Comments on: Hoodie Nights: Trayvon Martin and the Racial Politics of Small Things

By: Iris

Iris — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 17:19:00 +0000

I’m not sure what you’re saying here, but in case I wasn’t clear, here is the paragraph from Gail Collins’s column that I was referring to.

“There is a serious trend toward states letting their residents carry
concealed weapons with no more background check than you need to carry a
concealed nutcracker. All of this is based on the gun rights lobby’s
argument that the more armed law-abiding people we have on our streets,
the safer everybody will be. Under this line of thinking, George
Zimmerman’s gated community was safer because Zimmerman was driving
around with his legal gun. You can bet that future Trayvon Martins who
go to the store to buy Skittles after dark will seriously consider
increasing their own safety by packing heat. The next confrontation
along these lines may well involve a pair of legally armed individuals,
legally responding to perceived, albeit nonexistent, threats by sending a
bullet through somebody’s living room window and hitting a senior
citizen watching the evening weather report.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/29/opinion/collins-more-guns-fewer-hoodies.html?ref=gailcollins&_r=0

My comment was made long ago, but is still very relevant with the horrors of gun violence continuing to escalate.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 02:51:00 +0000

Little old ladies in THEIR HOMES watching TV’s are not big criminal suspects.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 02:50:00 +0000

Hey Deborah, some of us are tired of all the black-on-black crime and black-on-white crime. God Bless Bernie Goetz.

By: ThatDeborahGirl

ThatDeborahGirl — Sat, 09 Jun 2012 13:58:00 +0000

Everything about this article is written through white eyes. The conjecture alone is so ridiculous as to be insulting. I get tired of supposed well-meaning white people. They’re worse than the outright racists.

By: Iris

Iris — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 19:12:00 +0000

I feel that Fine’s argument is cynical in the sense that he is imputing ill motives onto others. Celebrities or public figures can have motives that are as genuine as anybody else. Assuming that Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson have spoken up to improve their street cred is just plain cynical. This is the attitude people get who want to disengage from public life, not vote, etc. I’m not a fan of either of these people, but I’m not going to start second guessing what they truly believe. Public figures and celebrities do have the ability to use their fame to highlight injustice in an effort to influence others to affect change. Mark Ruffalo, for instance, is trying to draw attention to the pollution of water supplies that could be linked to fracking. He has been giving a round of interviews on this topic. Is he doing this because he’s a washed up actor who wants to get back in the limelight?

Fine is also saying that people “would rather have their fantasy.” I don’t believe this to be the case. People want an investigation so, as best as possible, the truth of that night can be known.

Obviously, there is a need for intelligent dialog in this country about race relations. I agree with Fine about this. There also needs to be a discussion about guns, and gun laws. I “enjoyed” an article by Gail Collins a couple of weeks ago where she’s writing about a hypothetical scenario of a hooded teenager feeling compelled to carry a gun to protect himself from a wanna-be do-gooder, and a confrontation leads to a little old lady getting shot in her living room while watching the evening weather report. Here is where I can get cynical, or perhaps just sad, because I don’t have much hope that any anti-gun legislation can get past the NRA.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 16:40:00 +0000

I don’t really get the sense that Dr. Fine’s argument is cynical. It appears to me that he is asking for a calmer, more sober reflection on the state of race relations in the United States. However, I do find troubling the statement that “Trayvon had been suspended several times from high school with indications of drug use and perhaps burglary,” which is all too similar to the loose media discourse surrounding the tragedy. What might be more instructive here would be to mention some facts, that is, the specific referents of the words “drug use” and “burglary.” Drug use here refers to smoking marijuana, and specifically an empty bag which had once contained marijuana was found. As for “perhaps burglary,” this refers to Martin’s possession of a “burglary kit,” which refers to a screwdriver, which was assumed he use to steal the women’s jewelry which was also found in his possession. (To my knowledge Martin was never charged with burglary).

I do think that the “Stand Your Ground” may have just as easily been applied to Martin. The fact that, in the absence of witnesses, the police take the word of the assumed defender. Does this make the law in essence a license to kill? Why was it just assumed that Martin was the attacker? Because he was black? I would really want to know more about the “Stand Your Ground” law and who it was designed to protect. It seems obvious that this law was not designed to protect young black men wearing hoodies from community watch volunteers that decide to play vigilante for no apparent reason.

By: Iris

Iris — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:40:00 +0000

It seems to me that this is a cynical argument. It doesn’t matter whether Trayvon Martin was a perfect little teenager or not. Zimmerman was recorded on tape as saying he was following Martin. He was told not to do this by the police dispatcher. This is clear, but the police did not investigate. That’s what people (celebrities and non-celebrities) are upset about. As more of the story has been leaked, it’s even more evident that Zimmerman should be taken into custody and tried. Let the whole story be told in court with witness and expert testimony. Doesn’t it seem that the Stand Your Ground law could have more easily been applied to Martin, who could have tried to defend himself from his armed pursuer? Martin was not able to tell his story.