The Whole System Failed Trayvon Martin
The American journalist Charles Blow in his scandal article The Whole System Failed Trayvon Martin illuminated such deep problems of current society as the credibility of self-defense, the imperfection of the U.S. criminal justice system, criticism of gun culture, and race relationships. This paper focuses on the Trayvon Martin case and explores the stereotypes that created the motive for the homicide.
The Trayvon Martin case caused a substantial public interest in racial profiling. According to Charles Blow’s words: “the system failed him when the neighborhood watchman grafted on stereotypes the moment he saw him, ascribing motive and behavior and intent and criminal history to a boy who was just walking home (n.d.). In general, the phenomenon of racial
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One of the most well-known examples of the racial profiling is a case of Trayvon Martin. This horrible event happened in February 2012 when seventeen years old boy Trayvon was shot by the neighborhood watch head George Zimmerman. Analyzing the words of Blow, Zimmerman’s perception of Trayvon Martin reflects pervasive stereotypes about the criminality of black people. Thus, the tension between police and African-American has a long history. Nowadays, news and mass media feed public with continuous stories of crimes that became an integrant part of black males characteristic. Hence, Zimmerman’s actions against Martin are far from surprising. They seem rather to be a logical consequence of existing growing prejudice and acceptance of racial profiling. Having raised this problem, Charles Blow also pointed to the question how race influences people’s perception of criminal danger. Apparently, George Zimmerman perceived danger in the situation with Trayvon Martin. Defining the level of danger may be caused within the context of decisions about walking at night or crossing to a sidewalk. In most cases
“The Monsterization of Trayvon Martin,” by Patricia J. Williams, is an article written about the demonization of a young black man after his killer was put on trial and, ultimately, was acquitted of any charges against him. I would not say that the writer, Williams, is emotional. But their argument certainly focuses on pathos. She describes how the young man was changed from an innocent boy to an “immense, drug-addled ‘thug’” in the eyes of the public in comparison to both the treatment that the accused received, as well as compared to a similar yet racially reversed death that had occurred in 2007. Williams also uses ethos, while questioning whether the “stand your ground” law that was in question was ethically fair, pointing out that it’s
Police brutality is at an all time high, with the expansion of social media it has made racism appear more prominent. Racism is something that’s existed for generations however social media has given people the ability to see racism first hand for themselves and has also given the public to respond openly to the issue at hand. The Trayvon Martin case was one of the biggest cases that sparked the racial profiling discussion, Trayvon Martin was a African American male walking home from a convenient store at night with a hoodie on when he was racial profiled by George Zimmerman, a Hispanic male who saw trayvon martin as a threat based solely on the color of his skin and the hoodie that he was wearing. Trayvon was unarmed and harmless but do to someone else pre conceived
I chose to write on an incident that occurred on Feb 26, 20102, in Sanford, Florida. George Zimmerman a 28 year old mixed Hispanic male shot and killed Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman was a volunteer neighborhood watch coordinator, in a gated community in Florida. While on duty, Zimmermann had a concealed weapon and carried a 9mm pistol. (Zimmerman did have a legal permit).
Males like Martin, are constantly profiled to be threatening or dangerous, which makes males that look like Martin more likely to switch their behaviors, so they do not get involved in altercations or contribute to the high incarceration rates facing the minority communities. In turn, the concept of racial profiling and mass incarceration in the black community is alive and problematic in combating the biological social construct of
He asserts that “Something happens to people in law enforcement...after years of police work, officers often can’t help but be influenced by the cynicism they feel.” He rationalizes but does not deny, the law enforcement’s aggressive actions that the people of color may have seen or experienced. This method of pathos not only diversifies but also fortifies his thesis that there is evidence of racial profiling; however, he once again give reason for their skepticism to execute his primary purpose. Overall, dedicating three of his four “hard truths” to justify the actions of the law enforcement is crucial to his argument as a whole because his audience may have portrayed them differently
Race relations has influenced the slaying of many blacks in modern America. George Zimmerman’s slaying of Trayvon Martin, a black teen, he approaches as he walked home in the rain with a bag of Skittles. Black communities in the United States spent much of late March of 2012 expressing outrage about Zimmerman’s actions and the Sanford, Florida, police department’s
In his essay “Arrested Development: The Conservative Case Against Racial Profiling” published in the New Republic on September 10, 2001, professor James Forman Jr. illustrates his disagreement with racial profiling. Forman Jr. is a professor at Yale Law School. He teaches Constitutional Law and seminars on race and the criminal justice system. In his piece, Forman primary goal is to create understanding about the effectiveness of racial profiling and how this affects the black community especially youths. Forman achieves this by appealing to a liberal audience.
