Opinion
Trayvon Martin Was Standing His Ground
M
ost people are asking
whether Florida’s ‘Stand
Your Ground’ law should
apply to George Zimmerman, the
28-year-old neighborhood watch
captain who killed an unarmed
Trayvon Martin. That’s the wrong
question. A better one is, given the
circumstances, did the law pro-
tect Trayvon when he physically
confronted Zimmerman?
In a word, yes.
Looking at the 2005 law from a
different perspective – through the
eyes of 17-year-old Trayvon
instead of Zimmerman – is critical
because the debate over what hap-
pened on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla.
is being misframed.
Some facts are undisputed:
Trayvon was walking home from
a nearby 7-Eleven store, where he
had purchased a bag of Skittles
and a can of Arizona iced tea,
when he was spotted by Zimmer-
man, who was driving a SUV.
Zimmerman dialed 911 and
reported seeing a suspicious Black
male in the gated townhouse com-
munity.
Though he had no proof, Zim-
merman claimed that Trayvon
appeared to be high on drugs.
When Zimmerman confirmed that
he was following Trayvon, the 911
operator specifically told him to
stop following Trayvon and that
police officers were on their way
to the scene. Instead of following
instructions, Zimmerman contin-
ued to follow Trayvon.
What happened next is unclear
because we are left only with Zim-
merman’s version of events. We
do know that shortly before he
was shot to death, Trayvon had
T HE C URRY
R EPORT
George E.
Curry
been talking on his cell phone with
his girlfriend. She later told
Trayvon’s family lawyer that he
told her he was being followed by
a strange White man. She urged
him to run away from him.
According to the Orlando Sen-
tinel, Zimmerman told police he
lost sight of Trayvon and got out
of his SUV to follow him on foot.
ground with a punch in the nose.
Zimmerman said Trayvon climbed
on top of him and began slamming
his head into the sidewalk.
Zimmerman told police that he
began yelling for help, but two
voice experts hired by the Sentinel
concluded that the voice heard
screaming for help on the 911
tapes was not that of the neighbor-
hood watch captain. During the
scuffle, Zimmerman pulled his 9
millimeter semi-automatic hand-
gun and fatally shot Trayvon once
in the chest.
Police said that when they
arrived, Zimmerman was bleeding
from the nose, had a swollen lip
and had cuts on the back of his
head.
Those details were leaked by
However, even if everything
Zimmerman said is true – which is
doubtful – he was clearly the
aggressor, not the victim. He was the
one who pursued Trayvon against the
advice of the 911 dispatcher. And
with police officers en route, he
decided to leave his SUV and hunt for
Trayvon
Zimmerman said he was returning
to his vehicle when Trayvon
allegedly approached him from
the rear. The two exchanged words
and began fighting. The neighbor-
hood watch captain claimed
Trayvon knocked him to the
police to the Orlando newspaper
in hopes of bolstering Zimmer-
man’s case. However, even if
everything Zimmerman said is
true – which is doubtful – he was
clearly the aggressor, not the vic-
tim. He was the one who pursued
Trayvon against the advice of the
911 dispatcher. And with police
officers en route, he decided to
leave his SUV and hunt for
Trayvon.
force if he or she reasonably
believes it is necessary to do so to
prevent death or great bodily harm
to himself or herself or another or
to prevent the commission of a
Stand your ground means stand your
ground. It doesn’t mean chase after
somebody who’s turned their back
Even supporters of Florida’s
Stand Your Ground law don’t
believe Zimmerman should be
allowed to hide behind the contro-
versial legislation.
State Rep. Dennis Baxley, the
Ocala Republican who sponsored
the bill in the House, told the
Tampa Bay Times, “They got the
goods on him [Zimmerman]. They
need to prosecute whoever shot
the kid. He has no protection
under my law.”
Jeb Bush, who signed the bill
into law when he was governor of
Florida, agrees.
“This law does not apply to this
particular circumstance,” he said.
“Stand your ground means stand
your ground. It doesn’t mean
chase after somebody who’s
turned their back.”
Florida statute 776.013(3),
known as the Stand Your Ground
law, says, in part:
(a) person who is not engaged in
an unlawful activity and who is
attacked in any other place where
he or she has a right to be has no
duty to retreat and has the right to
stand his or her ground and meet
force with force, including deadly
forcible felony.
Trayvon was clearly operating
within those boundaries when he
faced-off against Zimmerman. He
was a guest in one of the town-
houses and therefore had an unde-
niable reason to be in the
neighborhood. He had no duty to
retreat simply because Zimmer-
man was the aggressor. And
Trayvon had every right to believe
that the person who had been
stalking him was intent on inflict-
ing great bodily harm.
Regardless of how Zimmernan’s
family tries to spin the facts, it was
Trayvon Martin who had the clear
right to stand his ground. Whatev-
er he did to Zimmerman was total-
ly justified. And Zimmerman had
no right to kill a 17-old-old youth
carrying only a bag of candy and
iced tea.
