Trayvon Martin

Wednesday's front page  headline in the USA Today was "Trayvon Martin is dead; nation is soul-searching". Really?? Let's take an honest look at this situation. First, I think that it is tragic when a young man's life is cut short by violence. Having said that, let's be honest about this idea that the "nation is soul-searching".

Almost every day in this country, a young black man is killed, usually by another young black man. Black on black violence is an epidemic. If Trayvon Martin had been killed by another young black man, it would not have made the front page of the USA Today. The outrage is caused by the fact that he was killed by a man who speaks Spanish. The alleged killer's father is white and his mother is from Peru. I guess that torn between sympathy for the Hispanic and sympathy for the Negro, the USA Today went with the black kid.

This real story in this case is the reaction of the black community to a person of Hispanic heritage killing a black man. Evidently blacks are free to kill their own, but someone of another ethnic group must be prosecuted for doing that. What kind of standard is that? Where were all of these protesters when all of those other young black men were killed? Why the big deal about this one? The big deal is that this time the killer speaks Spanish.

How do blacks react when a black man is killed by one of their own? In 1996, rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in Las Vegas. Surrounded by more than 20 of his best homeys, nobody saw a thing. Hmmm. Every year in Greensboro, North Carolina A&T holds their huge homecoming celebration. The only question worth asking is "What will be the body count?" Almost every year, someone gets shot and killed that weekend. I don't recall any demonstrations about that level of violence.

The real race relations problem today is not between whites and blacks, it's between blacks and immigrants. Blacks regard immigrants as the "Nouveau poor". They think that they are taking the jobs previously reserved for blacks. There is a certain amount of envy when immigrants have been successful.

 Why isn't the Obama administration examining how blacks treat immigrants? Have they ever charged any blacks for hate crimes against Mexicans, Koreans or Vietnamese? Let's pull out all of the facts and compare the number of Hispanics slain by blacks with the number of blacks slain by Hispanics. What are the chances of that discussion ever taking place?

A few years ago, I walked into a conversation between three black cooks in the kitchen at work. One was complaining loudly about a store opened by some Koreans near his home. He asked,"What are they doing in my neighborhood?" He then complained that the government gave Koreans the money to go into business, but they did not do it for blacks. I told them that they sounded like those racist white folks they were always complaining about. I guess nobody likes it when the tables get turned. You could have put pointed hats, white hoods and cloaks on those three brothers and passed them off as Klansmen.

Geraldo Rivera weighed in last night with a comment about how Martin was dressed. Rivera said that if you dress like a criminal, you will probably get treated like one. Some NBA players are wearing hoodies to show their support for the Martin protesters. Given the criminal records of some NBA players, Rivera may be right.

So what's all of this mean? If you are enraged about Trayvon Martin, tell me why you haven't done anything when all of these other young black men died. Let's have an honest conversation about race relations and let's talk about the issues between blacks and immigrants.

I await your hate mail.