Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Smearing Trayvon Martin: The Salem Witch Trials, Mass Hysteria, and the Specter of Black Thuggery



The efforts to smear Trayvon Martin by introducing irrelevant information to what is most basically a simple story about white thuggery, and a violation of Constitutional rights, would be a fascinating footnote more worthy of a legal case book than a national drama if not for how conservatives and the glib classes have rallied to defend a murderer.

As I have written about in numerous places, black masculinity is an imperiled identity, one that is forever suspect and at risk. The rights afforded to others do not apply to bodies marked as black and male. Moreover, the obfuscations that are central to an exercise which assumes the criminal culpability and guilt of black Americans in all matters is a script that is centuries old.

The denial necessary to let George Zimmerman walk free, to cover up his deeds, to make excuses for killing innocent people, and to proceed a priori from an assumption that black men are a criminal class that can be killed at will, is evidence of a type of mass White hysteria.

They burned witches in the United States and Europe by the thousands for more than a century using much the same raggedy logic; White people hung and dismembered black women, men, and children and sold their body parts at county fairs using much the same logic; and in the post civil rights moment, Age of Obama, many in the White public skewer murder victims who happen to be black using a logic that assumes black criminality and white innocence in all transgressions--perceived or real--across the color line.

Accepting the self-serving lies of George Zimmerman (fictions he most certainly believes), his enablers, and the police who are collaborators in covering up their criminal incompetence, are in total, a type of spectral evidence.

This is a perfect analogy as the specter, i.e. a ghost, is only "real" to the person who sees it--what is a perfect fit for the claims of George Zimmerman to "self defense" at the hands of a black youth he harassed, stalked, and threatened. Spectral evidence is also a way of creating community. It is a litmus test for determining the boundaries of community, who is included, and who is excluded, by virtue of a shared experience.

The question then becomes how do those who believe in reasonable justice, and that Trayvon Martin was killed by a racist vigilante who likely called him a "coon" during the hunting, marshal evidence against ghosts, spirits, and the ectoplasma of white supremacy? A belief system that assumes all people of color guilty (of any myriad of crimes) at birth?

13 comments:

Beyond-The-Spectrum said...

I think we as a people have to deal with the many Trayvons who die in our 'hoods on a daily basis

nomad said...

Phony Trayvon photo

http://www.slate.com/blogs/weigel/2012/03/27/when_in_doubt_smear_the_dead_kid.html?wpisrc=newsletter_tis

"The online rumor was that this photo was "pulled from Facebook." But on Sunday, the Twitter aggregator (yes, we've come to that point) Twitchy, which tracks viral content, retracted a post about the photo."

Werner Herzog's Bear said...

Did you see the cover of the New York Post yesterday?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/new-york-posts-trayvon-martin_n_1383472.html?ref=new-york

I found it insulting even by the low standards of the Murdoch press. Evidently for the Post ,those who want to draw attention to the murderous injustice of our police and legal systems are just "race hustlers."

nomad said...

@Werner
Denial of racism is the new racism.

video:http://videocafe.crooksandliars.com

Dan B. said...

From what I have learned here I now believe that the shooting in Sanford Florida was a set up by the white supremacy to get all the blacks & "good-white" folks riled up in protest only to slowly release the facts making the claims of racist intent look ridicules. Possibly in retaliation over the civil rights movement.

I have underestimated the white devils and for that I am sorry.

freebones said...

there's a service called tineye which lets you plug in pictures and see where they are hosted online. i suggest running most of the trayvon pics through that as they surface. i have seen 4 or 5 so far that are meant to make him look "delinquent" or "ignorant" but are of entirely different people.

can't trust anything these days.

also, @dan: i have to say your ability to read and comment so religiously on something you clearly disagree with is admirable. however, your sarcasm won't be good if you force it everyday. this one was pretty pathetic. i've seen some hilarious ones from you before, though. keep trollin in the free world.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

"The question then becomes how do those who believe in reasonable justice, and that Trayvon Martin was killed by a racist vigilante who likely called him a "coon" during the hunting, marshal evidence against ghosts, spirits, and the ectoplasma of white supremacy? A belief system that assumes all people of color guilty (of any myriad of crimes) at birth?"

We simply can't. No many how many shinig examples that suggest that stereotypes do not prove the character of a race of peopele, there will always be fingers pointed at the.cases that they can neatly place into their bank of negro examples. While at the same time ignoring the trailer park and rural areas that comprise their own ethnic classes that are mirrors of ghettoes except that their young aren't shooting each other, they're overdosing and driving theirs cars into cliffs. Same self-destructive behavior. This country was built on the idea that blacks are less than human and that attitude persists in it's structural make up. It's not going to change, even 100 years down the road, if we make it.

sledge said...

Oh, so the author of this article, not to mention thousands of marchers, must have been on scene when the gun went off. Otherwise how do you know how this tragedy occurred?

I assume all of you witnesses have given your testimony to the special prosecutor.

Honestly, to serious minded people, you make a joke of your cause.

Anonymous said...

"Honestly, to serious minded people, you make a joke of your cause."

Serious minded people? I think your opinion of yourself needs a rework.

sledge said...

"Serious minded people? I think your opinion of yourself needs a rework."

Yeah, you're probably right, I should look into that. What was I thinking?

Of course Zimmerman should be tried in the press, before the investigation is complete. Just because we weren't there and don't actually know crap about what occurred doesn't mean that we can't pronounce him guilty.

People really amaze me sometimes.

Anonymous said...

Perhaps what Zimmerman said sotto voce on the 911 call was "f'ing goons" referring to the 911 operator and the police force itself which so high-mindedly wanted to keep Zimmerman from taking matters into his own hands. He wanted to be the hero of the piece, apprehending an evil-doer. This wasn't so much about racism as a need for fame, for celebrity, for not being a nobody.

alicia banks said...

ditto

shame!!!

http://aliciabanks.xanga.com/760356180/on-the-public-execution-of-trayvon-martin---10-undeniable-facts/