We Are Not Trayvon Martin

• I am not Trayvon Martin.  I am a 56 year-old white woman whose life has been mostly defined by privilege.  When I get stopped by police officers for speeding or a busted tail light, they usually end up apologizing.  Just last month I was denied a Global Entry (think express line in Customs) because of a civil disobedience arrest and the officer apologized to me, saying he agreed with why I protested. My own  awakening as “active-participant-in-a-racist-society-privileging-me” occurred at age 44.  The setting was a class on social identity at Boston University. We were separated into racial identity groups and then asked to report back our findings. As a young woman of color spoke, it was as if a screen had been lifted revealing the existence of an entire reality unlike my own!  I listened to her speak of their collective experiences of daily life in Boston and I was stunned. The contrast in our experiences of shopping in any retail store, interacting with police at a traffic stop, riding public transportation and simply walking down the street were startling to me. Equally startling was how the contrast was not at all surprising to her or other members of her identity group. Worse still was how rapidly several members of the white identity group sought to negate the experiences of the people of color or tell similar stories of a single instance in which they felt marginalized.

  I would love to be able to write how rapidly I became informed, started to work on acknowledging my own white privilege, strived to be an accountable white ally and spent time each day working to dismantle our racist systems. I cannot. It was not until several years later I came to realize how close to home the racism was located and how my lack of active participation was the same as condoning the injustice.  As a member of a progressive, liberal faith community, I believed we were collectively among those who understood white privilege and systemic racism and were activists in building multicultural community. Following a national gatherings in Texas I learned how wrong I was in that perception. Having heard white supremacists had come to protest our gathering, I was outraged.  Next I heard local police had profiled our youth of color, while leaving white-appearing youth alone. I was appalled. Then I heard stories of white members of our own faith community making racist assumptions and behaving in racist manners. Car keys were tossed to one person of color, assumed to be a valet. Other people of color were assumed to be wait or housekeeping staff. Youth of color trying to enter an event were assumed to be ‘not ours.’ These were just some of the racist incidents caused by our own community. I had been looking too easily outside of my own community for the presence of racism and privilege. Part of my own privilege was in choosing the easy places to be outraged and seek change. Now that I knew it was our own family. Now I knew it was me. I am not Trayvon Martin but I am the racist system that leads to gated communities in which any person of color is seen as ‘outsider.’ I am the racist system that leads to law-enforcement practices and policies that devalue people who are black or brown. I am the racist system that breeds fear of young men of color in hoodies and protects young white men with varsity letters. I am the racist system that equates justice with a protection of the status quo in terms of racial power. I am the racist systems that requires nation-wide protest to even attempt to access justice. I am not Trayvon Martin but I am the racist system that caused him to lose his life. And it is this certain knowledge that calls me to the work of anti-racism, anti-oppression and multiculturalism each day. 

- See more at: http://wearenottrayvonmartin.com/post/56433249723/i-am-not-trayvon-martin-i-am-a-56-year-old-white#sthash.eRU3zlVS.dpuf

Tears to Action ~

http://www.wickedlocal.com/marblehead/news/lifestyle/religion/x624130830/Marblehead-UU-minister-reacts-to-Trayvon-Martin-verdict

But it's not about race? Actually, it was, before, after, during ... and it still is~

Someone asked what to say to a friend who believes the Zimmerman verdict wasn't about race: 

I'd start with 'I might have that reaction 15 years ago but have come to learn how pervasive racism is in our iives. And I'm still learning. There are times when I can agree to disagree but in this case, lives are at stake so I find myself willing to risk relationships in order to open more heads and hearts to seeing what our historically marginalized communities have known all along. Our system favors people who look like me. Period. The racism in this case preceded the events of that evening. The racism present in the neighborhood automatically put at risk people who looked like Trayvon Martin. The racism present in the political powers automatically favored anyone with a firearm pointed at a person of color. The racism present in the entire dominant social fabric automatically ramped up the expectations of consequences, feelings of entitlement & bravado in George Zimmerman. The racism present in the systems of power, including the justice system automatically moved to dismiss the facts of the case, leading to the 6 week delay in an arrest forced by widespread criticism and protest. The racism present in the judicial system led to the make-up of the jury. The racism present in your socialization, and many others, including mine for some years, leads us to this conversation today. And we are wrong if we allow that socialization to rule our heads and hearts. 

This was about racism. Period. And so, dear friend ---- I invite you to just spend a day, give that much to the Martin family --- spend just today imagining that this was about race and that an innocent young boy died at the hands of a racist system. And then let's talk again ~ I love you but I want to live in a world in which every child is loved and protected by all of us - and this isn't it. Multitudes of parents of children of color are sitting down tonight and reminding them how they are not safe in this world. Sadly, not for the first time. We need to be talking to our children too and telling them that they can either pretend this isn't about race or get busy changing it. Here's an important article you might start with 
.
http://www.timwise.org/2013/07/no-innocence-left-to-kill-racism-injustice-and-explaining-america-to-my-daughter/

Letter to UU Congregation of Marblehead

Dear ones,

Last night was a tragic night in the ongoing struggle for racial justice in our beloved country.  The acquittal of George Zimmerman, in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, left many beyond articulation but clear in emotions of outrage, despair & sadness.  For many in the community of color, fear.  For many in the dominant culture, shame.  Since last night, texts, facebook messages, tweets and emails have poured in, each providing one more piece of trying to put words to this point of time in our journey.  Some focus on the jury - how could it be allowed?  A jury that was nearly all-white? Others on the racism inherent in the entire incident, recalling that it took a nationwide protest to get the shooter arrested at all?  Others still, mostly all of color, register their lack of surprise, noting on the arc of their own lived experience this stands as simply one more piece of being targeted, harmed and harmed again by an unjust system.  And yet.  And yet, those are also the voices of hope that call us all to the work of understanding racism as something so embedded in our dominant culture it can lead to none other than fear-based laws like 'stand-your-ground,' profiling people who are 'other' and a justice system that benefits financially from the continued incarceration of people of color and at the same time provides a different level of justice for the same population.  From an accurate analysis of our system, this is exactly the verdict we should expect.  And yet.  And yet, those among us who on this night will worry until their young are back home, worry as they drive their cars through upscale neighborhoods and see flashing blue lights approaching, note with dismay the extra attention inside of the retail store, wonder --- what of this do I share with my child tonight? ............................ they lead us with strength of purpose and hope, to say, the work continues.  For those of you who are most impacted by this event because you are a member of the community of color, or other at-risk identity group, I offer my prayers and sorrow that our world is not yet the world we profess to seek as a people of conscience and faith.  I pledge to you that my head, heart and hands will not waiver in the journey. For those of you, who like me, live within the privilege of the dominant Euro-American white culture, I applaud the efforts of those who are already well on the journey of understanding how 'white privilege' operates in our daily lives and societal systems  and invite you in to an intentional expansion of our efforts to educate ourselves, each other toward the end of working in effective, increasingly powerful and dear creation, I pray, transformational work.  

And with gratitude to a dear friend from Atlanta, I offer the reminder that anger toward the shooter, the lawyers and/or the jury, feed the less-best-selves within us and our task is so grand, we need our whole spirits engaged on the promise of a better tomorrow.  Let our prayer of today be a re-commitment to a future in which we share equally the justice so many of us take for granted. 

Yours on the journey ~

Rev. Wendy von Zirpolo