Is My Son Next? What The Zimmerman Verdict Really Means For Black America

         There used to be a time when black parents had to teach their children to look down when a white person spoke to them and definitely not talk back. And while we think we’ve came a long way from that… the case of Trayvon Martin proves otherwise.

          There are actually people who believe this case had nothing to do with race because it involves two so-called “minorities.” Why is it that up until this case did George Zimmerman allegedly refer to himself as white?

           But let’s ignore that.
           Let’s focus on how the country is responding to this all. There are actually people who feel Trayvon was in the wrong. Zimmerman’s defense attorney himself, said Trayvon had time to run… but he didn’t. O’Mara also added that Trayvon was not just a kid with a bag of skittles…
            And he’s right. Trayvon has now become a symbol of race relations in America. Here we are in 2013 once again debating this entire thing.
           As a parent, what’s scary to me is that I feel like the parents from earlier times. Those times when a mother cautiously warned her children not to “sass white folks” – that’s the era my grandmother lived in. But yet – it seems we are still living in that era and don’t know it.
            Working in the news media, you clearly see the ugly truth that’s out there. Racism is alive and well. People continuously call newsrooms airing out their racist feelings – never knowing they’re speaking with a black woman. And it takes everything in me not to lash out. Even co-workers feel this case is “no big deal.” And that’s why I’m in the field I am in – to be a voice for my own people.
           Many have used the Zimmerman trial to point out the problem of black-on-black crime however let’s be real. If a black man shoots and kills another black man and that shooter is found – he is more than likely found guilty and sentenced to years if not life in prison.
            Hell, black men are given close to life sentences for street robberies. I have personally seen black men go through the wheels of justice here in the U.S. However, they are never judged by a jury of their peers. Jury members judging us cannot relate to the lives we live in America. They don’t know what it’s like to have their lives seen as nothing.
         As a mother, I am expected to teach my children how to navigate this world and survive. And as a mother of a black male, I feel his teachings will be a little more in depth. I feel I have to teach him certain measures so that his life is not seen as trivial.
        But how do I adequately teach him that? More importantly how do I teach the world that?
       There is already disdain and non-trust for the police in the black community, but that hasn't kept our black men alive. Our black men are now scared to live. In fact, a friend of mine says she has taught her young son to fear not only police but white people in general.
         Her reasoning is that they do not value a black man’s life, so he has to do all he can to stay alive.
         It’s true but it’s also true bullshit.
        Black men are an endangered species and they are constantly denied their inalienable rights.
        "Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," was never a phrase meant for us.
        The verdict in this case was definitely a wake up call to Black America. It was as if they were putting us back in our place.
        We were getting out of line. We got us a black man in the White House, thought “everything is all good now”.
        We were content – thinking we were on their level. That we finally made it.
         Fuck what Drake talking about, we still at the bottom. We’re still at the bottom trying to scramble and climb our way to the top.
        At the top of that climb is of course – real equality. Not this fake shit we’ve been living. At least back in the day, it was blatant and out in the open that we were not liked or wanted.
       Now their hatred for us is done in more subtle ways.

• Denying our men jobs so that they can’t take care of their families
• Purposefully leaving us out of promotions/better opportunities in the workplace
• Enacting laws that specifically target us

      And even when their hatred is put on full display for the whole world to see -- in the form of a grown man gunning down a child -- America blames us.      
       "It was self-defense"
       "Trayvon was the aggressor:"
       It’s amazing that a 17-year-old child can be blamed for his own death after being

gunned down. I don’t care how tall he was—he was and will always be a child.

Trayvon never got to vote, never graduated.

He died as a child.

And as a mother of a black male, I wonder could my son be next?