WEEKLY SOUTHERN ARTS
"Sometime the boogaloo 

Trayvon & George: An     American Hate Story

"Racism does not have a good track record.  It's been tried out for a long time and you'd think by now we'd want to put an end to it, instead of putting it under new management"!
- Thomas Sowell 

  • Home
  • From The Publishers
  • Summer 1970 - Fishing with Alligators
  • The Fire-Starters
  • Jimi Hendrix Was The Roy Buchanan of Rock & Roll & Other Rural American Stories
  • Real Genius
  • Guns, Faith and Murder
  • A Blue World
  • Nova Explains
  • Satan's Jr. High
  • The Million Dollar Store
  • The People Who care
  • Jesus and The Red Words
  • Sniffing Out White Supremacy
  • Artistic Con-cepts
  • “The Word From The Streets”
  • A Voice from the Crowd
  • How a White-man Became a Black-man In Order To Find His Whiteness—His Alright-ness.
  • Camille Bertault: 2 Views of a Secret
  • Judy Garland - "Soul Singer"
  • Robert & Jimi and the Twenty Seven Blues
  • The Last Vestiges of Mueller’s Collusion Case Just Died...and Nobody Noticed
  • The Great Pretenders
  • Imagine
  • Me and Junior Parker
  • The Republican
  • "Kill The Pigs!!!"
  • "Another of Trump's Henchmen Falls!!!"
  • Saving ISIS, Killing America
  • Cyrus The Great Strikes Again
  • The Big Lie - "Fear Russia Love China"
  • “The Russians are Coming!” (again)
  • "Impeach This!"
  • “Trump Backs Turkey Down”
  • Congressman Elijah Cummings Died last night at the age of 68.
  • Sweet Home Chicago (The Obama Shakedown)
  • Blind as a Bat
  • "I cannot Tell a Lie"
  • If Only Obama Was Still President, Syria Would Be Swell
  • Impeachment Fever
  • The Ballad of Hunter & Joe
  • "God Will Do It!"
  • Jeffrey Epstein & The Mysterious Case of The Infinite Pedophile Monkeys
  • The World is Insane: pt 4095 - “What is Less Than Zero?”
  • The Magic Bullet and The Lonely Death of Jeffrey Epstein
  • The Facts about Illegal Immigration
  • Chicago
  • Liz Warren Hits The Road
  • Traitors & Lies
  • “If The World Was Fair”
  • "The Few, The proud, The Insane: The Democrats"
  • "GOD & UNCLE SAM"
  • A Minor Complaint
  • Murder in The Meantime
  • The 22-yr-old Bottle Blonde
  • “Jerry “The Toad” & other Sesame Street Lessons”
  • "Riffing in Tongues"
  • The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence Revisited
  • The Few The Brave The FBI
  • Jesus and Liz Warren Want to Forgive You
  • The Witch Hunt Ends? Not Even Close.
  • Divine Guidance
  • The Crocodile & The Politician
  • Uncle Joe Apologizes
  • Why I Hate, Hate Crimes
  • It's Only a Matter of Time
  • Let It Rain
  • Dumb & Dumber
  • ....of Poets & Scientists
  • Goodbye Pork-Fried Rat
  • Hearing Duane Eddy
  • Is It Alright...To Be White?
  • "Hell is Real!!!"
  • Mauled by Reality
  • The Cult of The Secret Unknowing Marxist
  • Resist the Devil and He Will Flea
  • The Unwitting Socialist
  • Personal Stories
  • The Magula Report 2019
  • "The New Blood & The New Deal"
  • “The Wall"....and other, mostly silly conversations.
  • The War for the Soul of Mankind: “Stan Getz vs Eric Dolphy”
  • The "Others"
  • White Cracker-Ass Niggas
  • New York Gives The Thumbs Up To Mass Genocide
  • Rudy & Nat
  • A Close Shave With The Well-Intended Bigot
  • This is What Happens When My Favorite Band “The Mellow Herb” Comes To Town
  • The Hemispherical Brain Activity of a Wayward Somnambulist
  • Gun "Race With The Devil"
  • “Half Of All Millennials Think Barack Obama is More Important Than George Washington!!??”
  • "The Dow Posts The Biggest One Day Gain In History."
  • Good Morning Comrades
  • Sharks, Zombies & God
  • A Road Home
  • You're Getting Sleepy....Very Sleepy
  • Stupid People
  • Jezebel and Ahab Make a Comeback
  • Stevie Ray Vaughn: Derivitive Hack or Genius
  • Music & Reminiscence
  • “The Giant Facebook Id-Monster Attacks”
  • “Bullshit...it’s a Damned Invasion!”
  • Bobby-Jack
  • Lowell George searching for authenticity
  • For The Love of Krazy Kat
  • How I Came To Understand That Fighting The Power Was Useless. Unless...You Fight The Power By Giving Power to The Power To Fight The Power
  • Within the Lifetime Of The Average American...The U.S. Population Could Realistically Exceed That of China & India
  • The Problem of Blasphemy In a Secular Society
  • The Waitress and The Power
  • A Message From The Democrats After The 2018 Midterms
  • On This Day Before Election Day, These 5 Things Should Be Remembered As You Vote
  • A Lie Is As Good As The Truth....as long as it's a good lie
  • "Evil Republicans Suppress The Minority Vote"
  • The Enemy of Mankind
  • The Mob
  • Why Chinese Tariffs?
  • A Caravan To Nowhere
  • Ant Farm
  • “They’re Coming For Your Social Security!”
  • The Witchfinder Speaketh
  • Eating Sawdust & Voting Democrat
  • Muslims Kill Washington Post Journalist”...and other stories best left untold
  • Orwell's Nightmare
  • The Sobbing Walrus
  • A Telling Lie
  • Tribal Marxism
