Racism is Wrong

I would like to try and make some sense of the Treyvon Martin and George Zimmerman incident.

I would first like to address the hoodie issue.

First it has to do with my bank. I keep the 3 cents I have to my name in a credit union. On the door there is a sign that says, "Please remove hats and sunglasses before entering the bank."

Why? Because they are often used to conceal one's identity. Robbers know if they can conceal their face they can possibly get away with a crime.

With white people, it is much easier to make out the dimensions of the face but with black people it is nearly impossible to do that because the dark color obscures curvature and structural definition of the face. Is this a black person's fault? HELL NO!

No more than it is dark chocolates fault that people prefer it 50 to 1 over the white chocolate counterpart. (That is perhaps a horrible analogy but I threw it in anyway.)

I used to work at a convenience store as a clerk. On the graveyard shift I would often be left alone in the store for hours. One evening around 6 pm a 16 year old white guy came into the store. He was wearing a hoodie. He used the hoodie to conceal his face. After casing the store he walked up to the counter, looked at me and demanded, "You are going to sell me a pack of cigarettes!"

I looked at him and said, "Only if you have a proper ID."

So he looked at me angrily and left the store but not without bashing as hard as he could on the large double pane glass window of the store. Luckily it did not break.

Six hours later he came into the store with a shotgun while I was tending the store alone. I was in the back cooler putting away a milk delivery. He did not know I was in the cooler. He backed into the cooler and I was right behind him. I did not at first see the gun. I said, "Ummm, you are not supposed to be in here."

He spun around and pointed the gun at me and said, "Get back or I'll shoot you!" I smiled at him, he was just a kid and said, "You are not going to shoot me." I kept saying that as I walked around him and backed out of the cooler.

I drew him down the center isle of the store while I was saying, You aren't going to shoot me." in a coaxing way.

He kept saying, "Yes I am!"

For one split second he looked out the window and the gun was mine. I was so filled with adrenalin I picked him up and and physically threw him, and the gun, out of the store. He tried to get back into the store. It turned out he had an accomplice waiting in the parking lot, a slightly older white goon that probably put him up to it. The store had two glass doors that opened out into the parking lot. So they were pulling on the doors trying to get in and I was inside trying to hold them shut. I am a pretty strong guy so they were not successful in overpowering me.

Finally the young guy took the butt of the gun and smashed in the window of one of the doors. Suddenly I was face to face with him again and his accomplice. I looked over their shoulders and then looked at them without even flinching once and said, "The cops are coming! It was a total bluff! I had not had a chance to ring the silent alarm.

They took the bluff and ran off in a self induce fright.

The next day the young one was bragging to a group of his friends that he held up a convenience store and messed with a clerk. Someone there thought it was wrong and reported him and I was called in by the police and identified his photo out of a book of photos.

Most of this story is irrelevant to the Treyvon Martin and George Zimmerman story except for a few details. I was a hardened store clerk, I thrived on that kind of energy.

I was calling the cops on a daily basis.

The similarity was what I saw Treyvon Martin do shorty before his encounter with George Zimmerman. The store cameras showed Treyvon walking into the store and not removing his hoodie, just as this young delinquent kid did when he first entered the store where I worked. Just as the bank sign says, "Do not enter with a hat or sunglasses." It is not only a courtesy but common sense. I invite you to stand outside a convenience store and see how many people automatically lower their hood immediately before they walk in.

I thought about this... and considered possible reasons why Treyvon Martin did not do this.

I too wear a hoodie, but, I still always take down my hoodie when I walk into a public place.

Otherwise it seems simply rude and suspicious. ANY store clerk will tell you that and it is an immediate red light. That is not only my opinion but that of ALL banks and several other public places.

So I thought of a possible reason why Martin would not want to remove his hoodie when he entered the store. If he had a fairly large sized afro maybe he was a bit self conscious about that. You take down the hoodie and poof, out come all this hair. I would accept that reason. Yet it still seems suspicious to someone who does not know that reasoning, and, we are not mind readers you know...

