Theft of the Self 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., contemns right-wing attempts to turn Trayvon Martin into a thug.
What man or woman among us would be willing to let the rest of us judge them based not upon who they are and what they have done, but solely upon our perceptions of people like them? There is, for instance, a perception that methamphetamine use is concentrated among white people in red states — in other words, Sean Hannity’s audience. May we treat all white people in red states accordingly? Will they go for that deal? Of course not.
Yet we daily crucify young black men upon that cross and pretend to moral righteousness in the doing. Trayvon is not the first victim. He’s not even the latest.
I always thought that a thug is someone who would stalk a random innocent kid in the darkness because he didn’t like the kid’s looks and then slay him for no good reason.
