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June 1, 2012
May 16, 2012
"
I could very easily see how Martin, fully within his rights to walk back to his father’s home, could judge a strange man following him to be possessed of ill-intent.
What always shook me about this case, was not the belief that Zimmerman ruthlessly slaughtered a 17-year old child, but the act of putting myself in that child’s place, and seeing how I just as easily have ended making a decision to defend myself.
"— Ta-Nehisi Coates, on why his thoughts about Trayvon Martin remain unchanged.
April 26, 2012
"
Why some cases with perceived racial implications catch the national consciousness and others do not is as much about the combined power of social and traditional media as it is about happenstance, said Ta-Nehisi Coates, a senior editor at The Atlantic who writes about racial issues.
Several events coalesced to push the Martin case forward: an apparently incomplete police investigation, no immediate arrest and Florida’s expansive self-defense law.
‘These stories happen all the time,’ Mr. Coates said. ‘It’s heartbreaking and tragic, but there’s not much news coverage unless the circumstances are truly, truly unusual.’
‘Stories like the south Georgia killing don’t have the same particulars,’ he said. ‘One of the great tragedies is that people get shot under questionable circumstances in this country all the time.’
"— “Black Man’s Killing in Georgia Eludes Spotlight”, The New York Times
April 20, 2012
Photo Shows Blood on George Zimmerman’s Head After Martin Shooting
ABC News has just broadcast a never-before-seen photo that apparently shows blood on the back of George Zimmerman’s head immediately after he shot Trayvon Martin. The photo would appear to back up Zimmerman’s assertion that he fought with Martin, and that Martin slammed his head into the concrete sidewalk during the scuffle. It would also verify the police report that said Zimmerman was bleeding that night. ABC says that the photo was taken by a witness who arrived on scene after hearing the altercation and that metadata embedded in the photo confirms the time and location to be right after the February shooting. Read more.
Click the image below for a closer look at Zimmerman’s injuries:
April 16, 2012
![Exposing ALEC: How Conservative-Backed State Laws Are All Connected
To itself, ALEC is an organization dedicated to the advancement of free market and limited government principles through a unique “public-private partnership” between state legislators and the corporate sector. To its critics, it’s a shadowy back-room arrangement where corporations pay good money to get friendly legislators to introduce pre-packaged bills in state houses across the country. Started in the mid-1970s, ALEC’s existence has been long known but its practices, largely, have not; the group hasn’t been eager to tie its bills in Wisconsin to those in Ohio to those in North Carolina. […]
”If it’s voter ID, it’s ALEC,” observed Doug Clopp, deputy director of programs at Common Cause. “If it’s anti-immigration bills written hand-in-glove with private prison corporations, it’s ALEC. If it’s working with the N.R.A. on ‘Shoot to Kill’ laws, it’s ALEC. When you start peeling back state efforts to opt out of the regional greenhouse gas initiative, it’s ALEC.” Adopted first in the states, by the time these laws bubble up to the national level, they’re the conventional wisdom on policy.
Read more. [Image: Reuters]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2kuhxrj8r1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
Exposing ALEC: How Conservative-Backed State Laws Are All Connected
To itself, ALEC is an organization dedicated to the advancement of free market and limited government principles through a unique “public-private partnership” between state legislators and the corporate sector. To its critics, it’s a shadowy back-room arrangement where corporations pay good money to get friendly legislators to introduce pre-packaged bills in state houses across the country. Started in the mid-1970s, ALEC’s existence has been long known but its practices, largely, have not; the group hasn’t been eager to tie its bills in Wisconsin to those in Ohio to those in North Carolina. […]
”If it’s voter ID, it’s ALEC,” observed Doug Clopp, deputy director of programs at Common Cause. “If it’s anti-immigration bills written hand-in-glove with private prison corporations, it’s ALEC. If it’s working with the N.R.A. on ‘Shoot to Kill’ laws, it’s ALEC. When you start peeling back state efforts to opt out of the regional greenhouse gas initiative, it’s ALEC.” Adopted first in the states, by the time these laws bubble up to the national level, they’re the conventional wisdom on policy.
