The Reality of Trayvon Martin’s Death
What really killed Trayvon Martin? The controversy leading to Trayvon’s death has come in through one ear out the other within media, misinterpretations and miscommunications have lead most of the general public to believe a male African American youth was gunned down by a male Caucasian adult. In reality, the encounter between Trayvon and Zimmerman was more than just a simple case of racial profiling. Other factors that played a role in Trayvon’s death would be the power struggle between two males clashing, which would be defined as male narcissism. Trayvon’s death was the direct result of male narcissism, because if race had not played a role within said case, the dispute between Zimmerman and Trayvon
The truth behind racial issues within America, lead to the Trayvon case to be heavily outweighed straight from the beginning, as within a mixed race country, there is bound to be references to past events surrounding racial inequality. As Steele has explained within the article “The Exploitation of Trayvon Martin”, Steele explains how race was a benefiting factor on the public’s reaction to Trayvon’s death and how race alone compelled many to argue over the controversy of Trayvon’s death. If race had not been a factor in the encounter between Zimmerman and Trayvon, then the results of “the Trayvon/Zimmerman story would be no more than a cautionary tale” of the dangers of walking out at night in a monitored neighborhood. [1] Basically, the issues with race has always been an issue within America, while two different races clash, it usually results in a negative outcome. Once race becomes a factor in a large case such as this, the whole entire case is literally thrown under the bus, as popular opinions surrounding racial inequality are always brought up in reference to the past Civil Rights movements and so on. In this case, race was only used as a scapegoat to hide the actual facts that lead to Trayvon’s death. Had the races of Trayvon and Zimmerman not been revealed, it would only be illustrated as a battle between two males with
Although Steele defines most of the factors as male dominance and male narcissism, the speculation of racial profiling can easily play a role. As within Michael Scherer and Elizabeth Dias’s article “The Trayvon Effect” Scherer and Dias explain how racially profiling is incredibly common within today’s society and effects the lives of millions of minorities. As all African American males can and are “subjected to racial injustice and racial profiling”. The history behind African American males and crime rates are parallel; which is directly correlated to the past economic collapse following Obama’s election, which incurred a decrease in general family wealth and an increase of layoffs, which led to higher unemployment rates, poverty rates, homicide rates, and incarceration rates. The economic collapse has directly affected the African American population, which also calls for an increase in racial profiling. Elizabeth Dias explains how most black communities have become “most vulnerable” as they can easily become targets of narcotic possessions and can be victims of “police enforcing minor crimes”, as the practice of “racial profiling, the practice of drawing suspicion from skin color, remains widely practiced.” [33] This directly affects those trying to obtain a job, and without any results they lose the will to become productive, and
The US Justice Department statistics 2003 and onwards demonstrates significant disproportion in the incarceration rate of minority African American and Hispanic men between the ages of 25 and 29 years as compared to the rate associated with White men of the same age. Bell (2007), proposes that as minority groups grow in numbers within the dominant group they will experience greater equality. However, rate of incarceration among minority males remains alarmingly high and as compared to their White counterparts. As with health care there are racial disparities that will influence outcomes when an individual is brought before the criminal courts. Additionally, there is significant correlation between a person’s level of education and the likelihood of his involvement in criminal activities. Studies and statistics have shown that among male high school dropouts there is high incidence of unemployment, low income and rate of illicit drug use as compared to men with degrees from four year colleges. Further to this, although the rate of school dropout and even arrest is not significantly different across the race lines, literature alludes that African American men have a higher rate of conviction for the same crime committed.
The job of a criminal lawyer is quite difficult. Whether on the defense or the prosecution, you must work diligently and swiftly in order to persuade the jury. Some lawyers play dirty and try to get their client off of the hook even though they are guilty without a doubt. Even though the evidence is all there, the prosecution sometimes just can’t get the one last piece of the puzzle to make the case stick and lock the criminal up. Such is the case Orenthal James Simpson.
Young Trayvon Martin was killed because of racial profiling. Due to the way he was dressed, in all black with a hoodie, he was seen as a threat. Trayvon had no intentions to hurt anyone, he carried no weapon, but just because the way he looked he was murdered. Racial profiling is wrong in many ways. The history of racial profiling and the psychology proves that racial profiling is nothing but an excuse for blatant racism. Humans are not put on this earth to be wrongly accused simply by the way that they look. How a person lives or dies should not be based on racial profiling which is an immoral and unethical tactic.
