"Who is? .. Who ain't" ??
While viewing the Autopsy Testimony, given in the Trayvon Martin trial today, I was struck by the varied responses of media talking heads, and different elements of our society. Most were highly judgmental and critical in terms that denote class, racial, and regional differences. The world is engaged, in a similar way, in its media responses to events in Cairo. In both places, the people judging are mostly white and those judged are not.
As Europeans have roamed the world, racking up conquests over the past 500 years, a consistent theme to their activities has been one of regarding those who were conquered as "subhuman". Over that period, they have driven that attitude and value template deep into their psyche and into their institutions.
The writings of Thomas Jefferson, the teachings, and "governance" of the Catholic Church in its dealings with "the conquered"; show their strong convictions as to who was "human" and who was "not human". It shows today in the structure of their laws and their "judicial" institutions in the "conquered" territories. The roots of this kind of thinking are "tribal"; many tribes have thought of their own people as "human"; while thinking of others as not human. That makes warfare possible. It is also a root of never-ending racism.
Over the years, these values have been targeted against the children of the conquered; often stealing them, selling them, or forcing them in to special "schools". We see vestiges of that today in our educational institutions; which insist that only whites have ultimate control over what is taught to children of non-whites. As the witness who performed the autopsy on Trayvon Martin described, in detail, the brutal damages to his young body; Zimmerman's attorneys strove to belittle that testimony; knowing that, as a non-white "expert", with English language difficulties, the white, and all female jury would find it difficult to "hear" or "feel" that testimony. This trial is taking place in separate "bubbles".
The ultimate tragedy is that non-whites have also been infected with those values. They have a difficult time seeing themselves as "human". For the past century they have fought, in this country, for Civil Rights, not Human Rights!
Stay Vigilant! Open your eyes. We are witnessing a Revolution.
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