  • A Pimp and His Stable of Political Whores
  • "Evidence?.... I Don't Need No Damned Evidence!"
  • A Post Modern Lynching
  • Talkin’ Blues: A White Social Justice Warrior Meets a Bluesman
  • Pocahontas Wants To Impeach President Trump
  • A Belated Tip of The Hat To John McCain's Funeral
  • "Colin Kaepernick Fights The Power. My Brothers!"
  • Jack Ryan: Promoting Jihad & The Brotherhood of Man
  • Rediscovering Willie "The Fruitbat" Johnson
  • The Allegation
  • Message in a Bottle
  • A Coven of Witches
  • The Communist & The Exalted Cyclops
  • America vs Satanic Goat Worshipers
  • Forcing Transgender Penis Cakes on America
  • The Iidots Lament
  • Irritating Post: no. 529
  • Irritating Post: no. 642
  • My Brain is a Liar
  • My New Rap "Alligators"
  • Helpful Hints in Logic
  • The Unredacted News
  • A Loss of Composure
  • The Myth of Objective Fact Checkers
  • Surviving Politics
  • The Pit or The Pendulum
  • Do Not Forsake Me. Not For a Dollar. Not For a Dime.
  • Repeller of The Amorites
  • Sometimes I feel Like a Motherless Child...but only sometimes
  • Welcome To The Freakshow
  • Part One: The Monster Is Summoned
  • A Sideways Glance at Reality....
  • The Ballad of Trey Gowdy
  • Lies, Spies, and Thighs at The FBI
  • The Ballad of Charlie Crockett
  • Children in Cages
  • A Poem For Clifford Odets
  • Anthony Bourdain
  • Like Billy Eckstein Singing to an Empty Club at 1:00 AM on a Saturday Night in 1975.
  • A Letter From The Democratic National Committee
  • Bent
  • "There Were No Spies in The FBI and Other Fictional Tales"
  • The New Rules For Radicals
  • Blood In The Water
  • "3000 American Businesses Colluded with Russia For Profit"
  • I Spy (For The FBI)
  • Free Shit—and Bears
  • Cute Dog Videos
  • How The Press Aided and Abetted Terrorists
  • The Iran Deal Myth
  • The Scouts
  • Pinko Muthafuckas
  • Kelly Joe Phelps
  • Johnny Winter and, 1970
  • Happy Days Are Here Again
  • RAGe Against The Machine
  • Carlos and Buddy
    • How The Bird & Darwin Took Flight With a A7#9 Chord
  • Just a Few Glaring Examples Of Media Scummery
  • They Call it Stormy Monday
  • "I Gotta Take A Wiz" or, "How Starbucks Destroyed the World"
  • Who Needs War?
  • Why The Devil Don't Come Around No More
  • 2+2 Really Does = 4
  • The Tangled Web
  • Shadow Banning
  • What Changed?
  • Oblivious But Concerned
  • "Give Up!"
  • Jesus: The Spirit of Man and God That Illuminates The Darkness
  • Mickey Baker: Goin' To Kansas City
  • "Washington Saves America from Pot-smoking Mass Murderers"
  • Nontraditional Thoughts
  • Attack of The Trillion Dollar Omnibus Bill
  • Hearing Junior Wells “On Tap'' one more Time
  • Just Words
  • Muddy and Me
  • Racist Debtaes About Terrorsim
  • Fidel's Utopia
  • Unwitting Hypocrisy is The Best Kind of Hypocrisy
  • Excess Baggage
  • Excess Baggage pt. 2
  • Fake News Is The New Real News
  • The Death of Billy Graham and Manufacturing Consent
  • American Youth: The Rise of The New Media
  • Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Talk About Slavery and Shit
  • Just Smoke
  • Monkey in a Box
  • How The Children of Sal and Dean Destroyed The World
  • On This Cold Winter's Morn
  • The Crime of the Century
  • Evidence: What The Hell Is It?
  • They Were Pissed: America, Jack Kerouac, and the Beats
  • Negotiating The Maze Of Life and a Blues Shuffle.
  • Everyone Is Hitler (In their own Way)
  • The Mystery of The Giant Balloon Shark
  • Subterfuge and Its Discontents
  • God Debunks Global Warming
  • Day Two: God Continues To Debunk Global Warming
  • Strzoking Russia
  • The Al Franken Effect. Or, How to Destroy America and Lose Elections
  • The Big Maybe
  • The News Apocalypse
  • The Guitarticle (Guitar article)
  • The Nation of Lucifer
  • Slurring Pocahontas
  • Why Everything Good Said About Net Neutrality is a Lie
  • .....and behold, The Cause of Your Demise Is Upon You
  • The Trans-boy That Cried Wolf
  • Believe Nothing
  • Donald Trump Blasts The Heads Off Of Tiny Woodland Creatures
  • The Problem of Hypocrites
  • Roy Moore: Serial Pervert
  • I'm So Frustrated
  • The Devil's Whisper
  • Science Can't Dance
  • You're Gonna Have To Serve Somebody
  • Louie C. K.
  • Common Sense
  • Hunting For Witches
  • Living in The Age of "tRump"
  • The Devil is a Hustler
  • The Skinny
  • Eric Dolphy
  • ISIS Rode in On a Donkey
  • "The Manafort Indictment"
  • The Truth About the Middle East
  • Dennis Budimer's "Alone Together" Revisited
  • The Halloween Edition
  • The 20th Century Was Groovy
  • The Salesman
  • The Dossier
  • Elmore James
  • Isle of The Poor
  • The Patriarchy is Alive and Well
  • Moving Napoleon
  • Guns and Guerrillas
  • Playing Four
  • Hollywood and Scumbags
  • Why Everything You Think, Is Wrong
  • Killing Yourself With Terrorism
  • Being Liberal
  • Laced With Hate
  • A Message From Occupy Democrats
  • A Taxing Dilemma
  • What Really Happened with Aid in Puerto Rico
  • Colin Kaepernick and Beyoncé are geniuses. Part 1
  • When the Levee Breaks
  • The Second Coming of Anthony Weiner
  • How to Never Lose a Fight
  • Creating Chaos out of Meaning
  • Crime and Punishment
  • The Man in the Mirror
  • Guitar Gods of the Sixties
  • Entopy: A Play in One Act
  • The Ragged Tale of a Poverty Stricken Economic Genius
  • The Dreamers
  • Hey There Georgy Girl
  • This Is Not a Defense of Joel Osteen. Or is it?
  • The Ballad of Poindexter Glockenspiel
  • The Big Dummy
  • More Florida in Pictures and Text
  • How Do I Hate Thee
  • Florida in Images and More Images
  • "How To Solve The Healthcare Crisis and Why It's So Damned Hard To Fix"
  • The Big Lie
  • The Demise of the West
  • “Good Times! Good Times! You know, we talkin’ bout Good Times!”
  • "Justice My Ass!"
  • Wolves in Sheep's Clothing
  • The Coming Apocalypse and How to Avoid it: a Historical/Biblical Perspective.
  • "Muthafuckin' Chains!"
  • Lies Our Father's Told Us
  • Poetry and Politics - a few mixed verses
  • The Inner Man
  • The Vampire and The Carpet Salesman
  • Comey Speaks!
  • A Word From Nostradamus about the Comey Hearings
  • The Towering Babble
  • Chain of Fools
  • I Got Ramblin' on My Mind
  • Telling Ourselves Stories
  • Shit! Make Me Wanna Holler!
  • Even More Reasons Why The Paris Accords are Total Horseshit.
  • When Life Imitates Satire
  • Jethro and Becky Sue Come To America
  • Random Apocrypha
  • Why The Paris Climate Accords Are Total Horseshit
  • Urban Stories
  • The Kingdom of God: a personal rant
  • Urban Week @ South Beach
  • Serpico Revisited
  • The Road To Surf-dumb. Or, is it The Road To Serfdom?
  • This is Not a Political Article
  • My Hometown
  • What Does This Mean?
  • We're All Fools Sometime
  • One Pill Makes You Larger
  • "What a Maroon!"
  • Secrets and Lies
  • A Tale of Wine and Murder
  • "White House Under Siege!"
  • The Amateur Narcissist
  • Like a Rock
  • The Greatest of Ally of a True Idiot is.....
  • How To Prove someone's a Witch
  • Jesus Was a Sly Dog
  • An Open Letter From The Democratic National Committee
  • The Power of Language
  • The Existential Croûton
  • Random Facebook Thoughts
  • A Play "The Poverty Racket"
  • The Demise of the 4th Estate
  • Love To Hate My Enemies
  • Feelings, Oh, Oh, Oh, Feelings
  • Art or Reality
  • The Prison Yard Blues
  • Who is Richard Spencer and Why Does He Matter?
  • __an excerpt from "The Power of Voltron "
  • A Plea From a Progressive
  • ANTIFA - The Anti Fascists, Fascists
  • Conspiracy Theory
  • 4 More Poems, 4 More Pictures
  • "Are You Freaking People Insane?"
  • 4 Pictures 4 Poems
  • The Ballad of Carlos Slim
  • Pretending What's in Your Head is True
  • The Cognitive Dissonance of a Faithful Democrat
  • The Human Snakepit
  • George Freeman - Unsung Master of the Jazz Guitar
  • The Price of Milk
  • Suspicious Minds
  • Bill O'Reilly Sexual Predator?
  • The New Soldier
  • Orwell Revisited
  • Larry Coryell - The Godfather is Dead
  • A Tiger Beat
  • South Florida - HOT & COOL
  • Jean Paul Sartre & the Existentialist Mojo
  • Culture Matters, Immigration Matters, Sharks Matter
  • Thomas Sowell
  • A Tree Falls In Central Park on a Gay Banker
  • Black Codes From The Underground
  • Does an Idiot know they're an Idiot?
  • A Poem for Pooh
  • It's All or Nothing Baby!
  • Racism is Alive and Well
  • "Shut the Hell Up!"
  • Jerry Seinfeld - Social Pariah
  • A Man Must Nurture His Pet Peeves
  • Not the Usual Immigration Article
  • Man Talk, with Donald Trump pt. 1
  • Man Talk, with Donald Trump pt. 2
  • The Bad Seed
  • Dogma Never Sleeps
  • Trump and Clinton Debate
  • Was Jesus a True Pacifist?
  • Brexit Was the Shot Heard Around the World
  • Obama, How Great Thou Art
  • War is Good
  • The Willful Ignorance of Intellectual Children
  • What about All Those Peacful Muslims?
  • Terror! What Terror?
  • Biff and Shorty Play The Blues
  • Forty Miles of Bad Road
  • How Obamacare Became the law of the land: And Other Fairytales for Adults
  • Genteel Republicans vs The Alt-Right
  • Should Drugs be Legal?
  • The Prophet Speaks
  • The Dream Sequence
  • Voting 3rd Party and the Moral Low-Ground
  • Sayonara America
  • What does Never Trump Mean?
  • Barack Obama is the Most Brilliant Man Ever to be President?
  • If God Created War, Does That Mean That War is Good?
  • Never Let Your Enemies Define You
  • Facebook, Science & Religion
  • Bullshit by the Numbers
  • Bullshit by the Numbers - part II
  • The Heated Quest for the "No Information Voter"
  • I Love The Dead
  • Those Who Lurk
  • Battered, Bruised and Beaten
  • Trump and Hitler
  • America in Black and White
  • Trans-Athletics
  • Playing a Rigged Game
  • Who was that Mass Murderer?
  • The Kidnappers
  • The Game
  • Terror in Nice: A Variation on a Theme
  • The Idiots Guide on How to Destory the World
