Seen It All Before

The killing of 17-year old Trayvon Martin, or at least the subsequent coverage and reaction of his murder, is everything that is good AND bad about the social media world we live in. Good because it brought light to an act of blatant injustice and assumed prejudice. Bad because, like we do with so many other trendy topics in America, it was the latest example of American fad-jumping and overreaction. It makes you wonder what this country would have been like if we had Facebook and Twitter a fifteen years ago when the O.J. Simpson verdict, a moment where racial tension was already palpable, was announced.

Let's get the obvious statement out of the way: The shooting of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman was wrong. Let's get another one out of the way: None of us, beyond the two men involved, were there. We don't know if it's self-defense. We don't know if it was racism. We just don't know. In a society that loves to put a label on everything, we'd love to label Zimmerman's actions as an act of ignorance and the latest example of racial profiling and, when the dust settles, that might be exactly what this ends up being....but we just don't know. Remember Denzel in Training Day? "It's not what you know, it's what you can prove."

Now, I'm not saying there's no cause for outrage. A grown man killing an unarmed child is unacceptable, regardless of race, religion, skin color, etc. I also think that gestures like what the Miami Heat did a couple days ago in wearing hoodies in Martin's honor is one of the rare examples of star athletes putting image aside to support a cause that is dear to their hearts and, for that, guys like LeBron James and Dwayne Wade deserve a fair share of applause(because, we all know, worldwide sponsor whore Michael Jordan would have NEVER done that and I refuse to believe otherwise). My issue is the idea of justice. What exactly would be suitable justice for Zimmerman for all those out there who are clamoring for it? Let's say police arrest Zimmerman and he does life for murder....does that make what happened satisfactory? How about if someone decides to take the law into their own hands, A Time To Kill style, and murders Zimmerman the way he murdered Martin.....will that bring closure to Martin's family? Will that end all this outrage? Of course it won't.

That's my other issue here. Americans want to storm Twitter and Facebook and message boards and newspapers and cry for justice.....without any clear cut demand for what justice would entail. If all it would take for harmony is Zimmerman behind bars, then I imagine that the social pressure would have lead to his arrest by now. However, I refuse to believe we, as American human beings, are that simple. This is a nation that has always eradicated its issues through violence and the seeking of blood. We wanted to retaliate after 9/11 by going into the Middle East and kicking up dust. Many took to the streets and rioted after the Rodney King verdict. We aren't a "Let's talk this out" kind of folk. The irony of the UNITED States of America is that we aren't really UNITED on anything. We can't come to a consensus on who should pay what on taxes, a fair health care plan, good music, what's suitable television, race, religion, fashion, even sports teams. So, it doesn't surprise me that some people view this incident as racially motivated and some view it as self defense. There was a movement on Twitter called "The Trayvon Martin Foundation" whose core ideals is to help counteract racism with racial education. Really? Is that all it takes to end racism, just throwing some money at a problem and having a few seminars? Because I'd like to think we would have crossed that bridge by now. If all it took to end racism was $1 a day and some motivational speaking, then I think many athletes would have paid the freight already. Racism is a social cancer. There's no real cure because it's a product of ignorance, another detriment to society that can't be killed. You would like to think that, in 2012 with an African-American running the country for the first time ever, that we would have blurred the lines between white and black by now, but we haven't and, sadly, we never will. Americans have been trying to educate the ignorant on racism for years. They aren't listening.

Will Smith tweeted recently that "We live in America where a girl that threw flour on Kim Kardashian was arrested on site. But the man who KILLED Trayvon Martin is still free." An excellent point....except that the woman who assaulted Kim K did it in front of swarms of paparazzi and security while Martin was shot down in a vacant alley with no cooperating witnesses. It's another murder with an unjust outcome where the killer still roams the streets...you know, like the Biggie murder and the 2Pac murder. Where was the Fresh Prince at then? Why wasn't Mr. Independence Day sounding the horns for justice then? Oh, probably because it wasn't a trending topic on Twitter then. I've mentioned this before and I said it again in the opening paragraph: Americans are fad-jumpers. Less than a month ago, people were all over Facebook and Twitter aboard the "Kony 2012" bandwagon. That was a fun two-week ride, right, America.....but it eventually stopped being hip to post Kony videos on your Wall, so people stopped doing it. Sadly, that's where we're headed here, too. A month from now, you'll hear more about Jonathan Martin than Trayvon Martin. The death of Trayvon Martin, while tragic and a huge black eye on the face of a society that keeps taking two steps forward and one step back when it comes to racial progress, isn't the first example of racial profiling nor the only time a teenager has been killed by gun violence. Remember Ennis Cosby, son of legendary comedian Bill Cosby, who was shot and killed in 1997 by a couple of white kids while trying to fix a flat tire along Interstate 705 in California? Perhaps you heard about Yusef Hawkins, a 16-year old African American boy, who was killed in Brooklyn back in 1989 by a mob of white kids who believed he was dating a white girl?

Yes, both instances lead to arrests. Yes, both murderers were found guilty and sentenced to jail. No, we didn't have Twitter then. Instead, we went about our outrage a different way: We got up and we did something about it. In those days, guys like Al Sharpton, who never met a racially-motivated cause he couldn't exploit in front of TV cameras, marched the streets in protest. You think Will Smith is going to saunter down the streets of Sanford, Florida screaming for Zimmerman to be put behind bars? Of course not. Why should he when he can protest from behind his Twitter page? The beauty of social media is it allows us to shed light on subjects that might go overlooked. These days, news stories fall into one of two categories: under-reported or overhyped to the point people can't shut the fuck up about it. The issues with social media is that they are a haven for the cowardly. Will Smith may very well care about Trayvon Martin's death, but just because he once pretended to be Muhammad Ali doesn't mean he's going to lead the charge as some kind of civil rights activist the way Ali would have had this happened during The Greatest's prime. Will Smith isn't going to take time out of his busy schedule of making tens of millions of dollars in a recession to make boring movies to go parade outside George Zimmerman's house begging him to turn himself in. That doesn't mean Smith doesn't have a right to voice his opinion. It just makes his opinion every bit as empty as the rest of the fad-jumpers in this country who see this Martin slaying as the latest cause du jour.

Say what you will about LeBron James as an athlete but, while relatively mild, his decision to rock a hoodie in Martin's honor was a physical statement. He didn't hide behind his Twitter page and he didn't try to con you into thinking we can end racism with a couple blank checks and spirited speeches. He went out and he DID something, however minor it may have been. Change won't come from behind a computer. If Americans truly want to stand up to defend Martin's honor and take a stand against the racism that has plagued this world for centuries, it's going to take more than a few re-tweets and Facebook statuses. Martin Luther King Jr. once said "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.". He also said "A man who won't die for something is not fit to live."

The choice is yours, America: Are you willing to follow the lead of a vilified athlete and physically take a stand against the social cancer that you have spent so much of your considerable technological means screaming about or will you stand behind your rich Man In Black and wait for the next chic cause to adopt so you can make more witty quips from behind your iPad?