What is really going on?
Over the past years there have been an increasing number of deaths within the young black male population. Even though most of the killing of this generation comes from black on black crime, there is a huge number of the white race killing off this group also. Are white men really that scared of black males to kill them, or are they just using their race power to kill off the young black male generation.
“Race is a cluster of inheritable bodily markings carried by a largely endogamous group of individuals, markings that can be observed by others with ease, that can be changed or misrepresented only with great difficulty, and that have come to be invested in a particular society at a given historical moment with social meaning.” (Rome, 16)
The first case that seemed a bit unjust was the Trayvon Martin case. Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old young male who was gunned downed and killed by the neighborhood watch guy George Zimmerman. What was said to be happening was that on the night of February 26, 2012 Trayvon Martin walked to the store in his father’s neighborhood to go buy an Arizona drink and some skittles. On his was back home George Zimmerman took it upon himself to stereotype Martin as a “THUG” because of what he was wearing. That night Martin had on a black hoodie and some dark colored jeans. Supposedly Zimmerman called the cops stating “Hey we've had some break-ins in my neighborhood, and there's a real suspicious guy, uh, [near] Retreat View Circle, um, the best address I can give you is 111 Retreat View Circle. This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's on drugs or something. It's raining and he's just walking around, looking about.”(Zimmerman Pg.1) Later on Zimmerman also stated, “Okay. These assholes they always get away. When you come to the clubhouse you come straight in and make a left.” (Zimmerman Pg. 2) Zimmerman told the police dispatcher that he would wait until they arrived to approach Trayvon Martin. But he could not resist the temptation to take matters into his own hands. A few minutes after that phone call was placed something tragic happened. The community may never know what truly happened between the two men, but Trayvon Martin was dead.
Jonathan Ferrell was a former Florida Agriculture Mechanical University student. He recently moved to North Carolina with his girlfriend to try a start a new life. The start of this case would have to be when Ferrell and his girlfriend got into a tragic car accident one in the early morning. It is said that Ferrell had to climb out of the back window to try to go get help for his girlfriend and himself. Ferrell ran to the nearest house he could and started to bang on the door. The person who opened the door was a Caucasian woman who thought it was her husband. As she slammed the door in Ferrell’s face she began to call the cops because she was afraid for her life. When the cops arrived to the scene they saw Ferrell on a nearby road. Ferrell started to run towards the police officers for help, but since he was a black male with a muscle body build the police officers did not know what he was running toward them for. So the police officers started to tase Ferrell but the attempt was unsuccessful, so the officers proceeded to shot and shot this unarmed black male ten times.
Oscar Grant was another black male of police brutality; on January 1st 2009 Grant was shot and killed by BART officer Mehserie. (Taylor, 1) Grant and his friends were just enjoying a good time on the San Francisco train line. After they got off the train him and his friends were approached by the BART police officers. The Officers stated that Grant and his friends were resisting arrest and this is what caused them to resort to lethal force. “Pirone said he told Grant "Stop resisting, you're under arrest, put your hands behind your back." At that time Pirone said he heard Mehserle say, "Put your hands behind your back, stop resisting, stop resisting,