If you have watched the news, logged on to facebook, twitter or payed attention to any other media outlet lately then you have probably heard about the Trayvon Martin murder. To give a bit of backstory for those who do not know, Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old Florida teen who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman. The boy was coming out of a liquor store after buying snacks; Trayvon was unarmed and wearing a black hoodie. Mr. Zimmerman was on neighborhood watch duty and claimed that he called into the police about a suspicious prowler in the vicinity and Trayvon fit the description. After not getting much of a response from the police Zimmerman took matters into his own hands and followed Trayvon and shot him in a struggle that he claimed was in “self-defense” even though Trayvon was guilty of no crime. Zimmerman was not arrested after the shooting.
The case has sparked a windstorm of controversy across the country about the issue of race and justice. The widespread opinion is that Zimmerman, a White Hispanic man, racially profiled Trayvon as being a “suspicious and presumably dangerous” individual because he was young and black. In this interview, rapper and producer David Banner speaks with Black Enterprise magazine and gives his view on what implications the Trayvon Martin murder gives about racism and classism in our society today.
Listen to his words and formulate your own opinion.
Post submitted by Jadessa
