White Supremacy Acquits George Zimmerman

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From The Nation:

When Zimmerman was acquitted [last night], it wasn’t because he’s a so-called white Hispanic. He’s not. It’s because he abides by the logic of white supremacy, and was supported by a defense team—and a swath of society—that supports the lingering idea that some black men must occasionally be killed with impunity in order to keep society-at-large safe.

Media on the left, right and center have been fanning the flames of fear-mongering, speculating that people—and black people especially—will take to the streets. That fear-mongering represents a deep white anxiety about black bodies on the streets, and echoes Zimmerman’s fears: that black bodies on the street pose a public threat. But the real violence in those speculations, regardless of whether they prove to be true, is that it silences black anxiety. The anxiety that black men feel every time they walk outside the door—and the anxiety their loved ones feel for them as well. That white anxiety serves to conceal the real public threat: that a black man is killed every twenty-eight hours by a cop or vigilante.

People will take to the streets, and with good reason. They’ll be there because they know that, yes, some people do always get away—and it tends to be those strapped with guns and the logic of white supremacy at their side.

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  • Churchlady320

    Sometimes this celebration of white racial victory is the swan song, last gasp, desperate moment.  All of us, people of color and white, who are sickened by the message sent – you can indeed gun down unarmed and innocent people of color – WILL DO whatever is needed to make this change.  We stood up to violence from racists in the 60s.  We can and will do it again – peacefully, carefully, but assuredly.   This is NOT over.  It is the start of the reaffirmation that all people are indeed created equal. We will not go back. NOT.