I don’t understand the partisan response to the killing of Trayvon Martin.
Yes, many liberals are upset that a child was gunned down with impunity. (It’s been more than a month now.) But they are not upset for partisan reasons or for “liberal” reasons or for Democratic Party reasons.
They are upset because a child was gunned down with impunity. That ought to upset conservatives too. I appreciate that the Republican Party ca. 2012 has a knee-jerk opposition to anything that President Barack Obama says, but just because Obama is saddened by the senseless killing of a child shouldn’t have to mean that Republicans should reflexively take the other side.
This shouldn’t be partisan. Those saddened and angered by the killing of Trayvon Martin are not fighting a partisan battle. This child’s death does not advance some liberal or Democratic agenda. Those of us upset by this are not saying, “A child has been shot and therefore we must restore parity between taxes on labor and taxes on capital gains.” We are saying that it is horrifying and wrong that a child can be gunned down with impunity.
There is no reason that conservatives shouldn’t completely agree with that.
Well, there’s one reason, but there’s no decent, moral, legitimate reason.
Here are a slew of links in response to the slaying of Trayvon Martin:
Judd Legum: “Trayvon Martin: The 5 Key Unanswered Questions”
Eric W. Dolan: “Surveillance video shows no blood or bruises on George Zimmerman”
Bomani Jones: “Trayvon Martin, and When a Black Man Deserves to Die”
H. Samy Alim: “#WeAreTrayvonMartin: Breaking the silence around racial abuse”
George Takei: “Trayvon Martin deserves justice”
Charlie Pierce: “Trayvon Martin and the End of Excuses”
Lenin’s Tomb: “Trayvon Martin and the history of lynching” (via)
Crunk Feminist Collective: “On Appropriate Victims: More on Trayvon Martin and Other Names You Need to Know”
Judd Legum: “What Everyone Needs to Know About the Smear Campaign Against Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)”
The Field Negro: “Let the push-back begin”
Michelle Goldberg: “Why Conservatives Are Smearing Trayvon Martin’s Reputation”
Chauncey DeVega: “Smearing Trayvon Martin: The Salem Witch Trials, Mass Hysteria, and the Specter of Black Thuggery”
Charlie Pierce: “The ‘Color-Blind’ Delusions of the Trayvon Backlash”
Zerlina Maxwell: “The thug-ification of Trayvon Martin: smear campaign distracts from the case”
Ramona: “When Being Black Is All It Is”
Ta-Nehisi Coates: “How Not to Protest the Killing of Trayvon Martin”
Leslie Copeland-Tune: “Hoodies, Skittles and a Mother’s Nightmare”
Suzannah Paul: “When race is the elephant in the room”
Glennon Melton: “For Trayvon”
Harold Pollack: “Personal moment: the Trayvon Martin case”
Kristen Howerton: “Required Reading on the Killing of Trayvon Martin”
Alan Bean: “Learning from messy narratives”
Paul @ Disoriented. Reoriented.: “If Trayvon Martin Were a Fetus, Christians Would Be a Whole Lot More Upset”
Elizabeth Rawlings: “White Christians Sleeping While Young Black Men Die”
Lisa Sharon Harper: “Hoodie Sunday, Trayvon Martin, and the Confessions of a Nation”
William M. Welch: “Churches rally around Trayvon Martin on ‘hood Sunday’”
Richard Cizik: “An Evangelical Voice for Trayvon”
Sojourners’ “Christians and Racial Justice Discussion Guide” available as free download.
David Remnick: “Bruce and Trayvon: American Skin“
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