The Tragic Case of Trayvon Martin and the Danger of Stereotyping
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“This guy looks like he’s up to no good … he looks black,” George Zimmerman told a police dispatcher on Feb. 26, 2011. Moments later he shot and killed an unarmed, 17-year-old. Trayvon Martin is the latest fatality in the deadly, insidious disease of stereotyping young black males as “dangerous.”
“I will never look suspicious to you, even if I have a black hoodie, a pair of jeans and white sneakers,” wrote Michel Skolnik, who is white, in a commentary about the Trayvon Martin murder. You are right Michel. White young men, no matter how many piercings, how baggy the pants are, tend to be seen as possibly mischievous or youthfully exuberant, but a threat?