"Getting to know your Admin:" Hi I’m a 37-yr old single mother of a 20-yr old daughter residing in Queens New York. I may not be Trayvon Martin, but my brothers, cousins, uncles and male friends are ALL Trayvon Martin. This case has touched me in such a way that can’t help but to tear up when anything about Trayvon is mentioned. Trayvon could have been my son! It hurts me to think that a young man can leave his home to go to the store for candy and never return home because he’s labeled suspicious based on the color of his skin and the way he is dressed. Unbelievable! What hurts me is that at my age I thought that race relations in this country would be in a better place (boy was I wrong). I consider myself a very open-minded person. I have dated out my race and I have several friends that are not Africa Americans, which makes it that much harder for me to understand where all this hate comes from. We are all human beings no matter our race or shade, or creed or ethnic backgrounds. I was born in South America (Guyana) and migrated to this country when I was just seven years old. I come from a family where we don’t discuss racism, politics, or religion (to be truthful they don’t discuss much). My Mom is a Jehovah Witness so she stays clear from these topics, me on the other hand, I just love to debate and at any given time you can catch me watching the news (my friends call me Ms CNN) because I love to stay informed of what’s going on in the world around me. I grew up in one of the roughest areas of Queens, New York, known as South Jamaica. It was there where as a teenager in the 1990s I was faced with the pain of losing so many of my male friends to gun violence. This isn’t a new issue, as the senseless killing of our youth has been a part of my community for a very long time and the unjust killing of men of color has been happening way before I was born. We all tend to pretend this isn’t happening all around us. I, myself, am guilty of this as well, but the incident with Trayvon opened my eyes. It not only opened my eyes to the problem with guns in America but racism and racial profiling in this country. I have never been a victim of racism, (well not that I’ve noticed) but I was a first-hand witness how my male friends were being treated by other races because of the color of their skin. This has to stop! I may not be Trayvon Martin, but I was once was a passenger in a car where my male friend was pulled over for no reason at a red light. I was told to shut up by the authorities and to mind my own business. I may not be Trayvon Martin but I was once in a store with a friend who was being followed by security because he was labeled as a thief, just for walking in the place. I may not be Trayvon Martin but I stood in silence while cops roughed up my friend for the crime of driving while black. All these events in my life made me thank God that I don’t have a son and to be honest I don’t want a son (sad but true). Trayvon did nothing wrong that evening. He was murdered because he was black and was later put on trial for his own murder. This page is designed to keep his memory and this movement alive because in our way, we ALL are Trayvon Martin. We have to continue to make noise in order to be heard! MizzTw
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 13:41:13 +0000
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