I come to you today confused and quite disgusted. I just want to know why is it that when there is a big spectacle going on in foreign countries, American citizens rush to their aid when there are similar situations occurring on their home soil? Case in point, the unfortunate murder of Trayvon Martin.On February 26, 2012, 17 year old Trayvon Martin was shot and killed as he walked through his father's gated community in Florida. Martin was shot and killed by 28 year old George Zimmerman. Zimmerman told police officials that Martin looked suspicious and used self defense as an explanation for the shooting. I would normally agree with someone choosing self defense as a plea but there's something a little off here. Martin was dressed in a hoodie and sneakers and carried a bag of skittles candy and Iced Tea. What exactly is suspicious and life threatening about that? To make matters worse, Zimmerman has yet to be charged or arrested with any crime. What's driven me completely crazy about this whole situation is that, there has been very little media coverage regarding the incident.
Last week a documentary hit the web about a long time war brewing in Africa at the hands of Joseph Kony and it became an over night sensation. Hundreds of people rushed to purchase bracelets and tee-shirts, and made donations to support the cause and raise awareness. Almost every Facebook update and twitter status I saw had some opinion about the whole "STOP KONY" phenomena and it bother's me! Although I am completely against what's going on in Africa, I am more concerned about what's going on domestically. A 17 year old child was murdered for carrying candy and tea and that's okay but what's going on a million miles away is what has our attention. Call me shallow but I think we all need to pay close attention to what's going on here in the United States because we're all more likely to experience some level of "racial profiling" than we are to experience the war going on in Africa. Rodney King? Sean Bell? Abner Louima? Amadou Diallo? Trayvon Martin? They've all gone with out documentaries being made, trending topics on twitter, and seem like an unforgotten piece of American History. While we're fighting so hard to protect the rights of thousands of Africans, we need to fight to protect our brothers, sons, husbands, cousins, and friends from being gunned down for being "suspicious."
Another issue I have with the way "we've" been supporting the KONY movement is the fact that children being armed with guns is something that is so alarming to us. Hundreds of teens are murdered everyday in the United States. Six year old Aliyah Shell was shot and killed while she played on her porch with her mother in Chicago. I haven't seen any news about that. Over the weekend there were several more shootings in Chicago, where 10 people were murdered and 39 people were injured. Over a 2 day span at least 49 people were shot! That should be a movement in itself, but in typical American fashion we'll turn the other cheek and worry about what's going on in another country UNTIL we receive the call that one of our loved ones has become another tragic victim and then we'll hope for change.
Don't get me wrong, I think the things that are going on in Africa are terrible BUT I do believe that the atrocities in the country I call home are equally important and deserve the same amount of support and awareness. Loss of life is loss of life, regardless of where it occurs, so that's not my issue. My issue is that people have become so willing to turn their back on their own neighbors to assist someone a million miles away. It's always been acceptable in American society to overlook its own problems while meddling in another countries issues. It doesn't have to be this way. We can make a change at home. We just have to want to.
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