George Zimmerman is innocent- What now?

George Zimmerman’s not guilty verdict was shocking to many Americans- causing riots, protests, and uproar throughout the country. In the last week, my facebook and twitter feeds have been filled with overtly strong opinions regarding the George Zimmerman verdict. Recent articles have stated that George Zimmerman’s innocence, much like Obama’s election and re-election, has created animosity and stress between friends who hold different viewpoints, resulting in the deleting and blocking of facebook friends. This might have much to do with the fact that race is an underlying issue in this case. In my experience, anytime race is discussed there seems to be immediate feelings of uneasiness, sensitivity, and angst. People don’t seem to have a difficult time talking about issues or stories that illustrate sexual orientation privilege, class privilege, or age privilege- but when race privilege is discussed- things get tend to get a little crazy! This is only because of one thing: Racism.

Because of my critical lens and social justice framework, I can’t ignore the fact that race has something to do with the fact that Trayvon Martin will never be able to enjoy high-school, embrace his parents again, or graduate from college. However, I don’t think I am going to accomplish much by starting an intellectual argument with my facebook friends who disagree with me. I do think the only thing we can do is try to learn from what happened.

In the last week or so, conversations of race and White privilege have inundated mainstream media and social media. Every news source or blog I read this past week (which is plenty) has some commentary either blaming race or arguing that race has absolutely nothing to do with the outcome of the trial. Blaming will get us no where. Pointing fingers is not going to change the fact that Trayvon Martin lost his life or the fact that George Zimmerman is a free man.

What we can do is educate ourselves and others about the racial stereotypes that may have caused this incident to happen in the first place. This tragedy has shown us that we are most definitely not a post-race society and that we are in dire need of ongoing education and awareness of racial stereotypes. Stereotyping is something that we ALL naturally do- stereotypes are generalizations that ignore diversity and individuality within culture groups. As this White activist points out, we learn to adhere to stereotypes that are created and re-centered in our society. Stereotypes can lead to discrimination and as we all now know, sometimes go so far as ending one’s life.

Be informed, be empowered, be your own catalyst for change.

Start here: http://imnotwhoyouthinkiamstereotypes.weebly.com/index.html