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Editorial
Guest Column
Teen's Shooting Death Stirs Up Race Relations
A
mid public demands for federal
scrutiny into the circumstances sur-
rounding a black teenager's high-
profile 2012 death at the hands of a neigh-
borhood watch volunteer in Florida, there's
reason for the U.S. Justice Department to
consider if the victim's civil rights were vio-
lated. Proving what the suspect was thinking
at the time of the confrontation and shooting
is a mighty tall order, however.
On July 14, the Justice Department
announced the criminal sec-
tion of its civil rights division
would join the FBI and the
U.S. Attorney's office for the
Middle District of Florida in
evaluating case evidence
not only gathered during an
initial federal probe last year,
Trayvon
but also from the evidence
Martin
and testimony from the state
trial this year.
Perhaps it's better to
settle the feasibility of a fed-
eral criminal complaint than
allow pent-up tensions fueled
by nonviolent vigils, protests
and rallies held across the
nation, including here in
George
Detroit, to fester.
Zimmerman
At issue is whether George
Zimmerman, who identi-
fies as Hispanic, should face federal criminal
civil rights charges after a six-woman jury
in Sanford, Fla., decided he was not guilty
of second-degree murder and manslaughter
in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, 17.
Their confrontation was in the gated commu-
nity Zimmerman patrolled. Zimmerman held a
valid concealed-weapons permit and claimed
self-defense.
The Justice Department isn't averse to
applying federal civil rights law as a means
to convicting defendants acquitted in related
state cases. Consider its 1970 prosecution of
three white Detroit police officers and one
black private security guard for allegedly con-
spiring to deprive eight black youths and two
white girls of their civil rights during the 1967
Detroit riots. A federal jury acquitted all four
defendants in what was called the Algiers
Motel incident and what proved a sobering
reminder of how polarized Motor City race
relations had become.
Presidential Take
Even President Obama weighed in on the
Trayvon Martin-George Zimmerman case. In
a July 19 appeal for national soul-searching
on race relations and racial profiling, the
president urged America to ponder racial
intolerance and injustice. He invoked his own
struggle with black identity, while acknowl-
edging the Florida verdict and respect for the
American criminal justice system.
He said: You know, when Trayvon Martin
was first shot, I said that this could have
26
August 1 • 2013
been my son. Another way of saying that is
Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years
ago. And when you think about why, in the
African American community at least, there's
a lot of pain around what happened here,
I think it's important to recognize that the
African American community is looking at
this issue through a set of experiences and a
history that doesn't go away."
The rising tide of national outrage to the
jury verdict, fueled by the belief Zimmerman
stopped Martin only because he was black,
prompted Obama to talk from the heart about
racial profiling of young black men in general
and also reflect on racial disparities in the
application of criminal laws.
He acknowledged young black men are
disproportionately involved in the criminal
justice system and disproportionately "both
victims and perpetrators of violence." He
attributed that partly to poor black neighbor-
hoods breeding poverty and dysfunction – all
traced "to a very difficult history."
Speaking about the Florida shooting, the
president said, "If a white male teen had been
involved in the same kind of scenario, from
top to bottom, both the outcome and the
aftermath might have been different."
Obama longed, too, for national resolve to
better integrate black youth into society.
Steps Forward
But the president didn't stop there. He
offered a thoughtful action plan to help the
better angels of our nature" move aside the
forces dividing us. For starters, he said, the
Justice Department should work in concert
with governors and mayors to elevate law
enforcement training to limit citizen mistrust.
He urged state and local governments to
examine their Stand Your Ground statutes,
the kind of protective cover included in the
Zimmerman trial jury instructions, to assure
they are sound. At least 22 states, including
Michigan, have some form of such a statute.
At trial, Zimmerman's attorneys argued tra-
ditional self-defense and not the Stand Your
Ground statute. But the Stand Your Ground
instruction was considered by the jury (as
revealed in post-trial juror interviews).
Two days before Obama's impassioned
remarks, the Jewish Community Relations
Council of Metropolitan Detroit joined the
chorus of voices seeking Justice Department
intervention in the case. The JCRC unwit-
tingly set the stage for the president when
it declared the response to the shooting and
verdict "should catalyze our nation to recog-
nize and take action both on racism and on
the need for effective, common-sense gun
violence laws."
While we as a nation await Justice
Department findings, let us push for a
grassroots-inspired agenda that changes the
national narrative and improves race rela-
tions by invoking the spirit, if not the letter of,
President Obama's stirring call to action.
❑
I'm Not Convinced Detroit Is Dead
n the wake of Detroit's bankruptcy filing recently, I've seen people
posting on Facebook and writing in publications about how sad it
I is that the Motor City is "dying" a slow death of destruction, decay
and abandonment.
I'm just not convinced. Yes, it's true that when my dad and I drove
through his three childhood neighborhoods a few years ago, two out
of his three homes were gone, with long grass growing in their place
on vacant lots. While sad, I didn't see it as the death of a city. I prefer
to call this an "evolution:' an idea I gleaned about a decade ago from a
fantastic Harper's article about Detroit's change from bustling metrop-
olis to empty fields.
I'm 42 years old and, for as long as I can
remember, people have lamented the condi-
tion of my city. I was born after the riots of the
1960s that inspired white flight to the 'burbs,
so I don't remember the glory days of Detroit.
I do remember shopping at the old massive
Hudson's building with my grandmother. I
remember when that building was demolished.
I remember concerts and hockey games in the
heart of the city. And I remember wishing my
city was more like New York or Chicago, with-
out really seeing the specialness of my city as
unique.
In my 20s, I lived in New York and
Washington, D.C., before returning home to the Midwest, and the
main reason I came back was because the big, bustling, frenetic
cities were just not for me. I wanted something in between a busy,
packed, expensive city and a teeny-tiny town in the middle of
nowhere.
So Detroit was a perfect home to claim when I became an
adult. With its provincial friendliness, the Motor City is somewhere in
the middle.
In July, a business decision was made to try to save the economics
of this city. So what? Plenty of bankruptcies happen so that people
or entities or, yes, cities can restructure and regain their footing.
Something had to be done. The city has been spiraling out of financial
sense for years.
But it's unrealistic to expect everyone to just pack up and leave it a
ghost town. We still have businesses and people and an energy teem-
ing throughout this town. We have to make it workable, and this was
apparently the way to do it. Or at least try.
I'm here to say that those of us who call the Motor City home —
and keep in mind, I live in Southfield, yet I say I live in Detroit —
aren't planning to leave. We live and work here. I love living here,
raising my family here. And yes, I go Downtown regularly — with my
kids and by myself. There has to be a solution.
Detroit doesn't scare me. And I don't think there's a better place to
live that's all perfect and gleaming and shiny.
As much as there is fiscal irresponsibility and abandoned buildings
and empty lots where once stood teeming neighborhoods, there is
also an energizing rebirth happening. So many millennials and entre-
preneurs and optimistic business folks are working to remake the
image of Detroit and introduce a whole new way to look at this place.
It's a different turn to the story. New details. An ending that hasn't
been written yet.
Or perhaps no ending at all.
An evolution.
Stage 2. (or 3, or 333 ... ) A next stage, built on a foundation of
optimism and hard work.
Don't peek behind the curtain. It's far better when what comes next
is a glorious, sunny surprise.
❑
Lynne Meredith Golodner owns Your People LLC (www.yourppl.com ), a public
relations firm in Southfield, and is a nationally known author. Her most recent
book is, The Flavors of Faith: Holy Breads. She lives in Southfield with her
husband and four children and blogs at www.lynnegolodneccom.