Trayvon Martin: Is it really black and white?

The death of a young 17-year-old boy is a tragic thing.  I am heartbroken for his family. The thought alone of losing one of my own children brings tears to my eyes.  It is easy to hear about situations like this and think, "Why? Why did this happen?" 

But the more I read about the story of Trayvon Martin's death, the more I feel that something is not quite right in our response.  I'm seeing countless blogs and Facebook statuses all exclaiming outrage over this act and many people expressing fear over their own children's safety. Certainly racism is very much alive in our country still.  Certainly we should mourn the death of a young man. But it's almost as if many of us are getting sucked into the emotional hype of the media's spin on this situation.

We want things to be black and white; for there to be a good guy and a bad guy.  We think that someone should be completely innocent and someone should be evil.  In this light, it is only natural to publicly crucify Zimmerman for his actions, to call it murder and racism, and to demand that he be arrested, even though none of us know all of the facts.  Some have said, "If it had been a black man that shot a white kid, he would have been arrested immediately." So it is easy to say, "Surely, this was an act of racism... of cold-blooded murder." 

Race may likely play a part in how this was investigated, but none the less we should be careful not to make assumptions and accusations. There is much evidence on both sides. Such as the fact that Zimmerman’s best friend is a black man that is vehemently insisting that it was not a racist act. Like the fact that Zimmerman and his wife had mentored minority children for years. Like the fact that an eye-witness says that Trayvon was on top of Zimmerman, beating his face in and trying to grab his gun when Zimmerman shot it. I’d like to think that perhaps, just maybe, the police didn’t immediately arrest Zimmerman because of what the eye-witnesses had to say rather than out of pure racism. It is a possibility at least.

  I wouldn’t want one of my adopted Ethiopian sons to be racially profiled or hurt based on the color of their skin, but I also wouldn’t want one of my white family members (and yes, I know Zimmerman was Hispanic, not white) to be crucified publicly on rumors if they may have in fact, only fired the gun out of fear and self-defense, regardless of how they got into the situation. Both is wrong. Should he have followed Trayvon? Should he have been carrying a gun? Did Trayvon come up behind him as he was walking back to his car and start beating him as Zimmerman claimed? We don't have all the facts, but I am praying for both families, and for true justice to be served.  

We should be very careful how we react to this situation, especially those of us who are Christians.  We should guard ourselves from being emotionally hyped up on rumors.  We should be patient as more evidence comes out, and we should pray that God would bring the truth to light. I do not think it is helpful, though, to add to the frenzy by saying things like, "I have a black son! It could have been him!" or "Why is that man not in jail yet??"  I do believe our justice system states that we are innocent until proven guilty. We ask questions like, "Would a black man have gone straight to jail?" judging (rightly) that it would be unjust for that to happen.  But then this man is not in jail, as the police continue to uncover more evidence and consider the eye witness reports, and we say the opposite... that he should be in jail already. We should not let our knee-jerk reaction of anger and confusion lead us in how we respond. 

 I recently heard a non-Christian compare the Christian community's response to this situation to that of the mob that wanted to stone Mary Magdalene for her adultery.  Another person compared it Jesus' crucifixion saying, "It was the mob mentality that led to one man being hung on the cross without a trial."  This should not be.  In our zeal to comfort a family that is mourning, we should not cross the line and condemn a man as guilty for things like racism and cold-blood murder.  We were not there.  We did not see.  But God knows the truth.  We should take this time to pray, to grieve, to learn, to examine ourselves.  But not to judge.  We were not there.