  • Terror in France
  • A Fictional Conversation Between a Pastor and a Historian About the Bible
  • The Immoral Necessity for Scapegoats
  • Who Really Shot Those Eleven Cops? Was It Donald Trump?
  • Killer Cops and Cop Killers
  • Happy 4th of July
  • How Do You Cast Your Vote When You've Only Got a Few Bullets Left?
  • "Yes, She's a Lying Sack of Shit....but She's our Lying Sack of Shit."
  • All Apologies
  • Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up
  • Goodbye Scotty Moore
  • If a Bluebird Plays the Blues Why Can't it Play Free Jazz
  • Terror in Turkey
  • When David Slew Goliath
  • The Life & Death of a Global Fat Cat
  • Intentionally Censoring the News
  • The Brits Leave the EU
  • Chick, Christian, Roy & Kenny G
  • Who Really Committed Mass Murder in Orlando
  • The Tale of the Prince and the Shrew
  • A Dying Father's Last Father's Day
  • Mass Murdering, Terrorist's Father is Obama and Hillary's Best Friend
  • Why Cream still Matters 50 Years Later
  • Misguided Anger and Partisan Politics
  • The Deep Guilt of the Religious Left
  • Radical Islam! What Radical Islam?
  • Denial is a River in Egypt
  • A Response to all the Haters
  • Why Muhammad Ali was my Hero (in spite of being a Racist)
  • Why Trump Matters
  • The New Progressive Racism
  • A Tragedy in Cincinnati
  • The Evil that Men do (Women too.)
  • Differences? What Differences?
  • Racism Revisited
  • Battling Immigration Straw Men
  • Blood Quantum
  • Fighting Transgender Straw Men
  • Logical Fallacies about God and Money
  • Progressive Straw Men
  • Everybody is Robbing You Blind
  • On The Road To El Donaldo
  • Dear Mark: About Donald Trump
  • Identifying the Enemy
  • Why I Will Vote For Trump
  • I Totally Agree With Myself
  • Teaching Americans Where to Pee
  • Goodbye Lonnie Mack
  • Bernie Wants You To Pay His Fair Share
  • Bruce Springsteen vs. North Carolina
  • Mr. Smiley Is an Idiot
  • Why Does College Cost So Much?
  • Black Power and Bad Vibes At Whiteness History Month
  • How Facebook Showed Me That We're Doomed
  • Muslims kill Muslims by means of White People
  • The Slap
  • America Wants a 3rd Party Candidate
  • Jesus Loved Everybody
  • Call it what it is.
  • Belgium vs. Turkey. Which One is Worse?
  • Barack, Fidel and Che
  • How He Gonna Get His Money pt. 2
  • How He Gonna Get His Money
  • The Turn of The Screw
  • Dear America: Now, about Trump....
  • The Attack of the Anti Trumpers
  • Did You Know that America is Socialism....and boy, ain't it Swell
  • Trump - Prophet or Blowhard?
  • Black Lies Matter, All Lies Matter
  • The Donald and the Debate
  • Leonardo and The Bear
  • The Thunder Rolled and the "Trump" Blows em all to Hell
  • Fragmented Fairytails
  • Cars That Never Were but Should've Been, Part 6
  • Building The Perfect Beast
  • America: A Tale of Two Cities, Part 1
  • Uncle Bernie in New Hampshire
  • The Big L
  • The Diary of a Former Leftist
  • Free Speech not Hate Speech?
  • State of the Union
  • Losing My Religion
  • Don't Take Our Guns Away Until We Kill Those Honky Bastards
  • Bye Bye Europe
  • "Trump is a Racist!"
  • "Hell Yeah! I've Got Obama Care!
  • Trumponomics
  • Woman of the Year
  • Malicious Intent and the Art of the Microaggression
  • Muslim No-Go Zones - Myth or Reality?
  • Donald J. Trump and the Muslim Migration to America
  • There Is No God But Allah?
  • Roadhouse - The Reboot
  • Sometimes You Just Can't Win
  • A Few Thoughts Regarding Trump
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been, Part 5
  • You Can Have My Steering Wheel When You Pry It From Cold, Daed Hands
  • The Great Debate
  • Al, Thomas and Paul - Malthusians Then and Now
  • A Prophet Debates Global Warming and other retated Dogma
  • Memes, Scapegoats, Propaganda
  • Little Hillary and Her Monsters
  • A Prophecy for America
  • The Basketball Metaphor
  • Vladimir Putin: An American Hero
  • Little Things
  • The Democrats Debate
  • It's All Ablout da Benjamins
  • Remember When?
  • Mass Shooter
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been: Part 4
  • Should A Muslim Be President in America?
  • The Strange Case of Ahmed Mohamed
  • Debt and Other Devious Angels
  • Bernie Sanders is Caesar not Jesus
  • An inconvenient Truth
  • Who's really a Native American?
  • The Rebirth of the Silent Majority
  • Money That's What I Want!
  • The Syrian Crisis and the Memeing of America
  • Why Societies Have Generally Valued Men More than Women
  • The Problem of Evil
  • A few Thoughts on a Few Things
  • The Authentic pose of a Black White Man
  • Sweden: Socialist Utopia or Progressive Madhouse?
  • Why Dogs Matter
  • Guilty Until Proven Innocent
  • Was Jesus a Socialist?
  • "The Donald" A Man for the Ages
  • Harvesting the Wheat - or - Karma's a Real Bitch
  • Cecil The Lion
  • Cars That Never Were but Should’ve Been, Part 3
  • Secrets and Lies
  • Can Minorities Be Racist?
