Trayvon Martin’s death shed an eerie light on some old (but definitely not dusty) issues in America. (Well, not only in America, but for the sake of Renisha McBride and Trayvon Martin, I’ll narrow it down to America .) As divided as America may be on issues of race, gender and class, they are rarely discussed. Pity or thinly-veiled intolerance take the place of acknowledgement on the right and the left pivots toward progress in timelapse. Never mind any talk of change to a system that upholds certain privileges for the privileged. Or at least it seems that way, to a non-American who experiences American culture and politics on, an either up close and personal tourist level or secondhand via media filter. So, by the measure of a Canadian-Austrian-juggler-of-media-rhetoric-living-in-Hamburg, experiencing America can be an (at times infuriating) enigma of contradiction.
99% of the motivation for this post is based on the profound absurdity of systemic intolerance upheld by legislation, under which race, class or gender are categorically undermined. The Trayvon Martin case begged to petition for a change to that system.
Apparently, I grossly underestimate apathy. Or politesse. Whichever it is that prevents change. But what made me sit down and write this, was how bafflingly soon it was for Trayvon Martin’s name fade, only to be replaced by barely a mention of the accidental shooting of Renisha McBride. What part of this does not scream underlying systemic rot where race! gender! and class! are concerned? Lights, Camera, Revolution? Well no. Look, all I’m doing here is drawing comparisons. Because if we can all remember the name Trayvon Martin and overlook Renisha McBride’s, there is not only something deeply rotten in how we deliver, consume and retain news of “accidental” shootings. Indeed, have we learned nothing from tragedies past? Apparently enough to weep and mourn for one but not quite enough to take preventative measures for the next. No doubt, there are a tonne of George Zimmermans and Theodore Wafers who pull triggers. The courts play their part and wash their hands, until it happens again. Rinse and repeat. The problem is clearly systemic.
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