Racism

In the wake of the Zimmerman trial, there have been the riots that many anticipated -- make that feared -- in the event of his acquittal.  Justice, that high ideal tossed around as a synonym for specific desires, was wrought in the trial, with no one complaining about the composition of the jury, the evidence allowed in, the jury instructions given or the jury's deliberations.  From all accounts, the trial was a fair one and a verdict was rendered.  Yet because the verdict many anticipated or desired eluded them, rioting is the only alternative.

To repeat:  I don't know what happened that fatal night.  Zimmerman may be a punk with a vendetta against black people.  Trayvon Martin might have been a thug mascarading as an innocent teenager. Or Zimmerman could have been a Latin Barney Fife and Martin a wide-eyed teenager who was understandably frightened.  We'll never know for sure.

But the system worked.  That the system didn't provide the outcome many people wanted doesn't mean that justice wasn't served.  From what I'm reading, the prosecution had a weak case, didn't present what it had well and reasonable doubt was not only asserted it took up residence in the courtroom. If that's true, there was only one possible outcome.

Instead, the uproar has been about how this was a racially motivated verdict, that a black man cannot receive justice in this country and that there will be protests until things are done to change the system to make it more fair.

Well.

Why is it that when a white man commits a crime against a minority, it absolutely, positively, must necessarily be a hate crime?  Could it not be the result of greed, lust or any of the other seven deadly sins?  Why is it that blacks can judge whites by the color of their skin but whites must maintain a race-neutral approach when judging blacks?

For example, there was this little nugget that, of course, received next-to-nothing attention on the network newscasts:  Four black men raped the black wife in front of her white husband and then killed her and her husband in San Diego.  Nigger lover was spray painted on the walls of the couple's apartment.  Yet prosecutors saw no reason to charge the accused with a hate crime.

You can read about this case here:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/murder_of_Jan_Pawel_and_Quiana_Jenkins_Pietrzak

In a northern Mississippi town after the Zimmerman verdict, a white jogger was beaten up and left for dead by blacks who told him it was for Trayvon.  The police didn't see any reason to investigate a hate crime.  The FBI is now investigating.

Perhaps the best instance of a retaliatory violence is the infamous attack on Reginald Denny in the aftermath of the Rodney King verdict.  What was done to that innocent man was scandalous.  Yet one of the defendants claimed that they just got caught up in the moment.  Only the brick thrower was convicted of anything serious.  No hate crimes were charged.

In commenting about the Zimmerman verdict -- with which he agrees -- Charles Barkely said that ther is such a thing as black racists.  Others believe that blacks can't be racists because they have no power, although with Barack Obama occupying the White House that argument is undercut just a tad.

It is high time for blacks to stop looking for racist motives in everything bad that happens to them at the hands of white people.  There are racists out there -- skinheads, ignorant people, dyed-in-the-wool segregationists who will not admit the equality of the races.  But sometimes, things just happen without any extra motivation.  To live in a multiracial society invites such interactions.  For street thugs to react the way they have is one thing, but for others, like Stevie Wonder and Jesse Jackson, to make the Zimmerman verdict a racial event is appalling.  Goaded by the MSM to frame this sorry event as a racial test case, they have set back the cause of civil rights.  Those whites who were more than willing to treat blacks as equals are confused and hurt; those who never wanted equality can point to these accounts and claim that they always knew it would happen because blacks are no better than savages.

Responsible parties within the black community must stand up and be counted.  Combat racism where it truly arises.  Don't inject it into every social interaction between blacks and whites.  Saying racism is present when it isn't doesn't make it so.

Martin Luther King, Jr., would be ashamed of these opportunists and would have to agree with George Will who has christened this the Forever Selma movement, whose goal is to extend the public lives of people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and give them continued, if illusory, relevance.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles