Mountain Views News          Saturday, March 31, 2012

10

LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN

 Mountain Views News Saturday, March 31, 2012

HOWARD Hays As I See It

GREG Welborn

SOLIDARITY WITH BLACKS 
(The Trayvon Martin Tragedy)


BEWARE THE BRIEF CASE CARRIERS

 Yesterday I spent a whole lot of time talking to people about the Trayvon 
Martin calamity in Florida. I spent some time in Court, at a Doctor’s office, 
in a restaurant, and on the golf course and spoke with people of different 
ages, races, and economic classes. Everyone had an opinion and, after 
saying they were hesitant to engage in this kind of conversation, proceeded 
to say that racism and “profiling” still existed but that things were better 
than they were.

 As I struggled to take advantage of the extra daylight afforded by Daylight Savings Time 
I made my way to the golf course and was paired up with some 60 year-old Black guy who 
was trying to do the same thing. We got to talking and Trayvon Martin came up and almost 
the first thing he said was, “Look, if that vigilante patrol guy who shot the kid had been 
Black he would be in jail right now. None of this, “let’s try and find out what happened 
before we arrest anybody.” Of course he emphasized Black People are still treated unfairly 
but he emphasized something else that I had not thought much about.

 He explained to me that when he was growing up his role-model had been his father. His 
father was a tough World War II Veteran who clearly knew that there was a lot wrong in the 
world but who emphasized that part of the challenge of life was to control one’s emotions 
without losing one’s soul. The importance of recognizing right from wrong and to not be 
defined by the expectations of other people was a part of growing up. A big part of maturity 
is controlling your emotions and picking your battles and avoiding wars that do not need 
to be fought right then.

 My playing partner had to race off at the eighth hole but before he left he tried to explain 
to me how difficult it was today to raise kids. In his day the message of the world was that 
Black people had little worth and little future. A man’s task was to transcend this negative 
view and believe in his own worth and still believe in your own worth and enjoy the life you 
had and commit yourself to something. He mentioned the James Brown song, I’m Black 
and I’m Proud, as penetrating the fog around him and giving inspiration. He contrasted this 
awareness with the awareness of today in which young people growing up are surrounded 
by messages of violence, drugs, ostentatious wealth, and spaceships.

 Before he left he made one final comment, “You’re Jewish, aren’t you?” 

 “Yes”, I replied. “It probably doesn’t take a detective to notice. Why?”

 “Well, you Jews are still getting rich peddling these crazy ideas to our kids.” And with 
that he was off. 

 Now I was alone and while waiting to hit my next drive I thought about what he 
had said. Yes there is still Anti-Semitism in the world and there is still racial profiling, 
notwithstanding the existence of our African-American President and our Latino Mayor 
who will become even more visible at the coming Democratic convention. Also there is a 
gigantic proliferation of media-garbage displaying violence, explosions, gore, and overall 
disrespect for human life. Somebody must be profiting from all this. 

 Who are the actual evil people in this society profiting from the struggles of the rest of us? 
No, I don’t think it’s poor misguided George Zimmerman, the Latino vigilante who shot 
Trayvon Martin.. Demonstrators across America are demanding the arrest of this man who 
probably thought he was doing the world a favor by acting on his unwarranted belief that 
young hoodie wearing Mr. Martin was a threat to “the good people” living within the locked 
doors of their gated-housing complex. Mr. Zimmerman is not alone in his misperception. 
There is a threat to the values inherent within our society; but that threat does not come 
from hoodie wearing teenagers, or from Latino gangs, or from welfare-queens, or even 
from greedy over-extended home-buyers. The threat comes from our own most educated 
and able students who have become convinced that their own comfort and their need to 
accumulate ever-expanding wealth is the most important thing in the world and is therefore 
worth sacrificing every other principle.

 Some of these people may even be Jewish and many of these people were involved 
in creating and profiting from the nefarious financial shenanigans which created the 
derivatives and the defaulted loans. These people are still around in governmental positions 
or being granted bonuses within the private sector. These guys are bright, able, and evil. So 
too are there kids being educated to carry on these traditions, eager to repay huge student 
loans and become independent of mommy and daddy.

 This whole bunch should be “profiled” as a potential and present threat to basic American 
values. BEWARE of the young and privileged! Perhaps some of them are not-yet-evil 
people. Perhaps they can be reached because really we need their help and they need ours. 

As the father of three, my heart aches for the anguish The Martin family 
is experiencing now. Of course any death of an innocent is sad, but the 
premature death of a child is the unspoken fear that haunts all parents. 
Sadly, that fear is being born disproportionately by black Americans. 
What’s happening in the black community is a national disgrace, but the 
solutions being pursued only guarantee that that the lives of future Trayvon 
Martins will be wasted. 

Stoked by the words and appearances of Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and other self-proclaimed 
black leaders, Trayvon’s death is being framed as a racial issue because visually it fits the 
preconceived story line of white-on-black violence. Here again, we’re told, another black 
is killed with impunity by a white. Unfortunately for that story line, Mr. Zimmerman, 
the shooter, is Hispanic. Despite a white-sounding name and Caucasian appearance, his 
ethnicity is Hispanic. But whether Mr. Zimmerman is innocent or guilty (and that hasn’t 
been proved yet) or whether he is white or Hispanic is not the problem deserving national 
attention.

The real problem is that too many blacks are dying and the causes are being totally ignored. 
If any good can come from Trayvon Martin’s death it will be in focusing our attention on the 
real reasons young blacks are being cut down in the prime of their lives, and then dealing 
with those issues. Here are the statistics that should prompt outrage. 

According to the last comprehensive study of crime by the Justice Department, one half of 
the nation’s murder victims are black, but blacks only account for 13% of the total population 
in the U.S. That glaring disproportionality should disturb every reader. It is a disgrace. The 
reason it doesn’t get the attention it commands is because 93% of those black murder victims 
were killed by other blacks. 

So you can see why I write that Mr. Zimmerman’s ethnicity is not an issue. Again, the man 
may not be guilty, but the moral outrage this story is generating is misplaced. Why are 
Americans marching in sympathy because of Trayvon’s death, but not even asking questions 
about the other murders? Why haven’t there been hundreds – even thousands – of other 
marches?

In 2010, 14,748 people were murdered in the U.S. Approximately 7,374 of those were black, 
and 6,875 of them were committed by other blacks. Only 7% were committed by someone 
who was white, Hispanic, Asian or “other”. We do not have a problem in the U.S. of whites 
killing blacks. We don’t have a problem of Hispanics killing blacks, or Asians or “others”. 
We have a huge problem of blacks killing blacks.

We have some other problems which are decimating the black population, and they are being 
similarly ignored. Less than half of black students graduate from high school. 22% of blacks 
are suspended at least once from school – vs. 5% of whites. 72% of black babies are born to 
unwed mothers. Unemployment for blacks stands at 13% - vs. 8% for the overall population. 
22% of blacks live below the poverty line. 

 

The statistics I’m citing are startling, yet readily accessible. A simple google search pulls 
them up. And they aren’t new. Perhaps if they were new, we would be shocked by them. 
Because we should be shocked. If anything deserves a march, a sit-in, an occupy event, it is 
the pain, suffering and wasted lives which are an everyday reality in black America.

These are problems which are not being foisted on the black community by those outside the 
black community. The solution will not be found in the old white-vs.-black stereotypes of a 
previous century. The solutions are there. We all have to be concerned enough and honest 
enough to find them and right them, but Mr. Zimmerman’s guilt or innocence is not the 
issue. 

Gregory J. Welborn is an independent opinion columnist. He writes and speaks frequently 
on political, economic and 
social issues. His columns have 
appeared in publications such as 
The Los Angeles Daily News, The 
Orange County Register, The Wall 
Street Journal and USA Today. 
He can be reached at gwelborn@
mvobserver.com.