Saturday, March 31, 2012

Trayvon Martin: A Student's Reflection

I am posting the following journal entry that was written by a student in one of my classes. I asked for her permission to post this blog entry anonymously. She agreed... What would you say to her?
[Note: I added the photo of Trayvon].

      I am writing this journal out because over the past couple of weeks my heart has really been breaking as I learn more and more about the Trayvon Martin case. I am troubled at the fact that a man could kill a young person and yet be free even after admitting he had killed the young man. There is plenty of evidence that Zimmerman had chased this kid down and killed him for no reason. The police calls, Zimmerman's history, the phone calls Trayvon made to his girlfriend before he was killed. Why has he not been arrested, charged, caught? I feel that this opens the door for more racist people to target people they don't like and get away with it. I'm writing this journal out of frustration.

     I'm frustrated because all of my life I go to history classes that have only taught me about the enslavement, abuse, and deaths of people of similar skin color to me. I learn how my people have always been oppressed and have always been given the lower hand and have to fight continuously to get somewhere in life. I have to go to extra events, or read about how great my people really are as far as inventions and such. My people have been given up to sports because it was a sense of entertainment for other ethnic people. Other than that, everything is a fight, a struggle, and we get ignored or overlooked when we do not know the system. A white person will Never go to history class and have to view or try to make sense of pictures showing people of their color being hung, skinned, burned, shot, raped, beaten, picking cotton, tortured, chained, sold as property, or separated from their families. I try to tell myself that it is history and that the world has moved on, but such a tragic death like Trayvon's, only makes me wonder what is really going on. Why are people trying to ignore this like it is not a racial issue? Why is the system trying to make this shooting okay? You will NEVER hear of a African American person doing harm to a white person or anyone and getting away with it, or the system trying to deviate from the facts of the case to find a justification for the crime. There is no hope for this world.