Black Agenda editor Glen Ford: Verdict shows racism persists in U.S

Scan page 2

into the record to show that Trayvon Martin fit the stereotype of a gangster—he wore a hood­ ie on occasion, had tattoos, and might have smoked marijuana. The picture of Trayvon as a “thug” was parroted by the media, which read­ ily displayed photos and documents that the defense lawyers had given them.

But none of that spoke to the elementary fact that Zimmerman had no legitimate business in pursuing and threatening Martin, let alone killing him. He had even been instructed by the police dispatcher to leave Martin alone. And Trayvon Martin, for his part, had done nothing illegal and had no weapon. His only crime was “walking while Black!”

As Michelle Alexander, author of “The New Jim Crow,” writes, “If Trayvon Martin had been born white he would be alive today. That has been established beyond all reasonable doubt. If he had been white, he never would have been stalked by Zimmerman, there would have been no fight, no funeral, no trial, no ver­ dict. It is the Zimmerman mindset that must be found guilty—that views Black men and boys 12 SOCIALIST ACTION AUGUST 2013 Socialist Action reporter Marty Goodman interviewed Glen Ford, Executive Editor of Black Agenda Report. Socialist Action: The African American community is reeling from the murder of Trayvon Martin and the acquit­ tal of George Zimmerman, the racist vigilante. What does this say about present-day life in the U.S.? Glen Ford: I think one of the reasons the community is reeling is that it must confront the shock of a reality that has not changed in many fundamental aspects. People liked to think that it had changed. Black folks had been told by their leaders—this leadership class that emerged after the Black Power and Black freedom movement of the sixties—that the U.S. had undergone some kind of fundamental change.

The entire establishment narrative, carried on by the me­ dia, was one of the U.S. constantly improving and getting rid of old baggage and remaking itself.

Now one confronts not just the savage and vicious mur­ der of Trayvon Martin, and not just the jury’s verdict in that murder, but a corporate media reflecting a huge por­ tion of white public opinion that approved of the verdict, that believed there was not a sufficient case against Zim­ merman. But for Black folks, as I wrote, his guilt was as obvious as a mob lynching at high noon in Times Square, and so there is shock in the realization that things have not changed in the fundamental sense of race relations. Part of the rage comes from the sense of impotence be­ cause Black folks have been brought up to believe that if we pull the right levers we can get redress of our griev­ ances in this country; that there is no need any more to take to the streets to confront the contradictions of this society in ways that are not necessarily sanctioned by the (continued on page 11)