Carl Dix: The Eyes of the World Are Focused on Sanford, Florida Today. We Are All Trayvon!

[Steve Yip]

June 10, 2013

Sisters & Brothers,

The eyes of the world are being focused on Sanford, FL, where the trial of George Zimmerman, the vigilante murderer of Trayvon Martin, opens. We must be clear about a few things. 1st that the only reason there is a trial is because many, many people all across the country took to the streets and acted in other ways to express outrage at the cops letting Zimmerman walk free after they discovered him standing over Trayvon’s dead body, holding the gun he had used to kill Trayvon in his hand. 2nd, to have a real shot at getting justice in this case, it’ll take us continuing to express the sentiment that spearheaded the actions people took last year-“We Are All Trayvon.”

Trayvon’s murder was no isolated incident-It concentrated the way this whole society has placed a bulls-eye on the backs of Black youth, treating them like they’re guilty until proven innocent, if they can survive to prove their innocence. This criminalization is rooted in the very operation of this capitalist system—how it has moved factories from the US to countries ½ way around the world to maximize profits by finding workers who can be worked longer hours in much more dangerous conditions for much less pay. This has stripped the inner cities across the US of legitimate means to survive and raise families, forcing millions of youth to find some hustle, legal or illegal. The authorities have flooded these neighborhoods with cops who patrol like occupying armies, inflicting brutality and even murder.

This is the backdrop to the racially disparate mass incarceration that amounts to a slow genocide that is breaking the bodies and crushing the spirits of countless millions of people. This horror concentrates the brutal oppression Black people have faced in this society since the 1st Africans were dragged to these shores in slave chains. This oppression is built into the fabric of this system. If this was the only horror this system enforced on humanity, it would be reason enough to want to get rid of this system thru revolution. And it’s far from the only horror-there’s the violence and degradation women are forced to endure, the wars for empire, the government spying, ravaging of the environment and more. It’ll take Revolution-Nothing Less to end all these horrors once and for all and bring into being a totally different and far better society and world.

And right now, we need to mobilize powerful outpourings calling for Justice for Trayvon! Anyone with an ounce of justice in their hearts should want to say NO MORE to people being targeted for brutality because of the color of their skin. A lot is riding on what we do, or don’t do. What if the eyes of the world see the authorities letting Zimmerman walk free again without this being met by powerful protest? It’ll be like a declaration of open season on Black youth.This will crush the hopes of many, many people that anything could be done about the brutality and degradation this system forces Blacks and Latinos to endure. On the other hand, if people of all nationalities and from many different backgrounds stand together to declare they refuse to suffer this brutality and degradation in silence, it will tap into and strengthen a growing spirit of defiance. It will let those on the bottom of society know that when they resist injustice, other people will stand with them.

This will not only give the best shot at winning justice in this case. It will lay the basis for making a huge leap in building a movement that can stop mass incarceration. So we must act today-declaring “We Are All Trayvon-The Whole Damned System Is Guilty! “ And we must continue to manifest our determination to win justice for Trayvon as the case continues, and at its end. And we must take on other aspects of mass incarceration, like the torture more than 80,000 people held in long term solitary confinement in prison are subjected to.

The lives of millions of people are at stake in this fight—the 2.3 millions people warehoused in prison; the more than 5 million formerly incarcerated people who have served their sentences yet face open discrimination and being stigmatized; the people subjected to racial profiling policies like Stop & Frisk that put millions of people on a path of going into and out of prison; and all their loved ones. All this misery and degradation is unacceptable. It must be stopped, and it’s up to us to stop it.

 -- Carl Dix

[e-mail] 646-571-8504 @carl_dix