The factor of racial profiling comes into play as federal grant programs award police for rounding up as many people as possible. This very tactic was demonstrated by the CompStat system in New York City and further expounded by Victor M. Rios’s analysis of the themes over-policing and under-policing. These themes focus on how officers, police certain kinds of deviance and crime such as, loitering, or disturbing the peace, while neglecting other instances when their help is needed . Rios also stresses how the accumulation of minor citations like the ones previously mentioned, play a crucial role in pipelining Black and Latino young males deeper into the criminal justice system. Rios implies that in order to decrease the chances with police interaction one must not physically appear in a way that catches the attention of a police or do anything behavior wise that would lead to someone labeling you as deviant . Unfortunately, over-policing has made it difficult even for those who actually do abide by social norms because even then, they have been victims of criminalization . However, since structural incentives like those that mimic CompStat are in place, police simply ignore constitutional rules and are able to get away with racial profiling, and thus interrogate, and search whomever they please. Since these targeted minorities acknowledge the fact that the police are not always present to enforce the law, they in turn learn strategies in order to protect themselves from violence that surrounds them. Young African American Americans and Latino youth thus become socialized in the “code of the street”, as the criminal justice system possesses no value in their
The majority of our prison population is made up of African Americans of low social and economic classes, who come from low income houses and have low levels of education. The chapter also discusses the amount of money the United States loses yearly due to white collar crime as compared to the cost of violent crime. Another main point was the factors that make it more likely for a poor person to be incarcerated, such as the difficulty they would have in accessing adequate legal counsel and their inability to pay bail. This chapter addresses the inequality of sentencing in regards to race, it supplies us with NCVS data that shows less than one-fourth of assailants are perceived as black even though they are arrested at a much higher rate. In addition to African Americans being more likely to be charged with a crime, they are also more likely to receive harsher punishments for the same crimes- which can be seen in the crack/cocaine disparities. These harsher punishments are also shown in the higher rates of African Americans sentenced to
Anderson’s theory examined African Americans living in America’s inner cities that are driven to follow the “street code” and work to maintain respect, loyalty, and their own self-image. The “street code” Anderson is referring to is “a cultural adaptation” which is the cause of violent crime in America’s inner cities (Anderson Article PDF, 3). Since these people are living in mainly impoverished neighborhoods with easy access to drugs and guns, as well as high rates of crime and violence, “everyone feels isolated and alienated from the rest of America” (Vold, 187). Anderson continues to distinguish between “decent” people and “street people.” Those who are “decent” families live in accordance with a “civil code” that upholds values in comparison with the rest of society such as maintaining a job, obtaining an education, protecting their children and following the law. Additionally, “street” families tend to fend for themselves, and when young, grow up without adult supervision and are often abused. This alone causes a dangerous environment because children then, “learn that to solve any kind of interpersonal problem one must quickly resort to hitting or other violent behavior” (Anderson Article PDF, 5). When brought up in an inner city “street” family, racism is a leading factor that causes the youth to construct a negative outlook on the rest of society. When these inner city, lo...
Many people claim that racism no longer exists; however, the minorities’ struggle with injustice is ubiquitous. Since there is a mass incarceration of African Americans, it is believed that African Americans are the cause of the severe increase of crimes. This belief has been sent out implicitly by the ruling class through the media. The media send out coded messages that are framed in abstract neutral language that play on white resentment that targets minorities. Disproportionate arrest is the result of racial disparities in the criminal justice system rather than disproportion in offenders. The disparities in the sentencing procedure are ascribed to racial discrimination. Because police officers are also biased, people of color are more likely to be investigated than whites. Police officers practice racial profiling to arrest African Americans under situations when they would not arrest white suspects, and they are more likely to stop African Americans and see them as suspicious (Alexander 150-176). In the “Anything Can Happen With Police Around”: Urban Youth Evaluate Strategies of Surveillance in Public Places,” Michelle Fine and her comrades were inspired to conduct a survey over one of the major social issues - how authority figures use a person’s racial identity as a key factor in determining how to enforce laws and how the surveillance is problematic in public space. Fine believes it is critical to draw attention to the reality in why African Americans are being arrested at a much higher rate. This article reflects the ongoing racial issue by focusing on the injustice in treatment by police officers and the youth of color who are victims. This article is successful in being persuasive about the ongoing racial iss...
