!!! While of course this fear is completely illogical, it exists in many even though not all voice their opinions. 

This crude and awful cartoon is an extreme example of how many racists, those both vocal and those that keep their bigoted, opinions to themselves, feel. There is no denying that there is a huge problem when smut like this should have been eliminated from our country years ago but it is in fact alive now, maybe more than ever. While great strides have been made 

for civil rights and equal opportunity, there is no controlling peoples opinion. These extreme cases possibly resulted from flaws in government or law enforcement, but the real killer, literally, was the opinions of a select few that resulted in the deaths of innocent youths that were totally unarmed and totally defenseless. This cartoon is so racist, so bigoted, so prejudiced, so many things that are wrong with the world today but that sadly it is still how some people feel! After 60 years nothing has changed from Till to Martin and Davis! Under the law advancements may have been made but in reality so many minds still cling to the horrible sentiments that cripple personal liberty and freedom and directly oppose the principles that this country was founded on. ALL men are created equal. Not all men are created equal so long as you know your place and stay there. What does it say about America if a young man walking home from buying candy is murdered for wearing a hoodie and being black!!! The final blow that takes this instance from being horrible to catastrophic is that many feel his actions were justified. He felt threatened therefore it must be okay to murder an innocent boy that did nothing buy buy some candy.  

Acquittal - The men that kidnapped, beat, and murdered Till were tried for murder but acquitted. This is another horrid injustice from these tragic cases. Not only did these men commit heinous crimes for no reason other than prejudiced against innocent black youths, they got away with it. In the 50's this case had absolutely no chance of charging two white men with murdering a black boy and actually punishing them. We would like to think that this is not the case today and to some extent it isn't. The judicial system is much fairer now and the guilty will be punished for their crimes - usually. However when Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, the police detained him but never arrested him because he claimed self defense against an unarmed teenager. This is a little more than unfair and fishy. Lets just hope the future holds something better than the past but there is no doubt that racism is still alive and doing well...