The Patriot Post® · Focus on the Victims

It was only by happenstance that one day last week, I heard a fabulous and very moving interview on NPR, the radio station I never listen to because I am more interested in the twang of the steel guitar, my own music on my iPad, and – to be perfectly candid – “a better class of losers.” The fact I am not a regular listener tells more about me than the station, I assure you.

Anyway, there the interview was with a couple of articulate, classy young black men who were decrying our latest national tragedy, the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. On Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., he was walking through a gated community while wearing a hooded jacket and, unarmed, was shot by a neighborhood watch volunteer, a 28-year-old former altar boy we have learned was George Zimmerman.

“I can’t do anything about being black,” said one college-aged kid during the NPR interview. “I know that some people, when they see me, may feel threatened and I am hurt by that. Because I dress differently or my hair is different doesn’t mean I am not respectful or caring. I just want to be treated the same way they would treat their friends’ kids.”

Boy, what a dagger in my soul. Another told of riding in a car with a white classmate, who was driving. “We got stopped and if I talked to a police officer like he did, I would have gone to jail. There is a definite perception out there that young black males are predators or criminals and that’s not the truth, not at all.”

The gunman Zimmerman, who had not been arrested as on Monday afternoon yet is in hiding as death threats and public-opinion force his concern, is believed to be shielded by a Florida “Stand Your Ground” law that permits self-defense with guarding your own property. (Zimmerman’s lawyer contends there was an altercation between the two and police confirm Zimmerman had a bloody nose and blood on the back of his head.)

My heart has been in anguish since the snowball started rolling and caused the public eye to notice, which is both good and right. But now it hurts for another reason. When a 28-year-old white guy shoots a 17-year-old black kid, President Barak Obama gets his picture on the front page of the paper with a quote that says, “Trayvon could have been my son.”

But when a 15-year-old black kid gets shot by a 21-year-old black guy in any city in America, it doesn’t even make the first section of the newspaper anymore. You might find a three-inch story under “local briefs” but if you’ll study how many young black males have been shot in Chattanooga, Tenn., just this year alone, you’ll be horrified by the lack of public response.

But make the shooter white and – oh, brother – we have 400 protest in Birmingham, hundreds wear hoodies in Nashville and activists planning a demonstration in Chattanooga. Almost all of the protesters – watch the film clips – are black and take a full day to demonstrate yet when the shooter is a black member of a gang, they do absolutely nothing.

Is this about justice? What are we really talking about? How is this for an example:

Rev. Al Sharpton, quick to capitalize on any racial strife, was at Macedonia Baptist Church in Eatonville, Fla., yesterday before a massive rally and march were planned for later Monday in Sanford. Rev. Sharpton, aware that a new story alleged that Trayvon had an empty bag in his possession that had marijuana residue, lashed out fast.

“As much as it will hurt, they will try to make your son a junkie, a thief, assaulter, everything else, before this is over,” he said for the crowd to hear. “If you want to discuss something relevant, discuss what Zimmerman might have had in his system. Discuss his past.

"Why are we asking about what Trayvon is capable of, when you have records of Zimmerman assaulting law officers? You have domestic violence. No one asked his lawyer about his character that has been documented,” Sharpton said, according to a CBS report.

“He (Zimmerman) has the record of violence. … So why are we going out of our way to try and create something in Trayvon’s background when you have documented stuff in Zimmerman’s background and won’t even question his attorney about it? Let’s not play this double standard of trying to demonize who is dead and sanitize who was the cause of the death,” Sharpton on played to the TV cameras.

Don’t you see what is unfolding? This whole national protest isn’t about young black guys getting shot. Every city has dozens of those that go unnoticed every day. It is really about a white guy shooting a black kid. It is all about race and little about the crime. Now, you remember I told you about the NPR interview, where the kid said, “I can’t do anything about being black”?

I believe the African-Americans in our nation can do something. And it is only because they are black. As they see shooting almost daily, the blacks should refocus on the victims and leave a random tragedy and somebody’s racist agenda, as terrible as both are, out of the equation.

If the African-American community really wants its young black guys to quit shooting one another, focusing on some wacko in Florida will just prolong the agony and fill racist’s coffers.

Focus on the victims, the many victims, if you ever hope to stop the heart-wrenching carnage.