Racial profiling and discrimination is an underlining theme in Claudia Rankine’s Citizen: An American Lyric. The author uses everyday encounters to expose the harsh reality African American people live. Rankine’s perspective on racism is applicable to years dating from 1860 to present day occurrences. Discrimination against African Americans is a continuing problem. Although slavery does not exist, African Americans continually grieve the agony their ancestors faced throughout the Civil War and World War II.
(2014). The Trayvon Martin Trial - Two Comments and an Observation. The John Marshall Law Review, 47(4), 11th ser. Retrieved February 21, 2018, from https://repository.jmls.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://scholar.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=2086&context=lawreview.
In this article, Staples discusses the treatment of African Americans by U.S. police, emphasizing the history of racial profiling and discriminatory treatment. Staples focuses mainly on the arrest of Henry Louis Gates, Jr. who got arrested in his home located in Cambridge, Massachusetts which relvealed the sharp racial divide over what police could do to innocent black people. Robert goes on to explain that the racial underpinnings cause the majoritity of the public to favor law enforcement as a slutionto crime. Robert claims the political support for U.S. legal discrimination leads the people against minorities in criminal penalties over small crimes which usually are nonviolent offenses. I will use this academic article to support my conclusion
Introduction Attention Getter: According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, “One in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime” (Kerby 1). Bridge: People of color are going to prison at a drastically high rate for something they may or may not have done. Introduction of Topic: Racial profiling is happening all around the country and it is violating the rights and equality of African Americans.
Black Americans have made up approximately half of the United States’s homicide victims every year since 2010, according to U.S. News, and the US population is only thirteen percent black, suggesting that people of color are disportionately involved in fatal encounters. This trend is actualized in the fictional murder of Tod Clifton in Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison and the real-life murder of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida in 2012. Both Martin and Clifton are young black men who are killed by a white man in a position of authority. Neither of the perpetrators face serious legal consequences for their actions, but the community response of both cases demonstrates the incredible influence that can be generated through a tragic event. Trayvon
How Do the Cons of Racial Profiling Outnumber the Pros? In the U.S today, many cases involving racial profiling have occurred. In fact, the popular hashtag called “#blacklivesmatter” stemmed from the deaths cases and unfair treatment of minorities by police officers using racial profiling. Racial profiling can be described as “the use of race or ethnicity as grounds for suspecting someone of having committed an offense”. Although there are some that deny it, racial profiling is widely practiced all over the U.S.
In the essay “Just Walk on By” written by Brent Staples, the author uses a mixture of exaggeration, quoting, and word choice to grasp the attention of his readers and further his point that racial profiling is an unfortunate circumstance that impacts African American men in negative ways. One can witness very early on in the piece that exaggeration is used, particularly with the way Staples describes his actions. By referring to the first woman to run from him as “My first victim”, two effects are created. The harshness of the word “Victim” draws in attention, and causes one to crave a further investigation into the story. When reading further, the exaggeration is put into place once the reader realises that he committed no crime, and was simply walking down the street.
Synthesis Research Paper Everyday growing up as a young black male we have a target on our back. Society was set out for black males not to succeed in life. I would always hear my dad talk about how police in his younger days would roam around the town looking for people to arrest or get into an altercation with. As a young boy growing up I couldn’t believe some of the things he said was happening. However as I got older I would frequently hear about someone getting killed by the police force.