Most white people don't have this kinky hair thing to contend with. That seems like a possible reason to leave the hood up. Yet I still hold that as a fault, sort of. As a clerk it would always seem suspicious just as it did on that day when I was held up at gunpoint. The young white kid used the hood to at first to totally conceal his face.

How much more does that tactic work with a black guy? Exponentially more.

It is just the way things are. Darker things are harder to see. Does that make me a racist for saying that? Does it make black people under privileged? That sure would make some differences to blacks as a difficulty in perceiving facial features when you are in a position of security.

It was my job to observe just as it is a bank teller's job to also see and observe all activity. This does present a dilemma for blacks. In other words, if you don't want to seem suspicious don't wear your hoodie in places where security is an issue. And what is up with all these tinted windows? People, not only blacks, might as well just put a sign on their vehicle that says, "PULL ME OVER!". The tinted windows just compound the problem,

Hoodies on a white or back man and even women can make them look totally suspicious.

Then, let's talk about gangster rap. Predominately blacks and a fair number of whites and Latinos want be both respected while they glorify crime and violence in music. So they have in music created a form of terrorism.

THIS IS WHY I HATE GANGSTER AND MOB RAP MUSIC. White, black, Jew, Gentile, Latin whoever the heck you are, you will reap what you sow. Cast yourself in a dark light and you will be perceived that way. I like the rap form of art but the the gangster element can go the way of the dodo.

My last boyfriend was half black, I still love him to pieces and wish he was back with me. My boyfriend before him was Puerto Rican. So don't tell me I am racist. I am rational and sensible.

The rap form of music is utterly brilliant. Some of the comedy within the rap form is truly clever. The vocal skill and musicality is highly refined and simply beautiful.

But the gangster element, disrespect to women and quest for gold and riches at all cost is the dregs of society. DREGS!!!... I don't care how nice the music is the words are vile and so are their creators.

We can start by blaming the rappers for the death and social perception of Treyvon Martin and George Zimmerman's downfall. These two people are a microcosm of us all. These rappers are the main cause of Treyvon's death because they stereotype blacks as surely as a pinstripe suit stereotypes mobsters.

Clean up your act if you want, "respect".

Where is the outcry in the black community against the terrorism known as "gangster rap"? It would seem the Muslims decry radical religion more than the blacks decry gangster rap. Does gangster rap help to put racism in the past? No, it reopens the wound over and over... while these gangster rappers take another hit off their diamond studded crack pipe.

Well it is not just the blacks but everyone is getting into the gangster thing.

I think it is disgusting and the epitome of what good music is NOT!

Music that uses derogatory racial words like "bitches niggas and faggots" well what the hell do you expect will happen? Well, eventually, a shoot out at the O.K. corral...

If you really knew what these rappers do in their spare time you would not be buying their music and supporting their lifestyles.

Then it comes down to the actual incident.

We have a Latin man who his own family says was obsessed with race, kinda like rap music huh?, carrying a gun looking for some black guy to shoot. A vendetta fueled by societal dysfunction.

The hoodie thing made me think Martin was a bit of a gangster wanna be.

Maybe he was a good kid and that is that... but he wore the trappings of such a crew. Perhaps a v neck sweater and he might still be alive... I used to wear a leather motorcycle jacked till I realized that was one of the main reasons why I was not getting any respect. I traded it for a ski jacket.

It seem there was a struggle. Out of logic I think you don't struggle with a man with a gun you just back off and try to sooth your assailant. (as I did in the store incident)

Did Zimmerman plan to shoot a black guy that night? That is quite possible if not the truth of the matter. So Treyvon may have had no exits other than to struggle for his life.

So on one hand you have this kid dressed in the hoodie and with and the attitude to boot and on the other hand, a guy looking to confront such a person.

Culture is to blame right down to the manufacturers who make all the gangster paraphernalia. Apparel lines all to feed the decadent heroine and underage girls lifestyles of the gangster rappers. They don't care about you, only their bottom line. We can rest the responsibility for this entire event squarely on the music that promotes and glamorizes such a lifestyle.

You'll get filthy stinking rich, have a big gold chain, all the hoes and bitches if you act this way.

