When They Call You a Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir

by Patrisse Cullors

And Trayvon Martin, a Black boy who was just walking home. Walking with a can of Arizona Iced Tea and a pack of Skittles he’d bought for his little brother. Walking and speaking on his cell to his friend Rachel, a girl who was bullied and a girl he protected. Walking and wearing a hoodie like teenagers everywhere wear hoodies. Walking and at once set upon by a large, white-presenting man who decided that because the boy was Black and because he wore a hoodie like most teens, he was a threat. We learn that the man was ordered by a police dispatcher to stop. We learn that the man chased the boy, who was running errands for his little brother, who was talking to his friend, his friend who was bullied. We learn that the man pulled the trigger on this unarmed child who weighed what, 50, 75 pounds less than the man with the gun? We learn that the man believed he had a right to do what he did. A right to stand ground that wasn’t being challenged by a boy carrying iced tea and Skittles. He believed that his assumed rights superseded this child’s right to walk home to his own house to bring his little brother a treat.