“Racism is man's gravest threat to man - the maximum of hatred for a minimum of reason”- Abraham J. Heschel. Since the Civil Rights Movement ended in 1964, racism should have ended there, but it has not, and this case is a perfect example of racism in the present day. When you read about this incident, you are going to see how people are still insecure about other people that aren't their race or religion, and how racial profiling can affect you and others although you aren't a racist. Although many years have passed--and will keep passing--racial profiling, or using skin color as evidence for suspicion, has happened; is happening and will keep happening.
This event is about Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida. He was a normal black teen who was walking down the street with a hoodie on his head when he suddenly got shot by a man who claims his actions to be self-defense. He was returning home after buying candy and was unarmed so he was harmless. This case has been viewed by many people as racism and they are asking for the government to put Zimmerman in jail, which is something that has not been achieved. Various protests and memorials have been held to remember Trayvon Martin and to put Mr. Zimmerman in jail, including an online petition that has got over 850,000 signs.
In this situation you can see two things: prejudice and injustice. The prejudice is the George Zimmerman looking at a black man walking down the street and assuming he is threatening because of his skin color and how he wore his clothes, in this case a shirt with a hood. The injustice is obviously killing the innocent teen walking which would later lead to the controversy. Prejudice can lead to injustice because prejudice assumes things that are not correct, which will make the person who made the prejudice do the wrong decision about the prejudiced, for example in the case of Trayvon Martin who got killed.
After many people saw this terrible incident, it was followed by some good things those people were doing, like the protests in New York. The responsibility the individuals have to protect the innocent is to protect them and let there voice be heard. Those who have the power to help the innocent should help and let more people know about it so they can help too. Like the protest, the petition to put Mr. Zimmerman in jail has already reached 850,000, and it is a perfect example of how the whole community is helping the family by imprisoning George Zimmerman for killing their child.
What happens when people fear what they do not understand is that they tried to avoid it or just make it disappear. What people fear of is something that they don't have control over or that thing controls them. If you fear something you don't want it in your way, or you don't want it to harm you although it might be harmless. In this case, George Zimmerman supposedly feared about Trayvon Martin and that he might have been a criminal, so he shot him--although the police told him not to--and killed him to protect himself by the "threat".Self-defense isn't a valid reason, though, to kill a innocent person who looked a little suspicious.
Gender stereotypes can influence people's behavior in a big way, for example in the situation of George Zimmerman. If Mr. Zimmerman would not have been influenced by this type of stereotype, he would have just keep walking and ignored Trayvon Martin. Since he was influenced by it, he had the mentality black men are supposed to be dangerous when they are alone walking down the street with a hood on, he was threatening, so he shot him. So although he killed the innocent and harmless teen the unfairness didn't end there; he has not yet been imprisoned. Gender stereotypes like this happen all over the world influencing people, for example not letting Muslim people in a plain because they look threatening or just a white person thinking they are better than an African-American because of the color of the skin, they are all not true.
So although racial discrimination should have ended decades ago, it hasn't, and a innocent person has been killed because of this reason. His name was Trayvon Martin, and he was just walking down the street when suddenly a man decides to shoot him because he assumes that Martin was dangerous by the way he looked, when he actually wasn't. He was unarmed and harmful, and he didn't deserve to die, and although the cops told him no to follow or shoot him, he did. Racial profiling is still one of the world's biggest problems because we are still vulnerable and exposed to this kind of people. Protests and petitions had been held to take the murder to prison and justice is now reviewing the case. The whole country is hoping to make this possible and to not let anything this absurd happen again.
