Do I Look Like a Suspect?

I have on a hoodie. I'm black. Do you think I look suspicious? Like I'm up to no good? Maybe I have my hand in my waistband...

While you're mulling that over, go read my latest for my day job about Trayvon Martin and how although he could be either of my sons, ultimately this story is not just a black issue. Here's an excerpt:
I don’t think my sons are safe anywhere, and I often feel extreme anxiety over what might happen to them when they walk out the door each morning. But my boys don’t believe they can be gunned down like Trayvon. "I don’t think anything like this would happen to us because of the place we live," my 8-year-old told me last night after watching updates about the investigation on the evening news. "We’ve never heard of anybody getting killed on our street."

I'm glad he believes he's safe, but Trayvon was in a gated community, not an urban ghetto. Ruha Benjamin, assistant professor of sociology and African American studies at Boston University, says middle-class black Americans cannot "buy our way out of racial violence." Benjamin, who has two boys of her own, says the reality is that our sons, "no matter how well-dressed, how well-spoken, might be in the wrong gated community with the wrong bag of threatening Skittles and get mowed down by someone who has decided, essentially, they are out of place."

Comments

Rosita said…
I couldn't find the link to your other post, but I would really like to read it.
nick said…
I'm glad to see the Trayvon Martin murder is finally getting the attention it deserves in the British media, after weeks of inexplicable silence. I'm also glad to see all the protest rallies in different cities. The whole story is a shocking reminder that there are unrepentant racists waiting to pounce on every street. I sure hope your boys never meet up with some despicable Zimmerman-character.
Anonymous said…
Yes you do look like a suspect. All blacks do. Hopefully a hero like Zimmerman will shoot you.
Anonymous said…
No different than a white man walking through a black ghetto. You think the negros would welcome him, or rob him and leave him for dead
Anonymous said…
As a former Angelena with a black brother, it was disheartening to realize that he is not safe anywhere in the U.S. In non-black neighborhoods he is "suspicious," in black neighborhoods he has to worry about black-on-black violence, and there are parts of L.A. where gang members will shoot a black person on sight. My brother and a neighbor were walking a few blocks from home and stopped by the police because they were two black teens in the Miracle Mile/Mid City area. May your sons stay safe. Hopefully you and your husband are teaching them what they need to know to do so.
Annaliese said…
Liz, you really need to spray the "Trailer Trash Troll" Raid in this comment section.

I laugh at how anytime a racist incident happens to a black person in the media, people like these "Anonymous" cowards like the ones here are so quick to whine about "reverse racism". Because we all know racists don't want to take responsibility for their OWN actions. Hate to break to you Anons but whites in America were never oppressed and never will be.
Liz Dwyer said…
Oh good grief...racist trolls come out of the woodwork. I wish I could track them down and then show up on their doorstep with a camera crew. Or, better yet, at their JOB.

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