Read more. [Image: Reuters]
April 10, 2012
![‘The Real George Zimmerman’ Starts His Own Website
George Zimmerman’s lawyers have confirmed that the hastily constructed website at therealgeorgezimmmerman.com does in fact belong to the real George Zimmerman. The website, which was launched yesterday, contains an abbreviated statement from the man at the center of the Trayvon Martin shooting case and includes a PayPal link for anyone wishing to contribute to his legal defense fund and living expenses. The bare bones pages contain no evidence that it actually is Zimmerman or that any money given would actually go to him, but both Fox News and NBC News say that his lawyers have verified that it is him.
In the statement Zimmerman writes, “As a result of the incident and subsequent media coverage, I have been forced to leave my home, my school, my employer, my family and ultimately, my entire life.” He adds that there are other sites claiming to collect money on his behalf, but that he has received no funds from anyone else.
The rest of the site contains an almost comically bad layout — the only images are an American flag and some pro-Zimmerman graffiti — and is littered with quotes from famous thinkers like Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine. Links labeled “The Facts” and “My Race” don’t contain any actual facts about Zimmerman’s story or race, as he says he cannot discuss the case while the police investigation continues. The site is so poorly made that it almost confirms that it is the work of a man who has gone into hiding and truly has no other resources at his disposal.
Read more at The Atlantic Wire. [Image: therealgeorgezimmerman.com]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m29l5cafnX1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
‘The Real George Zimmerman’ Starts His Own Website
George Zimmerman’s lawyers have confirmed that the hastily constructed website at therealgeorgezimmmerman.com does in fact belong to the real George Zimmerman. The website, which was launched yesterday, contains an abbreviated statement from the man at the center of the Trayvon Martin shooting case and includes a PayPal link for anyone wishing to contribute to his legal defense fund and living expenses. The bare bones pages contain no evidence that it actually is Zimmerman or that any money given would actually go to him, but both Fox News and NBC News say that his lawyers have verified that it is him.
In the statement Zimmerman writes, “As a result of the incident and subsequent media coverage, I have been forced to leave my home, my school, my employer, my family and ultimately, my entire life.” He adds that there are other sites claiming to collect money on his behalf, but that he has received no funds from anyone else.
The rest of the site contains an almost comically bad layout — the only images are an American flag and some pro-Zimmerman graffiti — and is littered with quotes from famous thinkers like Edmund Burke and Thomas Paine. Links labeled “The Facts” and “My Race” don’t contain any actual facts about Zimmerman’s story or race, as he says he cannot discuss the case while the police investigation continues. The site is so poorly made that it almost confirms that it is the work of a man who has gone into hiding and truly has no other resources at his disposal.
Read more at The Atlantic Wire. [Image: therealgeorgezimmerman.com]
April 6, 2012
![Are We Teaching Kids the Wrong Lessons About Trayvon?
In the past few weeks, I have read a number of articles about conversations that I, as a black mother, should be having with my 9-year-old son. In his Time.com article “How to Talk to Young Black Boys About Trayvon Martin,” Touré begins by saying: “It’s unlikely but possible that you could get killed today. Or any day. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth. Black maleness is a potentially fatal condition.”
In a CNN blog post, Christy Oglesby speaks of the numerous warnings she has given her son, Drew, about how society might perceive him simply because of his race and gender. “He was only 3 when I got confirmation that being black could be the death of him,” she writes, recounting how a little white girl deemed her son “dirty and dangerous,” presumably because of the color of his skin.
In light of Trayvon Martin’s death, I, too, have cautiously begun the process of preparing my son for the challenges that likely lie ahead of him. I am unprepared for these conversations. I left the United States when I was 3 and spent most of my childhood in Kenya. While there are certainly issues with race and class in Kenya, I never experienced the kind of racism my son will have to deal with in the U.S. As a child, it never dawned on me that anyone would see me as any different, simply because my skin is brown. And so I was completely naïve and did not really think about how my child would be perceived, until last year. […]
I have been told by friends who grew up in the United States that I am going to have to give him lessons on how to behave around police officers. I am going to have to somehow get him to understand, though he certainly cannot wrap his mind around it now, that people will see him as a menace simply because of the color of his skin.
