Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, and Disney


Daddy was credited by a black psychologist who spoke at Daddy's memorial service for having integrated the University of South Carolina back in the early 1960's when he invited black psychologists at the "colored" state hospital to meet with his graduate students, who were all white.  Integration and civil rights were one area in which Mom and Daddy agreed. So I wonder what they would think of the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case.  It seems very strange to me that Zimmerman, who was told by the police not to run after Trayvon, was exonerated when by doing so he wound up unnecessarily killing Trayvon.  Self-defense sounds ludicrous even if Trayvon had turned on Zimmerman to defend himself.  Even someone as conservative as Chip Johnson agrees that it was a travesty.  There was a picture in the SF Chronicle of a black man with a bicycle walking by and looking at the giant poster advertising the movie Fruitvale Station, which came out the very weekend of the verdict on the Zimmerman-Trayvon Martin case.  There were protests attacking the wrong people, and an Oakland firefighter commented on that irony after seeing the movie with his wife.  He pointed out that the people in Oakland are the "good guys" and said it was cowardly to take it out on them.  He suggested, instead, that Florida be targeted with boycotts and economic sanctions.  He suggested visit Disneyland instead of Disney World, and I smiled to think that it was understood that we had to visit Disney somewhere.


Photo by Brant Ward

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