Trayvon Martin

I have not blogged about this case because I couldn't. I could write a whole load of plausible excuses here why but they wouldn't be true. I haven't written because I cannot believe a child has been murdered for walking home at night in a hoodie. I don't know how to express my anger and my distress and my guilt for being white in a White Supremacy; for being responsible for perpetuating a culture which believes the life a child is worth nothing. 

I cannot write anything that doesn't sound like I'm trying to excuse myself from being held responsible.

 But, I am responsible.

We are all responsible.

I have lived with the hope that George Zimmerman would be found guilty; that the life of a child would be declared valuable in court.

I knew it was unlikely but I hoped. And, I prayed.

And, Trayvon Martin has been declared unhuman in a court of law; murdering a black teenager is now legal (as it always has been).

What worries me, as a British-Canadian citizen, is the rhetoric that this is an 'American' crime that couldn't possibly happen here.

 Do I hope that this is true?

Of course.

But, it isn't.

Black teenagers die in the UK and Canada. 

And we don't care.

A child was murdered for being the wrong colour. 

If a similar case happened in the UK/ Canada, I believe a similar verdict would occur. 

I don't want to believe this. I want to believe we lived in a post-racial society.

We don't.

And, the murder of Trayvon Martin suggests we never will.