But here’s the thing—I don’t want my son to grow up with these thoughts in his head. My parents never had to give my brother or me these survival tips, and so we were able to grow up blissfully unaware of racism, at least the American variety. I want the same for my child. It is such a burden having to live by a different set of rules, knowing that society at large views you as “less than” because you are black, and male.
Read more. [Image: Reuters]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m22m4wCxhV1qcokc4o1_1280.jpg)
Are We Teaching Kids the Wrong Lessons About Trayvon?
In the past few weeks, I have read a number of articles about conversations that I, as a black mother, should be having with my 9-year-old son. In his Time.com article “How to Talk to Young Black Boys About Trayvon Martin,” Touré begins by saying: “It’s unlikely but possible that you could get killed today. Or any day. I’m sorry, but that’s the truth. Black maleness is a potentially fatal condition.”
In a CNN blog post, Christy Oglesby speaks of the numerous warnings she has given her son, Drew, about how society might perceive him simply because of his race and gender. “He was only 3 when I got confirmation that being black could be the death of him,” she writes, recounting how a little white girl deemed her son “dirty and dangerous,” presumably because of the color of his skin.
In light of Trayvon Martin’s death, I, too, have cautiously begun the process of preparing my son for the challenges that likely lie ahead of him. I am unprepared for these conversations. I left the United States when I was 3 and spent most of my childhood in Kenya. While there are certainly issues with race and class in Kenya, I never experienced the kind of racism my son will have to deal with in the U.S. As a child, it never dawned on me that anyone would see me as any different, simply because my skin is brown. And so I was completely naïve and did not really think about how my child would be perceived, until last year. […]
I have been told by friends who grew up in the United States that I am going to have to give him lessons on how to behave around police officers. I am going to have to somehow get him to understand, though he certainly cannot wrap his mind around it now, that people will see him as a menace simply because of the color of his skin.
But here’s the thing—I don’t want my son to grow up with these thoughts in his head. My parents never had to give my brother or me these survival tips, and so we were able to grow up blissfully unaware of racism, at least the American variety. I want the same for my child. It is such a burden having to live by a different set of rules, knowing that society at large views you as “less than” because you are black, and male.
Read more. [Image: Reuters]
April 4, 2012
"Unconscious or not, altering the tape in this way was incredibly unfair to Zimmerman, and incredibly stupid for NBC . How did they not think they would be caught? The real tape is out there."
— Ta-Nehisi Coates, on the rank stupidity of altering the Zimmerman tape.
March 30, 2012
What Did Trayvon Look Like? That Depends on Your Politics
When Trayvon Martin became national news earlier this month, many Americans were shocked that anyone could think such a sweet-looking kid was a menace, much less shoot him to death as he walked home with a bag of Skittles. But some media outlets want readers to see him differently. As the controversy has stayed in the news, some conservatives got the idea that liberals were somehow benefitting from it, and launched a campaign to show that Martin wasn’t so adorable after all. Several right-wing bloggers, like the Drudge Report, Dan Riehl, and Michelle Malkin’s Twitchy, have made this case — sometimes using photos of the wrong teenager. But as The New York Times‘ Robert Mackey points out, The Daily Caller has been a leader in portraying Martin as a thug, using photos and slang-packed tweets to show him as a menace. The Daily Caller’s stories about the Martin don’t include him smiling at his birthday cake or proudly decked out for prom. Rather, the site seems to prefer photos of Martin flicking off the camera or showing gold teeth.
March 30, 2012
"What, precisely, is the relevance of wearing gold grills? What, specifically, is the pertinence of having once given an obscene gesture? Why, exactly, does it matter that Martin’s imagination sometimes ranged into profane thoughts of sex and violence? How does any of this help us understand his killing at the hands of by George Zimmerman?"
— Ta-Nehisi Coates, on the scrutinization of Trayvon Martin’s life.
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