You'll got to heaven and have 72 virgins if you act this way...

God will reward you in heaven if you hate on women and gays as the good book says...

Does Zimmerman deserve time? Well, Martin paid with his life.
Martin and Zimmerman are the antithesis of each other.

It would seem that for every Martin there is a Zimmerman. We don't at heart really blame either, we need to address the cultural gateways that created them.

There is a big difference between explicit lyrics and lyrics that promote crime and debauchery.

Pinstripe suits and hoodies are the trappings of this debauchery.

Take off your hood when you walk into a store so people can see, first, that you have manners and secondly that you mean no harm.

If you want to call me a racist for using the very stereotypes you as a culture condone in mass, so be it. Though I have met very few out and gay racists who have had and loved several mixed race boy friends.

As for gay music forms made by gay music artists. I think the gay music forms themselves are gravitating towards the gutter also.

I don't want people perceiving me as a slut just because some gay ex-porn star makes music and wants glamorize their slutty past.

But, I don't dress like an gay ex-porn star either...

That is the whole thing, it is a free world and gangsters will make their rap and gay ex-porn stars will make their filthy trashy slutty music videos but I don't have to dress in chaps, huff poppers and behave like them...

I certainly don't want to be judged through that sort of lens.

So other than Treyvon not taking off his hood when he went into the store... I tend to hold Zimmerman mostly responsible. I would have wrestled Zimmerman for the gun too if I sensed there was a racist problem in Zimmerman and no escape from his stereotyping.

But as I said this stereotyping is a product of Gangster rap and that in itself is the problem here. If you really want to clean house and protest something I would start there.

It is all the perception of the "hood" and the intent concealed by it. Consider a stocking mask should not automatically mean someone is a robber too, but... Both devices are used to conceal ones face. Do blacks all look the same? So who is using privilege to an advantage?

I am not going to stop wearing my hoodie but I will continue to lower it out of respect when I enter a store...

Conservative Paper Invokes Lynching In Anti-Sharpton Editorial Cartoon
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/07/22/2334351/website-invokes-lynching-in-anti-sharpton-editorial-cartoon/

There is no depths the slimebags on the right will not stoop to show their hateful racist mentality.

Psychiatrists say about egotistical mental disorders, when you put someone down it is only cover up your own insecurities. In reality such attacks only lower the self even more. The repugs must really be insecure about their own social value to lower themselves to such depths.

Who do these teabag repugs think they are fooling? Only themselves...

New Evidence In Georgia Infant’s Death Points To Parents, Not Two Black Teens

Read more: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/07/24/new-evidence-in-georgia-infants-death-points-to-parents-not-two-black-teens/#ixzz2a4vdg9NT

(This was translated from Spanish so please excuse the translation.)
A 98-year-old lady named Irena has died. During the second world war, Irena got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a specialist in pipes and sewers. But her plans went beyond... knew what were the plans of the nazis for Jews (German era). Irena passed young children hidden at the bottom of the tool box and wore a xarpellera bag in the back of the truck for children more large.
It also had a dog that had trained to address the Nazi soldiers when it in and out of the ghetto. Naturally the soldiers wanted nothing of the dog and its bark covered to the groans of the children of this form came to save 2500 children.
The Nazis caught her and broke her two legs and two arms.
Irena had a record of the names of all the children who saved and had stored inside a glass jar hidden at the foot of a tree in the garden of her house.
After the war, she tried to locate parents who could stay alive and unite families. Most were killed in gas chambers. Children who were spared found houses of reception or were adopted.
In the year 2007 Irena was proposed to receive the Nobel Prize for peace, but no was chosen, the prize was for Al Gore by a slide show on global warming and in 2009 are you gave to Barack just Obama by having good intentions.

This lady is my NOBEL!, great message, do not let it fall into oblivion after 68 years.
The intention of this message is to reach 40 million people around the world. If you want to send it pideles spreading it to everyone you know.
Thanks IRENA SENDLER in memoriam 2008.

