In Thursday’s edition of the newspaper, a letter to the editor made the argument that the fervent media attention displayed surrounding the Trayvon Martin tragedy is used solely as a means to exploit the racial divide that still plagues this country.
Remove from the situation Martin’s race, his character, his background. Do the same for the self-appointed neighborhood watchman who murdered him and ask yourself: How would you feel? How would you feel if you were walking back to your home in one of the many apartment complexes that border campus and discovered that you were being followed? You aren’t hiding anything; you haven’t committed a crime. Instead, you are simply walking home. Would you feel threatened if someone you didn’t know, whom you didn’t recognize approached you?
We will never know the full extent of what occurred that evening, but the continued ignorant comments made on both sides of the fence push us further from understanding. For our generation, bigotry is no longer something worn out in the open for all to see; instead, it is institutionalized in our justice system and in our media bias. At present and erroneously, prejudice can only be true if it is blatant, as when a hurtful phrase is uttered.
Martin’s death is not the first to occur because of our shared hatred and disregard for each other, and sadly it will not be the last. Do not classify his death as anything other than what it is: a tragedy, another untimely loss of human life.
For a moment, empathize not only with Martin’s parents, family and friends, but for any human being — regardless of race, religion, nationality — who was taken from their family too soon. Instead of casting judgment, send regard. Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone.
— Endra Curry, fourth-year international studies and economics student