Strange Fruit

Black teen shot and killed in mostly white gated community he lived in while going to a convenience store to get snacks by a Neighborhood Watch official who said he looked suspicious

Via Global Grind: “17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by a Neighborhood Watch captain inside his own gated Orlando, Florida community where he was living with his father, stepmother and little brother, according to the family’s lawyer. Martin was shot after returning home from a local convenience store, where he bought snacks including Skittles candy requested by his 13-year-old brother, Chad.

According to the family’s lawyer Ben Crump, the family is calling for the Watch captain’s arrest, saying Martin was “on his way home and a Neighborhood Watch loose cannon shot and killed him”…”.* Was the teen singled out and shot because he was black in a white neighborhood? Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur discuss if how race was involved on The Young Turks.

[strike out & italics are mine]
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I can't even. I need to avoid everything so I have a good birthday, cause the pain in my heart.... In general. As someone who has a teenage black male in her life. I JUST had this conversation with my brother. JUST this week. About how CAREFUL he needs to be - though I was focused on cops.

Hah. Focused on cops. I WAS IGNORANT. I was naive and wishful.

Imagine telling a child to be careful while walking while male and black. That's MY Life. That's HIS LIFE. The consequences of that? That's this family's life now.

And sadly, in a way, this is news, but not news. The news, is the killer hasn't even been taken into custody. That's the news. The USA going backwards in time IS STILL BACKWARDS IN TIME, a place where black families have to curl up in their pain and mourning, 'across the street' from the killers of family members who're going about their daily business.