#HeIsNotASuspect

[sheshe2]

Tee Pitts @all_smiles78

@DrStevePerry My first joy. Future engineer. Beautiful soul. This is Terrence and #HeIsNotASuspect pic.twitter.com/9SaoxpPDKd



Angela @ONELOVE_247

#HeIsNotASuspect pic.twitter.com/EbcOzo3wtJ
1:39 PM - 20 Jul 2013 from Norfolk, VA, United States



MsKaiTweets @KaiH23

@essencemag #HeIsNotASuspect he is a scholar and helper! And Will Not leave this earth before his time purpose pic.twitter.com/eMfccrqVUU
1:49 PM - 20 Jul 2013


.

More
http://immasmartypants.blogspot.com/2013/07/heisnotasuspect.html

[ProSense]

1. Beautiful. Thanks! n/t

[Cha]

2. Beautiful pics, she, of our country's beautiful young African

Americans who deserve a chance.

Dr. Ryan B. Jackson @RyanBJackson1

#HeIsNotASuspect pic.twitter.com/byiwGqT5o1



From your link..

Robin Cathcart @SweetsRobin

@DrStevePerry my nephew is a future paleontologist #HEISNOTASUSPECT pic.twitter.com/rNoWd7Je9R7:29 AM - 20 Jul 2013



Mahalo to smartypants and you, she~

And, TOD~

Denise Caldwell @DCFashionista1

#justicefortrayvon OnePolicePlaza NYC! Jay Z,Beyonce,Al Sharpton&The Martin Family are ALL Here! #HeIsNotASuspect pic.twitter.com/wviyuoYGXJ



http://theobamadiary.com/2013/07/20/if-i-had-a-son/

[sheshe2]

3. Your additions are beautiful Cha. Thank you.

Trayvon. He should not have been a suspect.

[tblue]

15. Is that Trayvon?

Oh my gosh! So adorable! He's not supposed to be dead. He was supposed to grow up and live a great life.

[sheshe2]

16. I know tblue.

Now you have me crying.

[tblue]

19. Me too, sheshe2.

It's just so wrong!

While that blob walks around gloating and probably kidding his gun.

[OneGrassRoot]

4. Beautiful souls...

one and all.

Thank you.

[malaise]

5. They are all suspects in the minds

of the racists.

[tblue]

20. Racists are the suspects.

They are the scary ones.

[OneGrassRoot]

6. K&R...thank you! n/t

[heaven05]

7. Ohhh?

To zimPIG and the jury that freed him, they would be.

[sheshe2]

8. The point of the OP is to change this mindset.

This was a link at smartypants's blog.

Stop profiling our boys!

The Zimmerman verdict disappointed and enraged millions this weekend—but perhaps no group of people was more struck than Black mothers, who worry daily about the dangers their sons face because they are profiled without consequence. These are women that ESSENCE seeks to serve and support every day.

In response to the Not Guilty verdict in the Trayvon Martin murder case, ESSENCE is launching a powerful movement aimed at stopping the racial profiling of our sons.

Starting Tuesday, July 16, we’re launching #HeIsNotASuspect, a counter-stereotyping campaign designed to challenge negative images of young African American men.

http://www.essence.com/2013/07/16/scared-our-boys-join-our-heisnotasuspect-campaign-now

[Cha]

10. Mahalo for that, she.. I hadn't had time

to read it, yet.

Trayvon Martin was not murdered in vain.

"The Zimmerman verdict disappointed and enraged millions this weekend—but perhaps no group of people was more struck than Black mothers, who worry daily about the dangers their sons face because they are profiled without consequence. These are women that ESSENCE seeks to serve and support every day."

[sheshe2]

14. He died needlessly Cha,

However not in vain.

His death was a wake up call, and now their are people shouting in the streets. It's mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers. The sad beauty that has resulted in his timeless death, it's not just a Black voice that is being heard.

[heaven05]

33. we

do have to keep trying for sure. I just won't go into how many years I've been trying, to no avail. Yet, you're right.

[Skittles]

11. to Zimmerman's defenders too

they seem to think what he did was A-OK

[handmade34]

9. I'm crying

both because of the beauty of these boys and for the injustice we must overcome

[sheshe2]

12. I know handmade.

You are right, overcome we must.

[calimary]

18. No kidding.

Sacrificing our precious kids and teens on the altar of some lummox's paranoia and cowardice and the need to be Rambo. Or vermin like Zimbo. VERMIN. I'm a 60-year-old white woman, and a mom. I'm still just heartsick.

I don't know what upsets me more. Is it the loss, the stupid sheer waste of the murder of young, innocent, unarmed Trayvon Martin, or is it the number of knuckledraggers who think Zimbo did just fine, thank you, and that somehow, Trayvon Martin was the perpetrator and Zimbo the poor, poor, put-upon, threatened, endangered victim.

