If I had a son instead of a daughter with my ex-wife, who is African-American, he would have been only two years older than Trayvon was when he was gunned down for being black. Hence, I can’t help but identify with our biracial president who said so wisely and to give people pause, “If I had a son, he would have looked like Trayvon Martin.”
No reasonable person can dispute the impetus to shoot this unarmed minor with no criminal record any longer, especially now that the 911 tapes clearly have George Zimmerman calling him a “coon”! I can’t help but cry today thinking about losing my child this way, but for her gender. Even as a daughter of color, I have warned my child of the perception of her being “suspicious” just as my ex-wife had been when she walked into a store and even as my perceptibly Latino ex-lover had been. We’ve got a long way to go.
As for Geraldo Rivera (half Latino himself) talking about his “dark” son and discouraging him from wearing a hoodie, the comment that children of color should dress DIFFERENTLY than their white counterparts to avoid getting shot is tantamount to telling a woman not to dress provocatively or she’d be responsible for getting raped! Talk about blaming the victim! What’s even more egregious about Rivera playing to his FOX “News” audience of minimal brain cell patterns, is that he said the hoodie was “equally” responsible for the murder as George Zimmerman himself! What the hell?