  • I Was Just Thinking....Hmm?
  • Iran Deal - Good or Bad?
  • Jihad or Not Jihad? That is the Question.
  • "Let's Do Lunch" with Planned Parenthood
  • America The Contemptible
  • Marriage, Bigotry and Cooties
  • The Things We Care About
  • The Simplicity of it All
  • A Dissenting Opinion
  • Cars That Should've Been, But Never Were: part II
  • Live Now, Pay Later
  • I Am, Whatever I Say I Am!
  • Bernie Sanders is the Dumbest Bastard on Earth
  • Cars That Never Were But Should've Been
  • Bruce Jenner
  • The Good Society
  • A Personal Jesus For My Own
  • Take a Ride on a Hell Bound Train
  • Requiem For a Car Show
  • Obama Channels Neville Chamberlain in Dealing with Iran
  • The Short Life of a Political Lemming
  • The Strongman
  • The Broken Window
  • The Selective Outrage of The Anti Israel Left
  • When the Blind Lead the Blind
  • Top Brass With Class
  • Living In A world On Fire
  • Lying Liars and the Lies They Tell
  • What The Hell Is Esotericism?
  • Unicorns, Free Healthcare and other Mythological Creatures
  • Heroes and Dunces
  • A Few Thoughts On a Few Things
  • The Return Of Super Fly
  • Should You Ever Bet On A dead Horse?
  • Money For Nothing
  • Across The Great Divide
  • Tom, Jerry, Eddie & Sydney
  • The Folly of Foibles
  • Who really killed Eric Garner?
  • The Art of The Sale
  • Political Bullshit and All That Jazz
  • Oh, The Horror of It All
  • To Torture or Not To Torture, That is The Question
  • Selective Justice
  • Executive Action
  • Give Us Your Tired, Poor and Ambitious
  • Johnny Winter, Ahhh-Yeahh!
  • Homeless and Transgender "Let My People Pee!"
  • Are We Insane? You Betcha!
  • Ebola and Racism
  • You're a Racist, Just Admit It!
  • To Discriminate or Not to Discriminate, That is the Question
  • The Life of an Imaginary Historian
  • Why Most Debates About The Minimum Wage are Bullshit
  • The Return of the Infinite Monkeys
  • Politically Correct Genocide
  • Language and the illusion of Meaning
  • Obama vs. Reagan
  • Is Barack Obama our Most Successful President Ever?
  • White Racism Black Racism
  • The Race
  • Should People Be Free to Discriminate?
  • Science, Religion and Brother Neil
  • Welcome To America
  • The Reincarnation of Jimmy Carter and the Return of Scarface
  • SCOTUS, Condoms and Collateral Damage
  • The American Dream
  • Attack of the Bloated Leeches or "Why Does the Economy Suck pt. II"
  • Why Does the Economy Suck?
  • Jaco Pastorius - A Passage in Time
  • How can we save the world, from people who want to save the world?
  • A Short Political rant: pt I
  • Jerry Reed, Tom Jones and the Original Guitar Heroes
  • Part Two: The Politics of the Eloi and the Morlock
  • Angel: part 7
  • Wayne Cochran "Going Back to Miami"
  • Blessed Assurances and other Iron Clad Guarantees
  • James Brown & the Art of the Indefinite Rhythm
  • If the Bible Say's it, I believe It!
  • Go For a Jog, Go to Jail
  • Life as Theatre and The Well-Intended Sociopath
  • Rory Gallagher & Taste
  • Utopia and the Militant Socialist
  • Matt Damon & the Teachers Union vs. the Capitalist Pigs
  • The Fight of the Century
  • The Last Damned Healthcare Article You'll Ever Need
  • The Gospel According to Mark
  • You Might Be an Idiot if.....
  • How To Interpret Political Speech and other Forms of Gibberish
  • Polygamy and the Search For Morality
  • The "Big" Gulp
  • When a Lie is the Truth and the Truth is a Lie
  • Jim Hall - The Subtle Radical
  • Making Deals With the Devil in Iran
  • Dennis and Mary
  • Thank You Lord For the Good Things You have Done
  • Excersise In Futility
  • Is Obama The Antichrist?
  • The Case for Limited Government (and that includes a limited military)
  • The Weekly Southern Blog
  • Angel: part VI
  • The Esoteric Agenda
  • Ted Bundy & The Hunt For The Devil
  • Things I wish the President Knew Pt. 3
  • Really Now, I'm Syria
  • What Will You Do?
  • Charlie & Clint: Dead & Deader
  • God Loves Me and Has a Plan For My Life...Right?
  • Trayvon & George : An American Hate Story
  • Is God's Grace Ecclesiastical White-out?
  • Jury Duty
  • The Left's Contradictory Love Affair With Gays & Muslims
  • Hee Haw and Grandma and Grandpa
  • Little Tommy & The Blues Kings
  • Gay Marriage: Part II
  • Kayaking "The Big Cypress" with Crocodlies
  • The Birth of The Jazz Guitarist
  • Running With The Bullshit In Pamplona
  • Divided By Abortion
  • Gay Marriage
  • Life on the Fault-line
  • Out of the Wild
  • A Generation Out Of Touch
  • Morning Faith with a Cup of Joe
  • For The Children
  • Made up Facts & True Beliefs
  • The Unforgettable - Nat 'King' Cole
  • Slavery Was Big Business....and It Still Is!
  • Garage Band - The 1960's
  • A Man's Best Friend is his Dogma
  • Voting With Our Private Parts
  • Investors of the World, Unite
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       Trayvon & George: An American Hate Story


