The Trayvon Martin Case

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The primary thing that persuaded my current viewpoint on race relations was the George Zimmerman trial for the homicide of Trayvon Martin. This was a case that took place when I was relatively young, around the age of ten, so I feel that the event has shaped the way that I view racism today. My mother studied racism for her degree, so I was never particularly ignorant about the topic of race. However, the Trayvon Martin case was the first time in my life that I could remember a blatant and publicized act of racial injustice. Hence, it provided evidence and validation for all the things that I had been taught about race up until this point. However, it further influenced the way I viewed race because it allowed me to see specifically see the
I began to realize that most other people viewed me as a threat, despite my inherently unthreatening nature due to my state as a Black male in the United States. As a child who has failed to fully perceive themselves in a fully conscious state, I had no way of understanding this. However, the Zimmerman trial forced me to understand this. The inability to understand your own perceived "threatening" nature could prove to be a fatal mistake, as with Trayvon Martin. I have even further learned to realize the perception of myself as I have grown. The Trayvon Martin has forced me to analyze my own experiences, particularly with White women, and determine whether my unfair treatment has ever been the result of complicit bias due to my state as a Black
The Zimmerman case allowed me to be aware of something that was right in front of me. At a young age, my mother's significant other was arrested and imprisoned for "trafficking drugs". My mother had always maintained that he was initially arrested due to racial profiling, as there was no sufficient evidence to warrant the police to search his car. Despite this information being told to me as a child, I remained blind to the effects that such a system of injustice could have on your economic status, mental health, etc. However, I believe that the outcome of the Zimmerman trial opened my eyes to this effect. I believe that Trayvon Martin's family most likely received the same financial and emotional stresses due to the racial injustice associated with their experience. However, they had lost their son. Following the shooting of Trayvon Martin, I began to understand the effect that systemic racism could have on the lives of Black people, and how it had already been affecting

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