culture
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After the Verdict: Hug Your Sons
(The Root) — I am in a deep, deep well of sadness and loss. And anger, too. When my husband woke me up to tell me that George Zimmerman was found not guilty, I felt like I was still sleeping, like I was lost inside a nightmare. Ghosts swirled around me. So many children. And…
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No Sleep Until There's Justice for Trayvon
(The Root) — At 4 a.m. Sunday, when some of the nation’s major news organizations and conservative blogs remained on vigilant lookout for riots in the wake of the George Zimmerman verdict, a group of almost 200 people gathered in public spaces and private homes all over the country. Civil rights and social-justice activists down…
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Zimmerman Jury Tells Black Men What They Already Know
Gawker‘s Cord Jefferson, who relates a personal encounter with racial profiling by police as a college student, says George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin represents the gaps that plague our criminal-justice system. Tonight a Florida man’s acquittal for hunting and killing a black teenager who was armed with only a bag of candy…
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Trayvon Martin Found Guilty of Being a Young Black Male
Jelani Cobb writes at the New Yorker that that the most damning component of George Zimmerman’s acquittal is the painful knowledge that Trayvon Martin was essentially found guilty of being a young black male. The not-guilty verdict in the George Zimmerman trial came down moments after I left a screening of “Fruitvale Station,” a film…
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Black America: How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?
A day after George Zimmerman was acquitted in the shooting death of the unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, MSNBC‘s Melissa Harris-Perry turned to W.E.B. Du Bois, who poignantly asked in The Souls of Black Folk, “How does it feel to be a problem?” She said the question in the turn-of-the-century treatise is still relevant today. Everyone…
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Were They Disappointed We Didn't Riot?
Were they disappointed that we didn’t riot? That was the sentiment of some who took to Twitter to give their accounts of the peaceful protests against George Zimmerman’s acquittal that took place in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Oakland, Calif., and other cities across the country on Sunday. While the demonstrations focused on frustration with…
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Zimmerman Verdict: The Day After
(The Root) — It’s been an emotional, infuriating, draining day for those who digested the harsh reality that George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. But that didn’t stop supporters of the Martin family from taking to the cable news shows to defend his legacy and push for more…
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President Obama on Zimmerman: 'Jury Has Spoken'
President Barack Obama released a statement Sunday afternoon calling for “calm reflection” in the aftermath of a Florida jury’s acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. The death of Trayvon Martin was a tragedy. Not just for his family, or for any one community, but for America. I know this case…
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White Supremacy: The Key to 'Not Guilty'
White supremacy in America had much to do with the not-guilty verdict on charges of manslaughter and second-degree murder in the George Zimmerman trial, according to the Nation. Zimmerman, described by some as “white Hispanic,” operated under the logic of white supremacy — and so did the jury. In the last few days, Latinos in…
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Beyoncé Pauses for Trayvon Martin at Concert
Beyoncé called for a moment of silence for Trayvon Martin while performing in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday during her Mrs. Carter tour, after a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the death of the unarmed 17-year-old teenager, the Washington Post reports. It was among a range of reactions by celebrities across the nation after an…