Like the rest of the nation, I was riveted by the George Zimmerman murder trial especially since it was taking place very near to where I am from. I grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida, in the next county over from Seminole county, the location of Sanford. When I was a kid, Sanford was known for having the only zoo in the region.
The defense did a better job of presenting witnesses to attest to what a great guy they all think George Zimmerman is. Comparatively, we learned very little about Trayvon Martin and what we did learn was mostly what the defense wanted us to believe about this young man they portrayed as a murderous thug who would attack and threaten to kill a man with his bare hands.
I believe that we were actually presented with a very significant insight into who Trayvon really was. First, consider this. If you find yourself out walking alone at night, perhaps you’re getting home late from work and you feel a little nervous, what do you do? We all take out our phones and call that one person who can make us feel less afraid, that special friend or partner who brings us a sense of security.
Trayvon Martin called Rachel Jeantel.
Rachel Jeantel has been mercilessly criticized, insulted, and maligned in the broadcast media and social media. The most horrific comments I heard were from JurorB37 who went on Anderson Cooper to promote her short-lived book deal. The white, middle-aged lawyer’s wife expected Rachel Jeantel to be ashamed of who she is, “[she] felt inadequate toward everyone because of her education and her communication skills. I just felt sadness for her.”
It’s obvious that the hate directed at Miss Jeantel is in part because of her very dark skin. Born and raised in Miami, she is the daughter of a Haitian mother and Dominican father. After a day in which her father brutally beat up on Rachel on the witness stand and did an insulting impersonation of statements she’d made, Defense lawyer Don West’s daughter posted on Instagram that her dad had “beat stupidity.” Such insults to Rachel’s intelligence are based on a misunderstanding that English is not Miss Jeantel’s first language. It’s not even her second. English is her third language. She explained on Piers Morgan that she also has an underbite that makes some vocalizations difficult for her to pronounce correctly. Combine that with her own description that she’s “new generation” and there are a bunch of old farts, racists, lawyers and lawyer’s wives who will have trouble understanding her by their own inadequacies.
But let’s talk about the obvious. Rachel Jeantel is very overweight. Black, foreign, unusual speech patterns, and very large. For bigots looking for a target to malign, she’s the whole package. But that’s what struck me the most about her and her friend Trayvon Martin. She told Piers Morgan that they talked all the time. And when he was feeling nervous and scared, Trayvon wanted to talk to his friend Rachel for reassurance.
Having grown up the fat girl in school myself, I had a realization. Trayvon Martin was good friends with the fat girl. I think back to the boys who were nice to me and even friends with me. They were the sweet kids. The smart guys. The young men destined to grow up to be gentlemen. A teenage boy who’s happy to be friends with the fat girl is a young man with principles who thinks for himself.
Perhaps it would be considered un-PC to have brought this up and few people would understand it. But if you were the fat girl, think for a moment about the boys who were nice to you, especially in high school.
Trayvon Martin was that kind of boy, that kind of young man.
2 comments
For me it was more than her weight or the fact that some claim they could not understand her, she stood out because of her obvious learning disability that also made her a target for ridicule. As a mother of an almost 20 year old that also has a learning disability. So before we go passing judgments on her intellect or in this case the lack of let’s look towards the ones that obviously dropped the ball in helping this young lady succeed in school.
But here is my insight into who Trayvon Martin really was, he was friends with a girl who had special needs not the one picking on her for her obvious inadequacies. I don’t know about you but I don’t know many Thuggish individuals who are willing to be friends with a person who had special needs, so was he really the thug GZ and his supporters want us to believe?
Author
Absolutely! I believe in my heart Trayvon was a sweet kid and he would have been a real gentleman and a good man and the world can never afford to lose a good man.