Stuff Guys Like
So many views about the Zimmerman verdict greet and support the notion that everything is as it should be. There is a silent white mass deeply pleased that the people of Seminole County, Florida support the right to bear arms against their perceived enemies. Where does this sentiment arise from?
200 years ago President Andrew Jackson waged America's first undeclared war and lost bitterly in a long protracted fight with the Africans and the Seminole nation that lasted 20 years. Previous to that Spain '
owned' Florida. The land was believed to be too harsh to be tamed. When the whites saw how prosperous the dark people lived in Florida they were envious, and enraged! Southerners complained bitterly about Africans running away to live amongst the Seminole, and the Chickasaw, the Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw and other nations. Something had to be done so Jackson, ignoring his promises made to the Indian nations that saved his life, and the will of the Congress sent troops into Florida who were massacred by the Seminoles and their African relatives. They had their
asses handed back to them, as we say up here in Washington DC. That first battle shattered the notions of white supremacy that is always in need of validation to support its illogical assertions.
It is a strong story, and it is important to understand the spirit of the land upon which this drama lives, and honor those ancestors. But it is an
un-American ritual and mindset to honor ancestors, and land. Those things are not sacred to the American story. What is sacred to the land is not necessarily sacred to the landowner. What is necessary to heal soul, and mind is not necessarily important to many of the participants of this drama we are living yet again.
Last night I was at a marriage renewal ceremony that became celebratory. Many were invited to our friend's ceremony on their property. Their property sits on the Potomac river. It is a secluded area, and everyone invited was dressed in white, and happy as a gathering we ate and danced to live music into the night. It was near time to go home when we saw the verdict on the muted screen in the kitchen. Grief, and sorrow muted most. It was easy to feel people mulling over the verdict around and around in their spirits.
One of the Black mothers broke the silence, and eloquently spoke as a mother of sons with worry, and deep understanding of the trend of the nation's low estimation of Black lives. The ancestral lines of that history are clear and present. We all knew, as our ancestor's knew, the reaction, and feelings of many whites who feel justified and relieved that their skill at word play with their laws will continue, in this case, to replace justice and make them feel good about their secret dreams to kill off '
niggers' and
red skins.
George Zimmerman is a cultural hero in many sectors of the US. He was able to be proven
not guilty by the reasoning of a mindset separate from the heart. It is a fact indigenous people have learned about the approaches to the laws of white people by white people. Where can we find the tools and the skills to mend the
brokenness of souls, and at the same time find ways to protect ourselves from the wide sweeping range of white rage against what is stacking up against them. I know from the halls of Congress down into the backyards of poor whites is a numbing fear of being outnumbered by colored people. This fact justifies killing people of color anywhere in the world. The trail of this fear is underestimated and not on the forefront of national awareness, and most certainly not the focus of American media. It is insidious, secretive, and a part of the lexicon of what makes race matter.
Sweet grass teachings give me wisdom, and care. - Gregory E. Woods,
Keeper of Stories 7.14.13
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The parents of Trayvon Martin, Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton, arrive in the courtroom
of Seminole County Circuit Court in Standford, Florida Tuesday July 9, 2013
photo by Joe Burbank, for the Orlando Sentinel |
