“JUSTICE” FOR TRAYVON MARTIN?
By ____ _____1
After a private security guard for a gated community gunned down a Black youth named Trayvon Martin, the security guard was questioned by police and then released. This fueled resentment and outrage, particularly among poor and minority people who saw this event as symbolic of the justice system’s blatant double standards.
Nationwide, protests erupted and drew media attention, an effort to make sure the Trayvon Martin case and all of the latent issues it contains will not simply fade from public memory. Protesters spoke about justice and accountability and fairness and racial equality. They wore hooded sweatshirts with the hoods up in symbolic solidarity with Trayvon. They waved signs and banners that said, “Justice for Trayvon.”
Justice for Trayvon? Not trying to rain on anybody’s parade, but haven’t we already missed the chance to gain justice for Trayvon?
Trayvon is dead. Is there anything that can be done now to hit some magical “rewind” button and pull Trayvon’s bullet-riddled body from the ground and restore him to life? If so, we need to do that. We need to stop marching and waving signs about justice and we need to achieve justice by bringing Trayvon back from the grave. But if there is no magical “rewind” button, then any signs we carry demanding justice for him might as well be demanding safety measures to prevent the sinking of the Titanic.
There was no justice for Trayvon Martin. And there won’t be.
Yeah, I know—what these protesters mean is that they want the shooter charged. They want him processed by the machinery of the criminal justice system. They want “official” action. But is that justice? A handful of lawyers in a courtroom will navel-gaze or read tea leaves and then speak in tongues, performing for television cameras, and then a judge will give a carefully-rehearsed statement and pound the gavel. None of them knew Trayvon Martin and none of them really give a shit. When the case is over, they will proceed to naval-gaze or read tea leaves in some other case that doesn’t matter to them.
Trayvon will still be dead.
Perhaps a legislator will waggle his finger and hold a press conference and opportunistically draft a bill that will have Trayvon Martin’s name on it. Maybe opportunistically draft a bill that will have Trayvon Martin’s name on it. Maybe it will get passed maybe it won’t. Maybe the legislator will get re-elected. Maybe he won’t.
Trayvon will still be dead.
So, is this “justice for Trayvon? Justice for Trayvon means getting a few powerful people to pretend like they give a damn when they don’t?
When protesters hold signs that say, “Justice for Trayvon,” what they are really saying is, “I want someone in government to do something.” I just don’t get it. You can’t appeal to the larger system that routinely sacrifices the Trayvon Martins and ask them for “justice.” Fuck the police. Fuck the prosecutor. Fuck the judge. Fuck the legislature. They wouldn’t know justice if they lynched it with their own rope. There’s no justice there. They don’t really care about “rights” and “justice” and “the rule of law.” That’s window dressing. They care about their kids’ college funds and about their mortgages and about giving the public a good performance so they’ll all go back to working and shopping and believing the system works.
But Trayvon will still be dead and in no time—it may have already happened—some security guard or a cop or somebody else with a license to kill will gun down another Black youth in a hoodie, and protesters will carry signs demanding justice until government officials pretend to give a shit again.
Not much “justice” there.
Why are we so paralyzed that we appeal to government to do something rather than doing something ourselves? We don’t need hoodies; we need ski masks. We don’t need protest signs; we need cans of gasoline and books of matches.
We could release a statement that says, “This community hired George Zimmerman. George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. We seek justice.” Then, we invade that gated community that hired George Zimmerman, and we burn all the houses to the ground. Each home that goes up in flames, we could hand a bag of Skittles to the homeowner.
Taste the rainbow, motherfucker.
Once those folks rebuild their homes and seek to employ new security for their gated community, I bet they’ll have a whole new set of priorities. I bet the new security guard will think twice before pulling a pistol on a teenager in a hoodie.
And since the real solutions never originate from courthouses or legislatures, we don’t need them. In fact, more often than not, courts and legislatures maintain the status-quo that turns Trayvon Martins into population statistics. So, we might as well burn them down too. If they ever rebuild them, they too will approach their business with a new-found respect for the rights of Black teens.
There can be no justice for Trayvon Martin because he’s dead. But it’s not too late for the rest of us. We can put down the signs that ask the oppressor for justice and we can pick up the tools that will manifest it directly.
No peace, no justice.
None.
1 Yup. Might be Swain. Might not. You know the drill.