trayvon martin was lynched. before you rush to correct me on my facts or check to see what era i’ve been whisked away to, let me stop you and repeat myself. trayvon martin was lynched. see, i am well aware of the facts but the motivation behind his shooting death echoes eerily of a time where a strange type of fruit hung from the branches of trees and simply being black in amerikkka made you a potential victim.

there are almost 3000 documented victims of lynch mobs killed between 1882 and 1930 in just ten southern states. 2500 of the victims were black. of these black victims, 94 percent died in the hands of white lynch mobs. If these numbers don’t astound you, let me break it down a little further for you. this means that on the average, a black man, woman, or child was murdered nearly once a week, every week, between 1882 and 1930 by a hate-driven white mob. and that’s just at the turn of the century! this does not include the many undocumented cases of lynchings that occurred through the era of Jim Crow, which didn’t officially end until 1965. and among the many bulls–t excuses used for lynching a Black person, including “being obnoxious”, insulting a white man, or frightening a white woman, was ACTING SUSPICIOUSLY. sound familiar? the astronomical numbers previously stated don’t even reflect how many cases went undocumented due to fear or just plain coverups by the police and racist media. trayvon’s case could’ve gone the same route had it been up to fox news. in the entire 3 weeks following his murder, fox reported on the case ONCE. a heartbreaking story that became a trending topic on twitter, was irrelevant news to the media giant, notorious for its vehemently racist “journalists” and pro republican leanings. seemingly reflective of the lackadaisical attitude of racist amerikkka towards the loss of black life, fox chose to effectively “coverup” the murder of trayvon martin. but what’s their motivation?

the real motivation behind lynching was simple: Show the niggers who’s boss. For this was THEIR land, and their security(be it financial, regarding racial purity, or otherwise) was tantamount. lynching was used as a habitual tool of state sanctioned terrorism against us to establish the lines of power and show us where we shouldn’t cross. even now, with the shootings of sean bell, amadou diallo, and oscar grant making headlines through the years, the lenient prison sentences handed down to the police make it clear that the murder of black people is STILL state sanctioned. how else do you explain the killer of oscar grant receiving less than 2 years for shooting this unarmed, handcuffed young man in the back? the uniformed murderers of sean bell shooting 50 bullets at sean and his friends because they “believed” they were armed, being cleared of all charges? or trayvon’s killer still 3 weeks free after murdering the young king because he was suspicious of his clothing choices? even if the threat is imaginary, in the eyes of white amerikka a black life is worth every bit of the message it sends-that our lives are dispensable. no matter that some of the perpetrators these days are people of color. the caste system created by racism and colonialism has caused the colonized to identify and align with their oppressors and for the rest of us to be pushed further outside the margins. hence, zimmerman, the hispanic man who killed trayvon, was identified as white, and was protected by the establishment as a reward for his protection of white land.

but even deeper down the rabbit hole it goes. black manhood was, and still is, seen as an affront to white society. the deeply melanated skin was a visual threat to white society. it, along with the black man’s physical prowess, was a symbol of dominance, a threat to the “purity” of the white race. so, like the epic battle of ausar and set, where set usurped power from his brother and finalized his murder by cutting off his penis, many black men were castrated after lynching to effectively eliminate the threat of their power. This fear is still so deeply ingrained that a 250 pound and armed zimmerman was “shook” and angered by a young black teenager who was 100 lbs lighter and 11 years his junior. trayvon’s life was ended not because of his color, but because of his melanin. sidenote: people with direct afrikan ancestry, no matter what complexion they are, carry copious amounts of a specific type of melanin called eumelanin. this form is more genetically dominant and establishes physiological differences between races(check vitamins and minerals from a to z by dr. jewel pookrum). while trayvon wasn’t technically castrated, he was done so metaphorically, because of the effective sterilization caused by his murder. are you still with me?

although we hear that the times have changed, with magazines trumpeting the emergence of one colorblind human race, it seems that black people are still subject to state sanctioned abuse, terror, and murder at the whim of the oppressor. though the weapons have advanced from rope to 9mm, black people are still being lynched and put in their place by perpetrators who seek to eliminate any potential threat to their economic, social, and racial security in stolen land.

my womb, yet to bear its own fruit, aches for sybrina fulton, trayvon’s mother, who had to listen to her baby screaming for help while she was helpless to save him. i am angered and pained along with tracy martin, trayvon’s father, who son was denied the chance to father his own seeds, his life cut tragically short.

ironically, the hoods have changed colors and wearers, from white to black, from klan members to 17 year old boys. previously worn by open perpetrators of racial violence and now worn by the victims of it, the hood, or hoodie now has a somber connotation. as i mourn for this young king’s life, i rock a hoodie, not as a potential victim, but in solidarity with thousands of black people. formerly strange fruit hanging from southern trees, they are now, like trayvon, cut down before their time. unripened towards the ground.
rest in uhuru trayvon martin. ase.
sa-roc