On Feb. 26 in Seminole County, Fla., George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin. The 17-year-old Black youth was walking home from the store. Martin was unarmed with only a pack of Skittles and a can of iced tea in his pockets. Zimmerman, captain of the local neighborhood watch, pursued Martin and gunned him down in broad daylight, in front of many witnesses. Zimmerman stated that the unarmed Black teen appeared “suspicious” and “threatening.” As of the time of this writing, Zimmerman has not been arrested.
What was so threatening about Trayvon Martin? Only the color of his skin. In order to deflect from the racist nature of the crime, recent news reports have proclaimed that George Zimmerman is not white, as was first reported. The issue is NOT whether Zimmerman is white. The issue is that Trayvon Martin was killed for being Black. And Zimmerman has gotten away with it so far, because killing a Black man rarely brings severe legal penalties in this country. Just look at Johannes Mehserle, the former transit cop who got out after serving less than one year for killing Oscar Grant in Oakland, Calif.
What happened to Trayvon Martin proves, as do the cases of Emmet Till, Oscar Grant and literally hundreds of other cases that have shaped the nightmares of every Black parent—that Black youth (almost always male) can be targeted and killed with virtual impunity in the capitalist United States.
The extent to which Black people have won respect, consideration and representation under this system is the extent to which we have organized and fought for it. That now, both the FBI and Seminole County feel obliged to investigate this case reflects the outraged struggle sparked by this killing. We live under a system, the racist capitalist system, that cares not about people’s lives but only about the exploitation of our labor. Our very survival depends on the ability of young people to carry this fight forward.
Trayvon Martin’s family deserves justice. And Black people all over the U.S. deserve a system that values Black lives, protects Black children and holds vile racist murderers accountable. We must organize and fight. The only reason that the Justice Department is investigating the killing of Trayvon Martin is because of the outrage of the masses.
Similarly, when Johannes Mehserle was brought to trial for the murder of Oscar Grant, it was the first time that a California police officer had ever been brought to trial for a so-called “line-of-duty” killing, though it is certainly not the first time that a California police officer had ever killed a Black man. It was the massive outpouring of outrage and nationwide protests that made the difference, forcing the government to take some measure of accountability for his murder, because they feared what we might do if they did not.
They are right to fear the organized outrage of the Black community. As the Civil Rights movement showed, it is a force that can affect powerful change in this country and change the course of history itself. It is time that we organize for more than reforms of a rotten system that has exploited and oppressed Black people since we were brought to this country in chains. We need to organize for revolution, a fundamental change. As Trayvon Martin’s case shows us, despite the progress we have made under capitalism, this racist system has no trouble turning back the clock; every reform can be taken away.
Why must we continue to protest to insist that killing Black men is a crime? Only a socialist revolution can instill rights and protections for Black Americans that cannot be taken away. A socialist revolution will smash this system, which relies on racist terror and super-exploitation as well as on the police and extra-legal armed bodies of men to protect the interests of capital. Socialists believe in fighting racism wherever it raises its head. We believe in real, full equality and legal protections, and we believe that those who promote racism and racist violence should be punished.
So while we fight for Trayvon Martin and for every other Black youth, let us also fight for a future in which there will be no more Trayvon Martins. Let’s fight for socialism.
