Bobby Rush enters the well of Congress, removes his suit jacket,
and reveals a hoodie like the one worn by Trayvon Wilson when
he was killed Feb. 26. Rush was immediately expelled for
violating
the Congressional rule on hat wearing, Mar. 28.
The Terrible Burden on 'American
Black Boys' (Le Monde, France)
“Trayvon Martin has awakened consciences. In 'post-racial'
America, more than three years after the election of a Black president, a man
could slaughter a youth wearing a sweatshirt because he looked 'suspicious'
- and he could do so without being pursued by police.”
Emmitt Till: In order for her son not to have died in vain, his mother insisted that at his funeral, Emitt Till's casket would be open, so that the public would see his horrifyingly mutilated body, and the results of racism in America.
WASHINGTON: In 1955, Emmett Till, a
youth from Chicago aged 14, while visiting his cousins in Mississippi, was
killed by two Whites. He had boasted of having White friends - unthinkable in
the South, and had addressed the grocer with more than a little familiarity. The
husband of the latter and an accomplice were acquitted, in a miscarriage of
justice that brought an intensification of the civil rights movement in the
United States.
Since the February 26 death of Trayvon
Martin, a 17-year-old killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer while visiting
his parents at a gated community, some have drawn parallels to the 1955 drama.
Thousands of young people throughout the country have
demonstrated with hooded sweatshirts like the one worn by the victim. More than
2 million people have signed his parents' petition demanding "Justice for Trayvon Martin."
On March 21, the young man's mother filed papers to patent
the slogan - soon to be a brand: "I am Trayvon." On March 28, Illinois Representative and ex-Black
Panther Bobby Rush entered the well of Congress dressed in a sweatshirt - hood up
- which led to his expulsion [video below].
AWAKENING OF CONSCIENCE
Trayvon Martin has awakened
consciences. In "post-racial" America, more than three years after
the election of a Black president, a man could slaughter a youth wearing a
sweatshirt because he looked "suspicious" - and he could do so without
being pursued by police.
Trayvon was not the caricature of
a rapper at odds with the world. He dreamed of being an airline pilot. His
mother took him skiing. His parents are part of the new Black middle class that
has access to Florida's gated communities. "If I had a son," said
Barack Obama, "he'd look like Trayvon."
The drama has rekindled old images. Just like it was in Emmett
Till’s day, in some places it is dangerous to be a Black adolescent: a curse that
New
York Times columnist Charles Blow,
the father of two teenagers, calls the “burden of Black boys." According
to North Carolina journalist Mary Curtis, parents dread the age when, "the
child everyone thought was so cute becomes a young man, and strangers clutch
their wallets or wait for the next elevator in his presence." So it is
necessary to school him in the rules of safety: "don't run" in the
street and "never with something in your hands" which might suggest
robbery, "and never hold a tit-for-tat with a police officer."
Notes journalist Jonathan Capehart,
despite all the progress that has been made, this drama reminds us that,
"the burden of suspicion continues to weigh on us."
There are more disparities in treatment today than ever
before. According to an official investigation of 72,000 public schools published
in March, Black students are three-and-a-half times more likely to be punished
than Whites. For boys alone, one in five had received some form of suspension
in 2009.
Posted
by Worldmeets.US
"This is the sad reality," laments Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who commissioned the study. "Students from minority
backgrounds face much stricter discipline than others - even in the same
school." And if Trayvon Martin was in Sanford instead
of Miami with his parents, it was because he had been suspended: "traces
of marijuana" had been found in a plastic bag at the bottom of his knapsack.