Coney Island’s Jackie Robinson statue defaced with ‘die n*gger’ and swastikas
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/07/coney-islands-jackie-robinson-statue-defaced-with-die-ngger-and-swastikas/

President Obama Met in Arizona By Racist Protesters Singing “Bye Bye Black Sheep”
http://www.forwardprogressives.com/president-obama-racist-protesters/

Hate and racist speech has got to become illegal. Hate speech is in direct conflict with the first amendment. And which political party do you think paid for these racist protesters? Tea party and republicans maybe? You wanna bet.

There no depth these so called christian conservatives will not stoop. Come November it is time to chase these snakes out of our electorate...

Bye bye tea party in November!

Mostly-White Ohio Suburb Fighting To Prevent Mostly-Black Bus-Riders From Entering Community
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/08/06/2419681/ohio-bus-discrimination/

Another murdering Caucasian walks free after killing a Black youth

Yes, it is.However, we should be careful not to see racism in places where it is not. If we blame everything on race, the real issues never get addressed and the real problems never get solved.

Hate speech does not violate the First Amendment. The FA only restricts what Congress can do. The FA has been extended to apply to the states via the 14th
amendment. What's more, the civil rights laws do not ban any speech. They ban only discriminatory actions which impinge on someone's civil rights.
If we start banning a type of speech, it will set a bad precedent so that all sorts of speech can be banned later.That's how the courts work-thru precedent.
There is a price to pay for free speech and that is we have to tolerate some speech some people may find offensive.

I don't think I agree with your whole line of reasoning...

Yes there are congressional laws and then there are immutable rights.

Like as free as speech is people should not have to endure with tho legal recourse being trampled to death. Just because someone in a movie theater decided to exercise their right to free speech to scream FIRE!

A 14 year old gay teenager should not have to endure in a public school being called a faggot and a fudge packer day in and day out. By the way, more hetero sexual people perform anal sex than gays do. In fact I hear anal sex is the Tea Party's number one form of contraception. Not kidding...

We have Citizens United, an obvious perversion of the supreme court's judicial powers. We also now have racist republican and tea party states making laws to disenfranchise voters, another perversion of the supreme court's power.

All because apparently there are a couple supreme court judges that think the constitution condones accepting bribes...

So don't tell me that the constitution cannot use some help here and there. It is the constitution that regulates freedoms so our democracy works...

As I see it, due to big money and corporate manipulation of our courts, our democracy is not working very well now.

So tell me again how "racism is now a thing of the past". (the exact words of a supreme court justice)

Two days ago in Arizona!

‘He’s 47 percent Negro’: Anti-Obama Arizona protest turns racist
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/08/07/hes-47-percent-negro-anti-obama-arizona-protest-turns-racist/

Excerpt:
“He’s 47 percent Negro,” 77-year-old Ron Enderle shouted at one point, later telling the Republic that he was “ashamed” to have Obama as Commander-in-Chief.

According to the Republic, at one point critics of Obama sang “Bye Bye Black Sheep” and at least one sign in the crowd read “Impeach the Half-White Muslim.”

Comment:
Joe, you either have no scruples or you yourself are also a racist, or both....

Papantonio: Racism Still Motivates The Tea Party!
http://aattp.org/papantonio-racism-still-motivates-the-tea-party/

I did not say racism is a thing of the past.I have attended law school and was trying to explain the legal realities to you.

Banning speech is the wrong solution to the problem.

Citizens united is a lobbyist. They have nothing to do with the Supreme Court.

He is wrong.There may be some racist comments coming from Tea Party members. That does not mean the group's purpose is racism.

Not only do I think "racism still motivates The Tea Party" I believe racist opposition to the first African American president was its reason for coming into being!

The first time I took notice of the Tea Party was during Obama's first election in 2008 I saw protesters carrying posters with a Hitler mustache drawn on the black candidate. I saw caricatures of Obama looking like a monkey and angry whites screaming "go back to Kenya." These ugly demonstrations became a symbol of pure hate, and a powerful dominant image in my mind as to who and what the the Tea Party stood for.

Rex Red, I applaud your honesty. It takes am individual of immense integrity and courage to stand up for the truth and not back down.