None of us wants to be thought of as a bigot.  Having a bias is expectable, since everyone has some kind of bias. For instance, it’s okay to have a bias against bigots, but that could mean that you’re really just a bigot.  Or, it could mean that you have the good sense to know who to have a bias against, which isn’t bigotry at all, of course, but is actually a form of enlightenment. The difference between the two is more about knowing who and what to dislike. 

Recently bigotry reared its ugly head once again with the Trayvon Martin shooting, elevating America’s dark racial history in the media.  All that was needed was a good story line and a couple of the right actors, with the right complexion in the necessary roles—add in a tragic shooting, and you have the makings of a hit.  Before the gun powder had been wiped away the press had worked its magic.  They had, like all good theologians, protected the sacred doctrines and found the heart of the matter—and with as little objectivity as could be mustered, they dutifully told the story.

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It was a sad tale of a young boy with a coke in one hand and a pack of skittles in the other—and a 230lb. racist Caucasian with a gun. 

As the story broke witnesses began to come forward.  One of the first was a thirty something white woman who claimed to hear the sound of a child whimpering, begging for his life….and then…a gunshot.  She spoke with a genuine anguish and made for a powerful witness, reinforcing the image of the twelve year old Trayvon, smiling innocently, that had become the public face that the press had selected to reinforce the emerging narrative.

As the story continued to unfold it came out that Trayvon Martin was wearing a hoodie. Rappers, film makers like Spike Lee and professional athletes began to speak out against the obvious racism.  Hoodies are “urban wear”, favored by blacks; clearly Zimmerman, the racist thug, saw the hoodie and interpreted it as a symbol of blackness. The young Trayvon’s fashion choice was apparently sufficient to act as a trigger, compelling him to stalk the young man, pull his gun, and then in an act of racist bravado probably shout some unmentionable slur like "Take that Buckwheat" and begin blasting.  The media in a feeding frenzy over the stories potential to generate substantial market share began immediately to infer, from what little evidence there was, extravagant theories, rich in psychological detail and motive.  The fact that hoodies aren't just “black-wear” didn’t matter.  It was, and is, a powerful symbol of blackness—at least that was the initial theory.  After all, what other motive could Zimmerman have?  Maybe he saw the hoodie, and thought “Young and black, here’s my opportunity to take one of them out, a young one at that!  He’s probably only going to end up in jail anyway; so I’ll be doing society a favor”!  Maybe I’ll even get an award!”  It had become a world of maybe’s and what if’s!  Speculation was cheap, anybody could do it, find someone to identify with and write your own version of the events. 