Or is it what you start feeling when you stop for a moment and try to wrap your brain around the statistics, how MANY young blacks, mainly male, who are judged, found guilty, in such an arbitrary and stupidly-prejudiced manner, and executed by unilateral vigilante schmucks? Or is it when you think how up against it the black community is here in America - how so many of them are marginalized and presumed guilty til proven innocent, with how broad a brush they're painted and their "image" is tarnished and they're not even considered as individual human beings of individual worth and merit. How MANY of them wind up arrested, jailed, left to rot in prison for "offenses" for which a white kid would barely get a hand slapped.

It's just so infuriating, embarrassing, disgusting, discouraging, shocking, disappointing, I've been in deep dismay ALL WEEK.

I think I'm also upset because of my own naivete. I was so sure the first election of Barack Obama to the presidency meant a huge leap forward in our battered and wrong-headed nation's history. That election night, I was just so happy! Thrilled! We'd come SOOOOO far as a nation. We'd come through all of the shit. And out the other side, into the light of broad-mindedness, tolerance, enlightenment. We'd grown up and weren't quite the spoiled snot-nosed imperious, demanding adolescent in the community of nations where the others were all adult-age, and had been through wars, famines, bombings, invasions, and sometimes THOUSANDS of years of history and culture. And we were growing up as a nation to take our place in the community of nations at its most mature. We HAD gotten over it. We HAD gotten the better of our baser urges that embraced the KKK and segregation and slavery and Jim Crow. We'd gotten beyond it, finally! This was a notice sent out to the whole world - America's officially and formally beyond all that. We outgrew our pig-headed childishness.

And MAN was I wrong. The reality of Barack Obama as PRESIDENT, in the Oval Office because he won the right to sit behind the historic Resolute Desk and do business, instead of the janitor-in-chief or White House chef or usher or errand-runner. Seems as though as that reality sank in, it only brought out the worst in too many Americans - those who resolutely cling to the worst of our nature, and just were not having any of this. I think that's what brought the teabaggers into existence. The moment it dawned on them that their worst fears were realized. There was a black guy in the Oval Office and he wasn't the janitor (which is how it's supposed to be!).

It's just fucking embarrassing. And SO discouraging. DAMN IT! We're BETTER than this!!!! Or at least I thought we were. I thought we had proof of it, starting in November 2008. I'm ashamed of my country - and my countrymen and women who insist on keeping their hearts on ice and their heads up inside their sphincters. No wonder their compassion is in the deep freeze and all they see is shit.

[Scurrilous]

13. K & R

[kag]

17. He's beautiful, She.

I can't even imagine how you cope. My teenaged son is as white as the driven snow, and I worry about him constantly. In your shoes I'd be a wreck. Congrats for raising such an amazing fellow.

[MissDeeds]

21. Beautiful

I am ashamed that we live in a country where such sweet young men could be considered suspects simply by virtue of their skin color. It breaks my heart.

K&R

[hermetic]

22. One more K&R

for this incredible thread and in spite of the tears.

[totodeinhere]

23. If you think we have got by racism just read this Yahoo article's comment section. It is

totally disgusting. After reading some of it I almost wanted to puke. Then I wanted to cry.

http://news.yahoo.com/across-us-people-rally-justice-trayvon-171951320.html

[CrispyQ]

24. I want to hug them all. And the ones in the post below, too.

How tragic that we have society where a twitter account like this is needed.


While Obama being elected is an incredible statement in how far we've come, I think it has pissed off the racists off beyond belief. They are more open with their vile & hate than I have seen, since I was a kid back in the 60s. The media magnifies the teabagger movement & that has, imo, given the baggers a sense of validation of their racism. It also lends the appearance that we are taking the issue seriously, when really we aren't. We talk about if it's ever OK for a white person to use the N word, but we never discuss poverty, poor education, lack of opportunity & how these things impact minority youth.

I live in a predominately white area that is affluent & my friends & I agree that we've heard more racist comments from people we never thought were racist, since Prez O was elected. I've deleted people from my address book.

Every time I think of the verdict I seethe. These boys deserve to grow up in a better America.

[B Stieg]

25. Guns have become the very TYRANNY they claim to deter

Thank you, Sheshe for your post.

As an educator of 30 years who at one time worked as a college counselor, I have long seen the anxieties of parents trying to guide their daughters and sons through adolescence. But in general, these moments arise at predictably seasonal times such as changing a grade level, entering a new school, or applying and going away to college, making it easier for parents to anticipate and adjust, at least a little.

