WSJ | Two tragedies are apparent in the Trayvon Martin case. The first is
obvious: A teenager—unarmed and committing no crime—was shot dead.
Dressed in a "hoodie," a costume of menace, he crossed paths with a man
on the hunt for precisely such clichés of menace. Added to this—and here
is the rub—was the fact of his dark skin.
Maybe it was more the hood than the
dark skin, but who could argue that the skin did not enhance the menace
of the hood at night and in the eyes of someone watching for crime.
(Fifty-five percent of all federal prisoners are black though we are
only 12% of the population.) Would Trayvon be alive today had he been
walking home—Skittles and ice tea in hand—wearing a polo shirt with an
alligator logo? Possibly. And does this make the ugly point that dark
skin late at night needs to have its menace softened by some show of
Waspy Americana? Possibly.
What is fundamentally tragic here is
that these two young males first encountered each other as provocations.
Males are males, and threat often evokes a narcissistic anger that
skips right past reason and into a will to annihilate: "I will take you
out!" There was a terrible fight. Trayvon apparently got the drop on
George Zimmerman, but ultimately the man with the gun prevailed.
Annihilation was achieved.
