Across the entire country, from U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to NBA superstars to mothers in St. Louis, many Americans are wondering: What do we tell our sons now?
On Saturday night, when a Florida jury found George Zimmerman not guilty of killing unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, St. Louis City Treasurer Tishaura O. Jones asked herself that question.
“What lesson will I teach my son when he gets to be that age?” said Jones, whose son is almost six.
“Are we still living in a world where we have to instruct our black boys about their interactions with police and so-called neighborhood vigilantes? It’s scary.”
Hundreds of devastated St. Louis community members of all races took to the streets on Sunday in front of the St. Louis Justice Center. Today at noon, local activist organizations will lead a protest of the verdict at the Old Courthouse, 11 N. 4th Street.
On Sunday, the NAACP launched an online petition to urge the Department of Justice to file civil rights charges against Zimmerman. By Tuesday, they had reached one million signatures.
On Saturday NAACP leaders were gathering at its annual convention in Orlando, Florida – just 30 miles north of Sanford, the town where Martin was killed.
“When we lose Trayvon Martin due to the color of his skin and the clothes he was wearing, something is truly wrong,” said Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis city branch of the NAACP.
“The Zimmerman verdict has sparked a debate and social action that is reminiscent of African Americans’ reaction to the bombing of the Birmingham Baptist Church and death of Emmett Till.”
As a speaker at the conference, Attorney General Eric Holder told NAACP members that he is still concerned about the case. Trayvon’s death last spring caused him to talk to his own 15-year-old son about interacting with police, Holder said.
“This was a father-son tradition I hoped would not need to be handed down,” Holder said. “But as a father who loves his son and who is more knowing in the ways of the world, I had to do this to protect my boy.”
Civil rights and Stand Your Ground
Many legislators, organizations and individuals have urged the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department to take action. Convicting Zimmerman on federal hate crime charges requires proving beyond a reasonable doubt that Zimmerman shot and killed Martin because of race.
Although Zimmerman had a track record for racially profiling young black men in his neighborhood, Saint Louis University law professor Justin Hansford said racial profiling is not a crime.
“When you think about hate crimes, it’s a lot more direct, such as KKK members who are outspoken about their hatred,” Hansford said.
For many, Zimmerman’s verdict reaffirmed the danger of many states’ Stand Your Ground laws. The self-defense statute, adopted in Florida in 2005, allows victims of perceived crimes to use force when there is reasonable belief of an unlawful threat. Florida state Rep. Alan Williams said he will submit a bill to repeal Florida’s law.
According to a June study by researchers at Texas A&M University, the rates of murder and non-negligent manslaughter increased by eight percent – or 600 homicides a year – in states that enact Stand Your Ground laws.
Whites who kill blacks in Stand Your Ground states are 354 percent more likely to be found justified in killing a black person than a white person who kills another white person, according to a study by the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center. In non-Stand Your Ground states, that number is 250 percent.
Shanti Parikh, an anthropology professor at Washington University, said she was not surprised by the verdict given the complexities of demonstrating “reasonable doubt” in Stand Your Ground cases.
One juror’s recent comments also show how racialized perceptions influenced the verdict, she said.
“We see this contradiction very clearly in statements made by Juror B37 in her interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper,” Parikh said.
“She claims that race didn’t play a factor in the case, while simultaneously drawing upon racial difference when discussing Rachel Jeantel,” the black teen who testified about her last minutes on the phone with Martin before he was killed.
‘The outrage must not stop’
For Parikh, like for many, the verdict was personal.
She said, “As a mother of two black boys, I have to face the reality that an unarmed black teenager in the U.S. can be killed for walking in the rain with a hoodie, his dead body get tested for substances, and he be blamed for causing his own death, while the living adult killer is not subject to the same drug tests or charged with a crime and is eventually acquitted of any wrongdoing and seen as a victim.”
State Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal said the verdict was most hurtful to youth of color and their futures.
“I was very angry and felt hurt on behalf of all people of color, especially young people of color,” she said.
The verdict came down soon after the Normandy School District announced it would pay for its students’ transportation to Francis Howell School District in St. Charles County. At a recent public meeting, outraged St. Charles parents openly stereotyped Normandy’s students, who are 97 percent African-American, as violent.
“African Americans in Normandy were called ‘trash’ by people who live in the Francis Howell School District,” she said.
“For our innocent children to be referred as ‘trash’ last week, and to deal with Trayvon’s murder and the person who killed him to be found innocent – it was a sad day in America’s history and our culture.”
Washington University’s Association for Black Students released a statement, saying, “We recognize that our best way to honor Trayvon Martin is to continue to work to improve the quality of our justice, the attitudes of our citizens and to increase the vigilance of the underlying issues in this case.”
Across the region on Sunday, many congregations fell to their knees in prayer to understand the verdict’s blow, said the Rev. Freddy J. Clark, founder of Shalom Church (City of Peace). The community is prayerful, he said – but outraged.
“This is a great time to have people engaged at this level, having this conversation about crime,” Pastor Clark said. “The outrage must not stop with Trayvon Martin but be the same outrage given to all senseless killings.”
The conviction that a change must come – in laws, perceptions and actions – was as widespread as the rage.
“What do we do next?” Tishaura Jones said. “That’s the question for all of us.”
