Painting the Black Man

I read a status on facebook that said "The scariest thing in the world is being a black man." This I can agree with. From birth the black male has a disadvantage. He'll be seen as a violent threat in some point in time in his life even if he's the total opposite. He's profiled more than any other race of man.

A year ago when the Trayvon Martin case was brought out into the media, I heard a black woman say she never lets her sons wear their hoodies over their heads for that particular reason of why Trayvon was "supposedly" a threat.

Zimmerman's explanation of what happened that night, painted Martin as if he was someone in a hood movie saying, "What the F*** your problem homie." He further says "You got a problem now" or the part where Zimmerman says after he shot Trayvon, Martin Threw up his arms and says, "You got me."

Was Zimmerman's story of Trayvon so easy for the jury to believe because they see all black men this way? Do they believe that all black men act as if they've just stepped out of a "Boyz in the Hood" kind of movie?

Maybe..... Some men do act like that, but in Trayvon's case it's obvious that this wasn't the situation.

So how do we stop majority from painting us this way? We can't but there are things that we can do to make it harder. First off, it's ok to be who you are as a black man, or black woman but don't give society more reasons to profile you or to label you with a certain sterotype.

Black men, stop acting like you've just stepped out of a music video. 1. Pull up your pants, no one is going to respect you while you're sagging. 2. Get educated, being educated is the best thing that you can do for yourself, and for your race. 3. Respect your own race, how do you expect them to respect us if you don't.

In no way is this saying this is going to stop the unfairness that is brought against us but if more black men or blacks as a whole came together to do better, to be better, it'll be harder for them to paint our men in such a way that doesn't define all black men.




                                                                                                                             With that being said,

                                                                                                                            R.I.P. Trayvon Martin