With that in mind, the enlightened media, and the even more enlightened celebrities, openly wept as a sign of solidarity with the downtrodden.  Clearly, they had forged a powerful bond with their gardeners, maids and chauffeurs—which in turn had sharpened their powers of empathy to a fine edge.

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In an effort to seek the justice that was being withheld by a racist criminal justice system, Spike Lee gave out what he believed to be George Zimmerman’s home address; after all, if the police weren’t interested in Justice, he was—probably with the hopes that the “New and Improved Black Panthers” might give him a good talking to.  Not to be confused with the “Old Black Panthers” who had mostly killed one another as the result of turf wars and drug deals gone bad—or in the case of Eldridge Cleaver, who had sinned egregiously and become a republican.  

Unfortunately, Spike Lee’s leaked address was actually that of an elderly white couple, not Zimmerman’s. And so, after a series of death threats against the venerable pair, Lee was forced to go on national television and admit his mistake—and then buy them a new house—and pay for them to move—and who knows what else?  It wasn’t enough!  

He assumed that he knew the facts, and with all of the insight that being famous, wealthy and black can provide, rushed to judgment. By giving out what he believed to be Zimmerman’s address he intentionally set in motion the very real possibility of vigilante justice.  It was a lynch mob mentality worthy of the "Let's kill Emmett Till one more time award" for most shameless bigot of the year—a reboot of The Oxbow Incident. 

But Lee couldn’t be a racist, he wasn’t the right color.  He only intended to right a terrible wrong, and by committing an equally terrible wrong he apparently hoped that justice would prevail.  Maybe it was a case of “Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three do”!   The press, seeing the logic of it all kept getting it wrong, hoping that maybe, if enough wrongs were done that they would inevitably lead to a right!  At least it was worth a try. 

But the simple media narrative was getting overly complex.  What to do about those sloppy, ill-fitting plot threads.  Maybe it was more like an O. Henry short story with an unexpected twist.  That could make things interesting, just as long as story ended appropriately. And so, the media worked hard to make right their previous wrongs, taking the existing evidence and rewriting it, just in case the public got confused and forgot what to think.


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More information began to slowly come to light.  Trayvon Martin was no child.  He was seventeen and 6’3”, or maybe 6’2”, possibly 5’11”, take your pick.  He was a slim, athletic, high school football player, 155 to 160 lbs. with a mouthful of gold teeth, who had been suspended from school for not doing his homework—or carrying a screw driver and having a bad attitude, depending on who you asked.

He had recently gone to live with his father to get away from the negative influences in his old neighborhood. His new neighborhood was racially mixed.  It wasn’t an isolated lilly-white, suburban haven for whites looking to escape “urban ruffians,” although it would have helped the story line if it had been.

Likewise, George Zimmerman wasn’t 230 muscular lbs., but was 5’7” and 175 flaccid lbs.  The image that had been selected by the press of a heavier, chunky-faced Hispanic male, only served to muddy the water further.  Was he white, Jewish, Hispanic?—his name sounded Jewish, which he is on his father’s side, but his mother is Hispanic, meaning that George Zimmerman, like Trayvon Martin, is a minority.

This confused the media and the public alike.  If he wasn’t white, what was he?  Was he a Jew? That would mean that he was white….right?  If he was Hispanic, was he a white-Hispanic—everybody knows that a little bit of white is all that it takes.  The implication being that, as long as some white was present, he had to be guilty!  

Maybe it would be necessary to judge him according to blood quantum, like Native Americans do when attempting to determine the degree of native blood.  This, in turn, determines who gets to be a member of the tribe.  Gambling, and the sale of cheap, non-taxable cigarettes, give Native Americans substantial profits, which, in turn, can enable tribe members to live without having to worry about work.  There are government subsidies as well.  All told, it can be profitable to be a tribe member.  This is one of the many difficulties in parsing racial affiliation in order to establish who benefits and who doesn't   It is far more problematic, however, when applied to the law.  Justice is supposed to be blind, not standing ready with a syringe and a color chart, ready to pass judgment based on group affiliation.  The fact that past racial injustices were, and sometimes still are, a problem doesn't mean that new racial injustices would somehow equate to fairness. But, in a world where most of the public and the media have a limited conception of how their legal system actually works, anything can sound reasonable. 

Then it became a referendum on guns.  What was he carrying a gun for?  It could only mean one thing; that he was for gun rights, which probably meant that he was a Republican.  And if you’re a Republican you have to be white.  What other proof was needed?  Personal intuitions, racial solidarity, the correct political affiliations, all of these were factored, all the while ignoring the actual evidence when passing judgment.    

