by Tim Lee
I listened to the 911 call that records young Trayvon’s last moments before he was premeditatedly murdered in cold-blood. A neighbor, after hearing repeated cries for help, did her part to help by calling 911. If you listen carefully in the background, you can hear Trayvon desperately pleading for anybody to step in and do something to help him and save his life.
It’s heartbreaking. It’s frustrating. It’s angering.
The reason it’s so angering is because when you contrast the main characters, 
you can easily see how uneven the match is. On one hand, you have an armed racist who is carrying out a perverted interpretation of an assignment to keep his neighborhood safe. On the other hand there is a defenseless and unprepared youth who had no idea of the trouble he was in, or the mentality of the person he was up against. And when I look at it in this way, I see this as a lot bigger than Trayvon. This whole situation parallels Black people, and if we don’t learn lessons from this tragedy, we will be cold bloodedly destroyed just the same.
I will not use this space to present the whole case of how there are a groups of people who have taken on a perverted and sinister assignment to cleanse/ purify the human race while drastically decreasing the world’s population. I don’t want to spend too much time talking about how, like Zimmerman, lies are being perpetuated by the media about the victims before the murder that will justify and protect the actions of the murderer.
I do, however, want to briefly show how we, as a people, are in the same position as Trayvon Martin, unaware of who our enemies are, and unprepared to defend ourselves once we are attacked. Whether you agree with violence or not (and I am not necessarily advocating it), you cannot disagree with the natural inclination to protect and defend one’s self in times of trouble. You also cannot deny the physical, emotional, economic, and other kinds of violence that is inflicted upon Black people daily.
What is our response to such violence? We march and protest—yelling for someone else to help us. Why can’t we help ourselves? Don’t we know that if we leave it up to the people who are designated to help us, we will find ourselves in the position of Trayvon and so many others—screaming for help as a dispatch officer asks Good Samaritans a bunch of unnecessary questions?
Even after this tragic event, there is a united outcry for help. But as admirable as said unity is, I question the efficacy of such outcries. For instance, Trayvon’s parents are crying for help. “All we want is justice for our son.” To whom is Mr. Martin directing his statement? The governor of Florida who said that he will look to see that “justice prevails”? I hope we don’t think that he means that Trayvon’s murderer will be prosecuted. All that means is that the structure will carry out its process.
It’s funny. We can look at movies like A Time to Kill (1996) starring Samuel L. Jackson and Enough (2002) starring Jennifer Lopez, sympathize with the character who is denied justice and celebrate when the main character takes justice into their own hands but when it comes to real life we make signs and beg enemies to give us justice and cry when they do not. Smh.
It’s funny. We can be in agreement with the government when they hang Saddam Hussein and “kill” Osama Bin Laden or other enemies of America, but when it comes to dealing with our enemies we are limited to forgiving them or calling some big time preachers to hold press conferences so we can demand that a corrupt system run by our historic enemies use their resources to lift us out of our rut of defenselessness and powerlessness. The presupposition with such a cry is that the justice system works for us! But it doesn’t. Once we accept this truth—that Black people have never been tried by a jury of their peers or been given a fair trial in America, or that white people are permitted to murder Black people with impunity, we will stop begging America for it. If you want justice, you’ve got to secure it for yourself!
Trayvon’s mother should not have spent the last month of her life and the first weeks of her grieving period to call for the arrest of her son’s murderer. The family shouldn’t have to ask Americans to sign a petition. Shm. I am sorely disgusted.
Let us not get consumed with getting Zimmerman arrested. Zimmerman is just one of many. Let’s not get consumed with seeing that Trayvon “get’s justice.” He, too, is one of a slew of others who have not and will not in the present system. Instead, let’s use our energy to organize ourselves and empower ourselves so that we are not dependent on any other entity to protect us, defend us, or give us justice.
The time is now!
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Tim Lee Founder and Executive Director of oneblackman.org . A teacher, motivational speaker, preacher, a workshop facilitator, writer and editor, Tim Lee is a native of Raleigh, NC. He holds a B.A. in English from Hampton University in Hampton, VA and received his Master of Divinity degree from The Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology at Virginia Union University in Richmond, VA. Tim Lee sincerely believes in uplifting the Black community and is dedicated to the enrichment and development of the next generation of Black male leaders.
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