The way the media portrays a trial influences many people’s views of the trial, such as the George Zimmerman trial. Racial profiling is based on the way a person looks or acts. The way some media portrayed George Zimmerman was as an innocent white man who shot Trayvon Martin as an act of self-defense. Other media such as NBC portrayed him as a racist. The way these two media portrayed him influenced many Americans to determine a verdict without hearing the trial. In the article “The Quiet Racism in the Zimmerman Trial” by Steven Mazie, he implies ...
On the evening of February 26, 2012 a 17-year old unarmed boy, Trayvon Martin, was shot and killed in Sanford, Florida. Trayvon was killed by a man named Andrew Zimmerman, who stated that self-defense justified the murder of this young boy. An individual who doesn’t know the background of this case would reasonably believe that Trayvon Martin may have attacked Zimmerman, in which he used self-defense. However, Zimmerman was the initial aggressor in this case, whereas he sought after Trayvon Martin for reasons of suspicion. At Zimmerman’s trial on July 13, 2013 the jury reached a verdict of “not guilty” of the murder of Trayvon Martin. So we ask, how does one become acquitted of a murder on self-defense,
Even though racism has always been a problem since the beginning of time, recently in the United States, there has been a rise in discrimination and violence has been directed towards the African American minority primarily from those in the white majority who believe they are more superior, especially in our criminal justice system. There are many different reasons for the ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system between the majority and the minority, but some key reasons are differential involvement, individual racism, and institutional racism to why racial disparities exist in
Another reason racialized mass incarceration takes place is because of the high rates of poverty and unemployment for inner city African Americans, especially those with low-education and low skill levels. Urban ghettos have been associated with the problem of social disorganization and crime. The biggest reason for this is the war on drugs. There is no substantial proof that verifies African Americans are more involved in illegal drug consumptions than other groups are. However they are arrested more than other groups. Bobo and Thompson stated that blacks are almost 34% involved in drug-related arrests though only 14% of those are among regular illegal drug users. Among drug related convictions, African Americans make up half of the cases whereas only 26% of the white population is convicted. As Bobo and Thompson stated, “Illegal drug consumption seems to know no race. Incarceration for drug-related charges, however, is something visited in a heavily biased manner on African Americans.”
Staples successfully begins by not only admitting the possible faults in his practiced race but also by understanding the perspective of the one who fear them. Black males being opened to more violence because of the environment they're raised in are labeled to be more likely to cause harm or committing crime towards women but Staples asks why that issue changes the outlook of everyday face to face contact and questions the simple actions of a black man? Staples admits, "women are particularly vulnerable to street violence, and young black males are drastically overrepresented among the perpetrators of that violence," (Staples 384) however...
Some Advocators argued that racial profiling has a major effect on society. In Arrest Development, James B. Forman Argues that, “Blacks are usually the victims of racial profiling; he also argues that unlike the Republican leaders, the Democratic leaders have publicly denouncing racial profiling. Forman believes that racial profiling, turn the police against minorities instead of for them; moreover racial profiling corrupts the effect of equal treatment under the law.” (qtd in Crime and Criminals, 2004).
This case is about a 16-year-old kid from Miami named Trayvon Martin. On the night of February 26th, Trayvon walked from his father's house in a gated community to a nearby store. When walking back, he was spotted by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer. There have been a number of break-ins in the neighborhood over the last few weeks and Zimmerman thought that a young black man walking in the rain and wearing a hooded sweatshirt looked suspicious. Zimmerman then called 911 to report the person who "might be on drugs."
The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson Missouri became a controversial media sensation. The shooting created uproar and mistrust towards police officers. Many believed the shooting was unjustified and even an act of racism on the behalf of the police Officer Darren Wilson. The Department of Justice issued an investigation in order to understand the basis of the shooting and to decide whether or not to charge Darren Wilson in the shooting. Despite the evidence and the investigation which portrayed the shooting as an act of self- defense, the shooting still remains controversial.