But the one thing that is a constant threat, that can almost never be adequately prepared for, is bullying. Now, thanks to the relentless push by Conservatives to create pockets of "gun privilege," an entire nation is under tyranny not from its government but from an industry and its lobbying group, which masquerades as a "safety organization."

Kids like Terrence, Trayvon and Darius Simmons (yep, there's another dead child [13], this time in Milwaukee where a 70-year-old white man shot the boy "for justice" right on tape http://www.nbc15.com/home/headlines/Boy_13_Fatally_Shot_In_Milwaukee_Man_Arrested_155998185.html) are on the front lines of an escalating action where we are all held prisoner by the NRA, ALEC and the kinds of laws which have grievously offended the duty to retreat, one basis of civilized society.

But what can we do? The laws that slanted the Zimmerman proceedings toward gun owners or that let the Sanford PD off easy or that resulted in limitations on prosecution evidence or allowed witness misconduct or misleading/limiting jury instructions on manslaughter were passed in the Florida legislature, and not just through the influence of ALEC. As we have seen with increasing frequency in recent years, Conservatives, with their seemingly monolithic faith in their own power, do not believe in the "no-win scenario" and are willing to change the rules to produce the outcome they seek like a batch of demented Captain Kirks whose "cheating" earns them an award for creativity (see "The Koybayashi Maru Scenario&quot . That award most often results in a reduction of YOUR political power and rights as a US citizen, and it must be stopped and reversed or democracy as we know it (or think we do) will face extinction and, as many of you feel, we are already pretty far gone. But in this case, Conservatives are not cheating; they're merely using the ballot box (aside from voter disenfranchisement efforts) to great effect on the STATE and local levels. The facts of the case encountered a perfect storm in that courtroom

So, whether marching on the streets or ranting at home floats your boat, honor your emotions now, but then go REGISTER to VOTE. Do it NOW as there are plenty of documentary and even physical hurdles and obstacles (in many states), so that you can meet the challenges posed you by the very lawmakers who most need to be unseated. This is the first step toward a VOTE for TRAYVON (and Darius and TERRENCE), a direct counter to the kinds of legislation that emboldens (particularly) gun-toting, authoritarian, often white males who are desperate to play god, one of whom did exactly that in the Zimmerman case without a thought to his responsibilities as an adult, an American or a "civilized" human being. These incidents are not like Sandy Hook where sanity may have been an issue. Instead, these acts of violence are all wrought on us by "honorable men" (big apology to Bill Shakespeare).

If we do not rally to get these dangerous gun laws curtailed across the country, than we will not only be less safe and less free, but we will salvage nothing from the killing of these young men but continued tears and anger.

I am furious at the outcome of this incident and trial, and I worry about the future.

But I am also registered to vote and I will REMEMBER in NOVEMBER!

I hope you will consider doing the same.

[etherealtruth]

26. This is deserving of its own OP

I hope you would consider reposting this as an OP

[B Stieg]

28. I did but in politics so only 4 folks recommended it

I've only been here a few months, but thanks!

[etherealtruth]

32. Unfortunately many of us are creatures of habit ....

... and frequent only "our" favorite forums. Obviously those of us that do that "lose"

I am very glad to see you here!

[SunSeeker]

35. You should repost it in the Gun Control Reform Activism group.

That group seeks to further gun control laws and is a safe haven for folks who want to do that.

But I want to caution you about the other gun-related group on DU, "Gun Control & RKBA," which is often mistaken as a pro gun control group because of the first part of its name. It is not. The RKBA part stands for "right to keep and bear arms" and it is a pro-gun group, often referred to as the "Gungeon" by DUers. Your post will not be well-received if you post in that group.

I really appreciate your GOTV message. So many posts on DU appear designed to suppress the vote instead of encouraging people to vote. Lately, the pro-Snowden people have been repeatedly posting a ridiculous quote supposedly made by Jimmy Carter that "America has no functioning democracy." Our democracy is what we make it. If we don't vote, we have no voice. We managed to elect an African American president because we turned out to vote. Our vote does matter. Our democracy may not be perfect, but it does function, as long as we vote.

[PDJane]

27. Gods, those kids are beautiful.........

by Langston Hughes

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—

I, too, am America.


- See more at: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15615#sthash.l8xrY8vR.dpuf

[B Stieg]

29. Thank you.

Dear god, I do love Mr. Hughes just "like a river"!

[treestar]

31. Aww, so cute and sweet

that's a good idea!

[Raffi Ella]

34. Profound.

K&R

[yardwork]

36. Thank you for this beautiful thread.

[EvolveOrConvolve]

37. Uh oh, the first one's got a knife - quick, somebody call Neighborhood Watch!

The very people who need to see these images won't look. It would ruin the narrative of the black man as criminal.

[WillyT]

38. K & R !!! - Thank You For That !!!