In Conversation with History: Speaking Back to Trayvon

In Conversation with History: SpeakingBack to Trayvon by David J. Leonard | NewBlackMan
In wake of the murder ofTrayvon Martin, in the face of anger, sadness, frustration, outrage, sadness,and more anger, I found myself returning to several quotes that reflect onracism, violence, injustice, and resistance.  I found myself wanting to dialogue with these thinkers,these organic intellectuals, and those who continue to promote "freedom dreams."  This is my conversation within anexperimental dialogue that emphasizes the continuity of violence and resistancethroughout our history.
Sojourner Truth: "Thatman over there says that women need to be helped into carriages, and liftedover ditches, and to have the best place everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages,or over mud puddles, or gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?"  
DJL: Why does thiscontinue to be so true for women, for people of color, for the poor?  The parent over there sends their childout to play, without a worry; the child over can go to the park, walk to school,or go to the store, without any fears. Innocence is protected.  Nobody can say that for Trayvon Martin;ain't he a person; ain't a child? 
Frederick Douglas: "Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced,where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that societyis an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them."   
DJL: Mr. Douglas, your words remain true today.  Where Trayvon's was deprived of his humanity, where hisrights were ignored, where his future was denied "neither persons nor propertywill be safe."  
KahilGibran: "Learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, andkindness from the unkind; yet, I am ungrateful to these teachers."
DJL:Yes, in just three weeks, we have seen injustice from those responsible forjustice, terror from those who claim to protect, and erasure from thoseresponsible for education and informing the collective.  We have once again seen the stains andviolence of American racism.  Yet,we have seen the apathy and ignorance concerning these painful realities.
ShirleyChisholm: "Most Americans have never seen the ignorance, degradation, hunger,sickness, and futility in which many other Americans live. Until a problemreaches their doorsteps, they're not going to understand. . . Racism is souniversal in this country, so widespread and deep-seated, that it is invisiblebecause it is so normal." 
DJL:Ms. Chisholm, we are still seeing this today.  When black and suspicious becomes normalized, racism isinvisible; when the murder of black youth is not breaking news "it invisiblebecause it is so normal." When black death goes unnoticed it has become normaland acceptable.  Only when fathersand mothers, grandmothers and grandfathers, brothers and sisters, and sons anddaughters begin to contemplate "what if," what if my family or friends couldn'tgo to the store without fear, without threat, without potential death will wesee change. 
AlbertCamus: "In such a world of conflict, a world of victims and executioners, it isthe job of thinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners." 
DJL:Why do people continue to side with the executioners? But not in every case?  It must stop.  In a world where black youth can't walk to the store to buyskittles and something to drink, where black youth are deemed suspicious forwalking while black, in "a world of victims and executioners, it is the job ofthinking people, not to be on the side of the executioners." It is the job ofthinking people not to silence the critics, the fighters of freedom.
PaulRobeson: "The answer to injustice is not to silence the critic but to end theinjustice." 
DJL:Indeed, because in a world with Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, OscarGrant, Aiyana Jones, Robbie Tolan and so many more, "the answer to injustice isnot to silence the critic," to denounce those who bring up race, who are angry,who are outraged by the consequences of American racism and white privilege, "butto end the injustice." 
Paulo Freire: "Washing one's hands of the conflictbetween the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not tobe neutral."
DJL:In a world of injustice, where all violence, where all pain, where allsuffering, and where all injustice is not treated equal, ignore, denying, andminimizing will not bring about justice. Too many people are "washing theirhands."  They might as well keep itreal and own the fact that "to side with the powerful, not to be neutral."
Haile Selassie: "Throughouthistory it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, theindifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice ofjustice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph." 
DJL: Don't we knowthis? In the weeks since Trayvon was murdered, the silence from the "justice"system, the silence from "our leaders," the silence from the media, and from ourcollective inaction "has made it possible for evil to triumph."  
Grace Lee Boggs:"Each of us needs to be awakened to a personal and compassionate recognition ofthe inseparable interconnection between our minds, hearts, and bodies, betweenour physical and psychical well-being, and between our selves and all the otherselves in our country and in the world." 

DJL: I am tired of the silence, lethargy and apathy. I am sick of how wesleep through the pain of some.  Ina world where young black boys, and young Latino girls are unable to walkfreely, I hope everyone from every community will wake up to the pain andsuffering, wake up to view every life equally.  Our collective sleepiness is killing people and destroyingfamilies.   
Aimé Césaire: "When I turn on myradio, when I hear that Negroes have been lynched in America, I say that wehave been lied to…; when I turn on my radio, when I hear that Jews have beeninsulted, mistreated, persecuted, I say that we have been lied to…; when,finally, I turn on my radio and hear that in Africa forced labor has beeninaugurated and legalized, I say that we have certainly been lied to."
DJL: I know; when Iopen my books to learn about contemporary slavery, I think we have been liedto, racism is not dead; when I turn on my radio and hear about another case ofpolice brutality, I think we have been bamboozled, racism is not dead; when Igo on social media and see another slur, another dehumanizing image, and"another joke," I know we have been led astray, racism is not dead.  And when I hear about Trayvon Martin, aboy walking while black, I know that racism is alive and well and that onlywhen we rise up and demand change, we will the lying end.  
Jacques Derrida: "Wemust do and think the impossible. If only the possible happened, nothing more would happen.  If I only did what I can do, I wouldn'tdo anything."  If we don't demandand imagine a new reality, we aren't do anything.  
DJL: Amen! We mustdo and think the impossible; we must think justice for Trayvon and demand aworld free of degradation, dehumanization, and fear.  
Fred Hampton: "Letme just say: Peace to you, if you're willing to fight for it."  
DJL: Peace andjustice for Trayvon, peace and justice for the Martin family, and peace andjustice so there are no more Trayvons, that is if we are "willing to fight forit"
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David J. Leonard is Associate Professor in the Department of Critical Culture, Genderand Race Studies at Washington State University, Pullman. He has written onsport, video games, film, and social movements, appearing in both popular andacademic mediums. His work explores the political economy of popular culture,examining the interplay between racism, state violence, and popularrepresentations through contextual, textual, and subtextual analysis. Leonard's latest book After Artest: Race and the Assault on Blackness will bepublished by SUNY Press in May of 2012.