Still chasing the dream

On the night of February 26 a neighborhood watch member George Zimmerman shot and killed an unarmed teenager, Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Fla. Zimmeman claimed Martin, who was reportedly walking home from his father’s fiancé’s house, was acting suspicious. Martin’s supporters say he was a victim of racial profiling and that Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, is racist.

At a recent rally in Iowa City this week, high school junior Vanessa Jernagin told the Iowa City Press-Citizen that she feels a kinship with Martin. Jernagin says Martin “could have been my brother, he could have been one of my friends, he could have been me.”

That echo’s a sentiment uttered by none other than the President himself who stated that if he had a son “he would look like Trayvon.” What that is supposed to mean exactly has been the subject of some debate, but White House officials say it was not to inject race into the discussion.

Really? I’m not sure what else it could have meant, but ok.

So how about Miss Jernagin, how much could an Iowa City high school junior really know about a Florida teenager who was unknown here prior to his death. And yet she identifies with him some how? Why?

Perhaps it is because Trayvon Martin is being portrayed as the victim of racial profiling, a real issue that perhaps she has experienced herself. But was Martin a young man who was tragically killed because of the color of his skin or because of what he was doing? That is certainly how he has been portrayed up to this point. He was unarmed and simply walking home, defenders of Mr. Martin say, when he was singled out by an over-zealous, racist, armed, neighborhood watch volunteer who shot first and asked questions later.

The case has now attracted the usual cast of activists including Jesse Jackson and The Rev. Al Sharpton and with that we can be sure that any meaningful discussion will be lost in the usual inflamed rhetoric.

It’s clear that race is an important part of this debate and in any case where race is an issue, the facts themselves become secondary. Nothing beats a good sound bite.

I don’t know if George Zimmerman was justified in shooting Trayvon Martin. His attorneys claim, and a police report seem to corroborate, that he was involved in a fight with Mr. Martin, (his attorney says he was attacked) that resulted in a bloody nose and head for Zimmerman and ultimately Martins death. He claims Zimmerman called for help and none arrived. At this point none of that matters.

We’ve fallen back to our default positions on race and have broken out the usual arguments and sloganeering. It makes for gripping TV, but doesn’t do much for making real progress with race relations. 

In my lifetime, race relations have changed dramatically. I grew up in a time when black children in the small Texas town we briefly lived in went to a different swimming pool than I did. I was a kid, and didn’t really think about it. It was just the way it was. Now that sounds crazy.

Of course there is more to do, racial profiling does exist and it’s wrong. And there are still those that cling to extreme racist views. And sadly there are those who would never consider themselves to be racists but who occasionally use inappropriate terms, or tell those awkward jokes that make us cringe. Despite that I believe we have made remarkable strides. My kid’s attitudes towards race are far different than mine were at their age and, I hope, their kids will have different views than they do. Progress is slow, painfully slow sometimes. But we are making progress and I’m happy for that.

Dr Martin Luther King famously said he dreamed of a day when people would be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. I don’t presume to know how Dr. King would have felt about Martin or Zimmerman, but I can’t help but wonder if he would be happy with the discussion we’re having where we replace character with caricatures.