Trayvon Martin: Far from Rodney King

Benjamin Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the historic organization for the protection of “people of color,” said that he was “very proud of the discipline” that black youths showed after the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin. This self-control contrasts with the riots in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of the white police officers who beat a young Rodney King, a scene that was captured on amateur video and made its way around the world.

“We saw no violence in this country that was related to this case,” he emphasized Sunday on CNN. “I’m sad to say that my own generation didn’t show such discipline when we were outraged and heartbroken at the verdict in the Rodney King case.” The violence in Los Angeles caused 50 deaths.

“I think we should, frankly, right now, be celebrating the fact that we’ve seen a generation of young people respond by using our system. Raising their voices, yes, but not using their fists,” added the director of the NAACP.

Police feared the worst. The media announced race riots, but nothing of the sort happened, except in Oakland, Calif., where protesters burned a few American flags. In New York on Sunday evening, Occupy Wall Street joined the movement; what followed did not get out of control. The protesters were peaceful, chanting “no justice, no peace.”

America has evolved. “Isn’t it a form of racism to believe that blacks are going to ruin everything (after a verdict that they don’t like)?” protested one Internet user on Twitter. Tyrone Williams, a close friend of Trayvon Martin’s family, shared that argument when interviewed at their family’s Baptist church in Miami Gardens. “These are stereotypes. We have to stop putting people in boxes.”*

Compared to 90 years ago, this isn’t the rage of one community, but the incomprehension, shock and indignation of millions of Americans of all origins. In many churches, not just African-American ones, the faithful came Sunday, July 14 in “hoodies,” the hooded sweatshirt that has become a symbol of the burden of young blacks.

Fifty years after Martin Luther King’s march on Washington D.C., his daughter, Bernice, called for absolute adherence to the principle of nonviolence. “It’s 1963 again,” she wrote on Facebook. In two hours, a poster by Nikkolas Smith of Reverend King in a hoodie became iconic.

Far from the youth of the ghettos in 1992, it’s the celebrities who’ve been heard. Beyonce, who was performing at a concert in Nashville, observed a minute of silence. Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj tweeted their disapproval. Katy Perry retweeted a message by Ronan Farrow, son of Mia Farrow and Woody Allen, former head of the Office of Global Youth Issues at the Department of State under Hillary Clinton: “American Justice: still colorblind (as long as you’re white).”

Any incivility was kept in check. On Twitter, the hashtag #killgeorgezimmerman prompted many ideas, but even then, the opposite quickly appeared with the idea that “two wrongs don’t make a right.”

Victor Cruz, a football player for the New York Giants, got carried away: “Zimmerman doesn’t last a year before the hood catches up with him,” he predicted. By the next morning, he had apologized.

*Editor’s Note: This quote, while accurately translated, could not be verified.