To add fuel to an already white hot media  fire, NBC took the cell phone conversation between George Zimmerman and the police and edited it in such a way as to make it sound like race was Zimmerman’s prime motivation—when in fact, the actual tape recording, which can be heard below, suggested something completely different.  That isn’t manufacturing the news, or manipulating evidence, mind you, it’s more a case of the anointed few interpreting the meaning of reality and then filtering it for the great unwashed who might be prone to think in ways that are clearly wrong.  And besides, NBC issued an apology, “sorry folks, we didn’t intend to mislead, we were just trying to help!”   

Other witness’s came forward, some said that George Zimmerman was a bully who threatened them, and then demanded their lunch money. They, however, wished to remain anonymous, which meant that they couldn’t act as a witness for the prosecution, since an anonymous witness can’t be subjected to cross-examination.

Stories about Trayvon carrying around a flat-head screwdriver and a bag of women’s silver and diamond jewelry were also confusing; maybe he was just a budding teenage lapidary specialist who did side jobs as a handyman.  The principal of his school thought otherwise.  When Trayvon was asked where the jewelry came from, he said a friend had given it to him to hold, but, when pressed for a name, none was forthcoming.  He was also suspended from school for having a bag with traces of marijuana—and he had traces of marijuana in his system the night of his death, which only served to further complicate an already complicated case.

Likewise, George Zimmerman and his wife lied to the court about how much money they had collected from sympathetic supporters.  Apparently, they had raised a substantial amount for Zimmerman’s defense.  Either that, or they were laying off bets, offering odds to any takers--"innocence or guilt, pick a potential winner and put down a few bucks".  Ideology, like a fast horse, has its appeal.  Why not, Trayvon Martin’s family had quickly copyrighted his image and began selling tee-shirts with his likeness even before he was put in the ground.  If you have to suffer a tragedy, it might as well be profitable.  The press understood this implicitly, although they hid behind the First Amendment to create the illusion of integrity, holding firm to their motto; “It’s better to look like you have integrity than it is to actually have integrity!”

Increasingly, it became a case of he said, she said, black vs. white, left vs. right—anything but a patient, objective, search for the truth.  In the marketplace of ideas, he who gets to the market first with the most compelling story gets the biggest chunk of advertising dollars—and a few precious minutes of airtime. 

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Credibility was also a factor.  Without credible witnesses it became a case of hearsay.  “I know someone, who knows someone…..and they said...” doesn’t work in a court of law.  But, for the press and a racially polarized public, it was enough.  Public debates raged over the fine points of the new “Stand your ground” law—with advocates on both sides arguing like high-priced tax attorneys searching for that invisible loophole in the law—hoping to thread the camel through the eye of the needle, all the while swatting furiously at the gnats swarming in either direction.

Petitions were signed in an effort to force the hand of justice by those who believed that the death of Trayvon Martin was a clear cut case of murder.   They had obviously arrived at that conclusion by some process involving omniscience, since there was very little objective evidence forthcoming at that point.    Justice isn’t a popularity contest.  A jury must find a defendant guilty based on all of the available evidence, and it must be unanimous, not following a party line. Reasonable doubt in the minds of some appears to mean that you should select evidence like dining at your local “all you can eat” restaurant—I’ll take a little of this, a bit of that.  Likewise, a teenager with an attitude problem and a little bit of weed in his system tells us nothing about whether George Zimmerman was justified in shooting Trayvon  Martin.  If bad attitudes and pot smoking were a reasonable basis for homicide, most of us would have never made it out of our teens.   

There may never be a clear resolution to this story.  There are simply too many voices with too many agendas.  The truth, in the end, may be like the tree that falls in the forest, making no sound, presumably because no one was there to hear it, at least, no one of significance.  Such a metaphor can either be construed as an epic conceit, or, as a belief that the truth, whatever it may be, rests upon the personal intuition of an anointed few who need no facts, their deeply held beliefs are enough.

None of this diminishes the tragedy of what happened.  Nor does it help to clarify the guilt or innocence of either of the individuals involved.  A young man is dead at the age of seventeen.  Another is on trial for the crime—with the families of both left trying to understand what really happened and why.  Maybe there is no why, only events set in motion by something as intangible as circumstance.  In the end, it will come down to a jury of twelve good men and woman who will determine the truth, at least, the official version.

And so, America’s dark history of racial animus is once again front and center, played out on the global stage for all to observe—with the deeply held convictions of a fractured audience taking shape like a bad dream.   A dream that can be played and replayed in an endless loop of accusations and acrimony, where individual beliefs will amend the facts until the story is as it should be.  Racism is not dead, but is alive and well—a bad thing for some, a better thing for others.

There are, and always have been, beneficiaries of racism.  From the slave holders and slave traders of old, to the profiteers of a voracious media, to a few prominent civil rights activists who keep it alive as a cudgel to aid in a perverse kind of racial advancement.  Race may have been the motivating factor in the minds of Trayvon or George, but, at this point, that would just be a guess.  It requires no speculation, however, to see the truth of it in the endless conversations around the water cooler or in the social media.  Average folk everywhere, rich and poor alike, black, white and other, have used the crime as a mirror reflecting their innermost thoughts—suggesting that the real problem might be a good deal worse than anyone had previously imagined. 

Mark Magula

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