the same message that has been sent for many, many years.

I would amend your sentiment just a bit:

"your life doesn't matter to some people."

young people will make that distinction.

Walking while black is deadly.


And if you aren't black - you have to take that reality of ours on the chin.

We were right.

Particularly if it's the "wrong" neighborhood or the car is "too nice."

You'd think this shit would be done by now, but it's not.

I'm 40 - I'm positive that if I live until 80 it will still be the same.

When is enough enough? A snip from that damn trial came on my tv, and I just can't believe some of the "commentary." It isn't even subtle, some of it.

I hope by the time you're eighty--and well before then, frankly--that this country has an epiphany and gets it shit together. I think all those pesky "Cheerios" families are changing the conversation, and that works for me in a big way. The more the merrier, I say!

That there is still a covert white supremacy problem. People are trying to declare this is a post racial culture. Yet racism and bigotry, are alive and well institutionalized into the fabric of society. If you are white and kill an African American it hardly counts.

I just found an interesting article and linked to it about young men of color and what their parents must prepare them for in this double standard culture.

but according to many, he actually DESERVED to die.

ETA: And to OP - thanks for posting back here. The answers might be ugly - but they will be genuine and first hand.

The message is...that you deserved to die. You went walking down someone else's street. You should have stopped, raised your hands....and again, acknowledged your betters. And, if he found your story believable AND after the police arrived... You may have been permitted to go. Then again, you might not. The meaning is the same today as it was in my youth...stay in your neighborhood. We don't want you here. And, we're willing to do something about.

The message hasn't changed.

Only the time it takes to tell it does. Or should I say justify it?