On October 16, the grassroots civil rights campaign, Fight for Soul of the Cities, led a rally featuring drums, spoken word, and song in Leimert Park, seeking justice for Trayvon Martin, a 17-year old boy who, 600 days ago, was killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman in Florida.
Youth from Boyle Heights sharing their appreciation for the events of the day.
“Is it my hoodie or my skin that’s probable cause/ For my people being slain by these racist laws?” youth from as far as Boyle Heights chanted at the community speak out, demanding the Obama administration do a full civil rights investigation and indictment of Zimmerman and the Sanford Police Department. A jury acquitted Zimmerman of second-degree murder charges in July 2013.
“The administration has not yet brought civil rights charges against either Zimmerman or Sanford, Florida Police Department, the indictment of the police being essential to confront this institutional form of racism,” said chair of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, Sunyoung Yang.
Though people ranging in age from all across Los Angeles gathered in the name of an event that left many in America outraged and heartbroken ,their boisterous attitudes filled the space with that of inspiration, rather than defeat.
“We’re out here today because we want people to know that we are hurting but are not broken, ” said 19- year old Alex between drum rolls and demand proclamations.
Sunyoung Yang leads the Korean cultural act of writing wishes on paper and spreading ashes in belief that the wishes will come true.
To date Fight for Soul of the Cities has gathered over 5,000 votes from people across South Los Angeles through the Voting Rights Referendum for Trayvon Martin and yesterday, on October 16th, launched a national online initiative to maintain the pressure on President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder.
“Every 28 hours a Black man is killed by the racist police state,” Yang states. “How can this be, especially after literally millions of people and organizations from across the country called out to the Obama administration to take Trayvon Martin’s civil rights seriously?”
To get involved with the Fight for the Soul of the Cities campaign click here.
There are so many legitimate cases of racial profiling and legal discrimination, that it only detracts from the social justice cause for groups like this to focus on a case in which neither racial profiling nor legal discrimination played a part, merely because it generated national attention for the wrong reasons.
An FBI investigation already found no evidence of any racial prejudice on the part of Zimmerman, and the Sanford Police Department showed no evidence of any prejudice other than in recommending charges when they knew there was no evidence to support them, and only because three black members of the department were concerned about the reaction of the local black community.
A jury correctly found Zimmerman not guilty of either murder or manslaughter, as the evidence and testimony overwhelmingly supported his claim of self-defense.
Obama already offered a balanced perspective on the incident on 7/19/1013 in which he accepted the trial outcome, acknowledged the unique perspective of the black community on such events, and focused on the negative influences within the black community which contribute to such tragedies.
The rest of the nation, particularly the civil rights movement, would do well to similarly focus on the social and familial dysfunctions that lead many black youth into a self-destructive path.