George E. Curry, former editor-
in-chief of Emerge magazine, is
editor-in-chief of the National
Newspaper Publishers Associa-
tion News Service and editorial
director of Heart & Soul maga-
zine.
Young Blacks More Optimistic About Race Relations
O
ver the past 11 years, I
have had the opportunity
to work closely with the
Godfather of Hip-Hop, Russell
Simmons. We co-founded the
Hip-Hop Summit Action Network
(HSAN) in 2001. We have con-
vened more than 75 Hip-Hop
Summits across the United States,
Canada, and in South Africa, all
dealing with such empowerment
issues as education, financial liter-
acy, civic engagement, housing
and cultural transformation.
Summits that ranged in themes
from “Get Your Money Right” to
“Get Your House Right” drew
thousands of young people. One
of the essential findings that we
experienced in those youth sum-
mits was that young African
Americans today who consider
themselves to be in the hip-hop
generation see the question of race
from a more transcendent and
optimistic perspective than from
the views of their parents or from
generations the past.
Consequently, it was not surpris-
ing that a recent study by CNN
found that African-American chil-
dren were more optimistic on the
issue of race than White children
of the same age categories.
Although the study that was com-
missioned by CNN’s Anderson
Cooper 360 was widely distrib-
uted through the news media, it
was strange to hear that somehow
the “groundbreaking” results pro-
E DUCATION
S ERVICES
Benjamin F.
Chavis Jr.
vided some new revelations about
racial progress in America. The
timing of the release of this study
was ironic given the latest nation-
al divide on the issue of race in the
wake of the killing of Trayvon
Martin in Sanford, Fla.
How a 6-year-old child
feels about race or how a
teenager or a young adult
understands the signifi-
cance of race in society is
often determined at a very
early age by what the child
experiences or observes
from parents and others
who interact with them.
According to the study,
“A white child and a black
child look at the exact same
picture of two students on
the playground but what
they see is often very dif-
ferent and what they say
speaks volumes about the racial
divide in America.” The pictures,
designed to be ambiguous, are at
the heart of a groundbreaking new
study on children and race com-
missioned by CNN. White and
black kids were asked: ‘What’s
happening in this picture?’ ‘Are
these two children friends?’ and
‘Would their parents like it if they
were friends?’”
The study concluded that there
was a significant “chasm” and dif-
ference between the racial per-
spectives of the youth involved in
the study who were as young as
age 6.
CNN reported, “Overall, black
first-graders had far more positive
interpretations of the images than
white first-graders. In fact, only
38 percent of black children had a
age of 13, their views about race
become much more pessimistic,
similar to the views of White chil-
dren their age. An explanation
was offered by the study’s author,
Melanie Killen of the University
of Maryland: “Experiences of
rejection and the harsh realities of
race relations most likely explain
the trend.”
The burden of eliminating
racism and the ideology of White
supremacy from the institutions of
this society and from the mindset
of people is not consigned to one
racial group versus
another racial group.
In a multiracial society,
there has to be a full
commitment and seri-
ous responsibility for
all people to work
together to bridge the
nation’s complex racial
divide.
There is no question
that we have made
racial progress during
the past 100 years in
the United States.
There is also no ques-
tion that we have not
overcome yet. Our
youth are intelligent and conscious
of the ways that race still is a dis-
criminating factor that can deter-
mine ones quality of life. All
youth, not African American
youth alone, have to rise to the his-
torical and contemporary chal-
‘A white child and a black
child look at the exact same
picture of two students on
the playground but what
they see is often very
different and what they say
speaks volumes about the
racial divide in America’
negative interpretation of the pic-
tures, whereas almost double – a
full 70 percent of white kids – felt
something negative was happen-
ing.”
The study also revealed that by
the time Black children reach the
lenges that must be faced and
transformed. That is why, from
my vantage point, it is healthy for
so many young people to become
energized in response to the
tragedy of Trayvon Martin. We all
must remain vigilant and active.
There is much more progress to be
accomplished.
The 2012 national elections, the
reform of the educational system,
the upcoming Supreme Court rul-
ings on health care, the attempts in
30 or more states to suppress the
Black vote, and other issues that
will impact how our young people
and others can have a better life
are all matters of urgent concern.
Let’s avoid cynicism and fear of
change. Let’s make social change
occur as the result of our collec-
tive determination and struggle for
freedom, justice, equality and
empowerment. Our race and our
blackness are not a curse. We are
a blessed people with a great
future ahead, but we must not
relent or retreat in the face of the
resurgence of racial discrimina-
tion. Let’s continue to push for-
ward and make our nation and
world a better place for all.
Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is presi-
dent of the Hip-Hop Summit
Action Network and Education
Online Services Corporation and
serves as the national director for
Occupy the Dream
April 11, 2012 The Portland and Seattle Skanner Page 5