the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Aug 5, 2013
The media, trying to find an excuse for the outrageous acquittal of George Zimmerman, explain that the reactionary Florida “Stand Your Ground” law made it impossible to convict Zimmerman.
That’s certainly what the local prosecutors said when they first refused to put Zimmerman on trial, and what the police said when they didn’t arrest him. It’s also what several of the jurors said in justifying their acquittal.
All of them–all of these whites and Hispanics–agreed that race was not an issue, not in the murder, not in the acquittal.
What bullshit!
If the case really had been decided based on Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, Zimmerman would have been convicted. Because the person to whom that law applied should have been Trayvon Martin. He was the one who was stalked, followed through his own father’s neighborhood. He was the one threatened by a man with a gun.
Yet, none of the jurors thought the law supported Trayvon Martin, only Zimmerman. They actually believed that an unarmed young black teenager was a danger to a much larger, older white man carrying a gun.
They turned the victim into the threat, the murderer into the victim.
It’s a perfect example of the racism that widely pervades this society, so widely that every young black man knows there is a risk when he’s in the street in the midst of whites.
Most whites and Hispanics may believe they aren’t racist–maybe so. But like the jurors who wanted to convict, but didn’t have the backbone to do it, how many of them fail to stand up to the whites who are racist?
No “apology” afterwards makes up for that enormous deficiency.