Progress?

Today is the first day after George Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges in the slaying of Trayvon Martin, a young man with a promising future. George Zimmerman is listed as multi-racial and Hispanic descent. Trayvon Martin was African-American. There are all sorts of reasons to try to justify the crime. Truth is, one person died and the other lives on. One person began a sequence of events that lead to the death of another but that man, George Zimmerman, walks free today and Trayvon Martin is dead.

We can say that progress has been made. African Americans have many opportunities today as compared to before the civil rights movement and the slavery era. We are free people with the same rights as everyone else in the world...or are we?

It is still difficult to be black in a white world. People assume things about you because of your color. Often times, we cannot relax because we are trying to set others at ease. Trying to relay that we are not a threat even though our skin colors do not match yours. You may say, "how do you know what people are assuming?" To this I say, you have to live here in this skin to know what it is we are experiencing.  But when people move to the other side of the street when you are near, when people ignore you, when people are unpleasant for no reason, or when people call you a nigger, you know what it is they are assuming.

My earliest instance of such treatment came in grade school. I was at school, getting along just fine with new friends...I thought. I was leaving a group of them heading back to class and overheard one of my classmates say, "she's pretty for a nigger girl". I didn't know how to react or how to process this incident. I never even shared it with my mother until I'd reached adulthood. There was a certain amount of shame, sadness and embarrassment that came with that statement. I thought there was nothing I could to make this situation better, to make it go away. What and how to say something without crying, without pleading for them to take it back, without wanting to disappear. So I said nothing. But I carried the sadness with me for a very long time.

Today I know that it is not me, it's them. There are just some people that don't get it. Some people won't like you no matter what, won't trust you no matter what, won't hold you in their confidence no matter what. And that's okay.

My Heart Bleeds

What is not okay is to do harm unto others. It is not okay to degrade others. It is not okay to decrease the peace. There is nothing you can say that I don't already know about my color, my race and how people feel about it in this country. The fact that you acknowledge my race and use it as a tool against our potential connection is a shame. What people fail to realize is that we are all from the same Source. One way or another, if you harm another part of the Source, if you betray the system of harmony and balance it is trying to achieve, if you kill your neighbor, you too are harmed. Karma does not relent. She does not forget. It may be long after this life is done, but Karma will prevail.

Those who feel that justice was not served can do what I've done and sign this petition - http://www.naacp.org/page/s/doj-civil-rights-petition. It asks for the Department of Justice to pursue a civil rights charges against George Zimmerman. Our hearts are with the remaining members of the Martin family.

Increase the peace...CobraWoman