Am I Next? Thoughts about Trayvon

It could have been nothing more than a big brother’s love that prompted Trayvon Martin to make a quick trek to a nearby 7-Eleven, during halftime of the televised Feb. 26th NBA All-Star Game, to buy some Skittles candy for his little brother.

And it probably was nothing more than society’s propensity to disregard the lives of black males that led to 17-year-old Trayvon never making it home alive; and for his killer to still not be charged with any crime.

A Neighborhood Watch volunteer named George Zimmerman admitted to shooting an unarmed Trayvon with one 9mm bullet to the boy’s chest. Zimmerman told police that he spotted the “suspicious” 17-year-old while on his vigilante duty. He called 911, then followed the teen -against the dispatcher’s orders, confronted him and ultimately, after a struggle, murdered him. Zimmerman claims the shooting was in self-defense. 

And the police have concurred. They concluded the killing was justifiable because Zimmerman – ten years older and 100 pounds heavier, was “standing his ground” in this Sanford, Florida gated community less than 30 minutes from Walt Disney World.

As a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the nation’s first and largest Black fraternity organization, I, and thousands of my brothers nationwide, are speaking out in outrage. Our late Alpha Brother Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” 

We were all once teen-agers like Trayvon. We are fathers like his father. We are brothers. We are students. We are employers, employees, entrepreneurs. We are Republicans and Democrats. We are taxpayers and, most importantly, we are citizens. We are not suspicious solely based on the color of our skin.

As such, we are compelled to call for immediate action from the federal Justice Department’s Office of Civil Rights, since the Sanford Police Department and the local District Attorney have found no sufficient evidence to arrest Zimmerman. 

We applaud the department’s recent announcement that they, along with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida and the FBI, will launch “a thorough and independent investigation into the facts and circumstances of the shooting” and have pledged to “take appropriate action at the conclusion of the investigation.”

As it stands now in Florida, walking while black down the street is a crime that could be met by a death sentence. Trayvon posed no imminent danger to Zimmerman; he’d even tried to run away. How else would a reasonable person be expected to try to avoid danger or a confrontation? Can you change your skin color while in flight? What is wrong with this, and other similar situations, and why do they so often involve a young black male?

Could another young black person be shot again, in another part of the country – in our city - just because they looked like they didn’t belong? Probably, and sadly, it very likely will.

The men of Alpha believe in liberty and justice for all innocent people no matter what the color of their skin. We grieve with Trayvon Martin’s family; and mourn for a lost sibling, a young man, a good brother. We, and many others, plan to continue to advocate and agitate because again, “an injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”