Reflections on the Zimmerman Trial

...and all the dregs that have been kicked up because of it.
I don't normally like to write on politically charged issues, but this particular one just kicks up so much sand I need to clear it from my teeth.

First and foremost, death is a tragedy, nothing changes that fact, but when justice has been followed and a verdict has been reached, that should be the end of it. As a nation, we are nothing without Law, it has been followed, that should settle it.
For the record, I am very out of touch with news, I hadn't actually read a thing about this case until the verdict had been reached. The case itself has little import to me.

The reactions to it, on the other hand...


It has been a source of constant amazement to me, that there are those in the black community (and I only single that out in this instance due to the immediate circumstances, the same group exists in pretty much every 'community' that exists) whose response to an unfortunate accident, claim that racial profiling was the sole cause, and then proceed to... reinforce their stereotype by engaging in violent and law-defying behavior.

Racism exists, largely, because people will not shut up about it.
There is a curious psychological phenomena whereby if you talk about something enough, even someone who thought nothing of it before, will develop a very dedicated opinion on the matter. This is the heart of racism. (and virtually every other discriminatory standard) There are a number of people, of all races and creeds, that recognize this, but largely they are ignored by the loud majority. By taking every issue that might possibly be related to race, and turning it into a soap-box for anti-racist propaganda, all that is accomplished is to indelibly link race with whatever issue was brought up.
I will use the Zimmerman trial as a case study.

By immediately pouncing on the trial as an issue of racial prejudice, both 'civil rights' groups, and 'the media' have entirely lost the point of what has happened. Even worse are those who are placing the case in the same box as the assassination of Martin Luther King, or the murder of Emmett Till. These are not in any possible respect the same, and to compare this case to those ones dramatically reduces the impact of them.

If you want racism to end, stop talking about it, stop acting like it is an issue. Because the other side of the psychological spectrum is this: if everyone just stops talking about something, stops acting like it's a big deal, then it goes away. Cultural memory is such that things only exist so long as we continue to bring them up.

I do not treat anyone any differently because of the color of their skin, the style of their clothes, or the cut of their hair. All I care about is how they act, carry themselves, and interact with others. If your speech is coarse, you treat women without respect, and carry yourself like a cheap thug extra from a gang movie, then you should expect to be treated poorly.

I do not say any of this to lessen the tragedy of a young man's death, or to decry the justice that has been carried out in response. What both sides of this need to stop doing, is making everything worse by proclaiming the headline, "White man acquitted after black teenager dies" Because the color of their skin is irrelevant. They both bleed red.
And spilling another man's blood will not bring back the first. Eye for an eye is not the fashion of our justice system for good reason. When you decry the results of the trial, you proclaim for all ears your own racism; and that what you desire is not justice, it is revenge.