By Carl Dix,
co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network and representative of the
Revolutionary Communist Party
Almost 60 years ago a
Black teenager named Emmitt Till was lynched by white men in Money,
Mississippi. Last year, Trayvon Martin, another Black teenager, was
murdered by George Zimmerman, a vigilante and a wannabe cop, who saw Trayvon’s
Black skin and decided that he must be a criminal. How long are we
gonna have to put up with these kinds of racist outrages? Murders like
this concentrate the way this country has criminalized Black and Latino youth,
treating them as guilty until proven innocent, if they can survive to prove
their innocence. This is unacceptable. It must stop, and
it is up to us to stop it!
No one should want to
live in a world where there’s a death sentence hanging over every Black and
Latino youth. This death sentence might, or might not, get carried
out, but it’s always there. We must say NO MORE to living in a society and
a world like this anymore. We have to mean it when we say that, and
we have to act to make our determination to end this kind of world.
That’s why the Stop
Mass Incarceration Network issued a Call for people to wear hoodies and take to
the streets on this day. It’s why the slogan, “We Are All Still
Trayvon!” is being raised today. And it’s why we have to not only
act today, but continue to express our rage at the vigilante murder of Trayvon
and at the way the whole criminal “injustice” system of this country targets
Blacks and Latinos.
Remember that the
system has already “worked” once in this case. It “worked” when the
cops discovered Zimmerman standing over Trayvon’s dead body and let him walk
away free. The only reason Zimmerman faces a trial today is because
Trayvon’s parents refused to silently accept their son’s murderer being set
free, and people all across the country responded to their call for justice by
taking their outrage to the streets. This forced the system to
re-arrest Zimmerman and put him on trial. If we had failed to take
to the streets today, and if we fail to continue expressing our determination
to fight for justice in this case, that system will “work” again, in the way it
always has, by letting the racist murderer walk away free again. And
they will continue to give green lights to killer cops and racist vigilantes
who prey on our youth.
It is a basic truth
that this kind of racist violence has happened since the very 1st African
was dragged to these shores in slave chains. It’s built into the
very fabric of this country, and it will take Revolution - Nothing Less to
uproot it and all the other horrors—the brutality inflicted on women, the wars
for empire, the long distance death rained down on people thru drone strikes
and more—that this system enforces on humanity. As a revolutionary
communist, this is what I’m working to do—I’m spreading the need for, and
possibility of, revolution everywhere and mobilizing people to fight the power
and transform themselves and others, for revolution. The key way I’m
spreading revolution right now is thru promoting the premier of “BA Speaks:
Revolution-Nothing Less!” which is a film of a recent talk by Bob Avakian, the
leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party. Everybody who hates the hell on
earth this system enforces on humanity needs to check out this film because it
breaks down why revolution is possible, the kind of world we could bring into
being thru revolution, what those who see the need for revolution need to be
doing today and more.
This is a critical
time for people to act, from whatever perspective they feel compelled to resist
this outrage. Horrors like the vigilante murder of Trayvon jolt
people into standing up and resisting the system’s attacks. It is in
times like these that people are more open to hearing about and acting on what
is the source of all these horrors and what needs to be and can be done about
them. This part of why we needed to take to the streets and wear our
hoodies today and why we need to continue standing up and saying NO MORE to the
murder of Trayvon and to the way they criminalize our youth overall.
One year ago today,
George Zimmerman stalked and murdered Trayvon Martin. Today we are
declaring, all across the country, that we refuse to accept this outrage in
silence. And that we will no longer accept all the outrages the
criminal “injustice” system of this country enforces on people. In
this way, we are working toward the day when all these outrages—the police
murder, the racial profiling, the horrific numbers of people warehoused in
prisons and all the rest—are NO MORE. Everyone who is disturbed by
these outrages needs to join us.
WE ARE ALL STILL
TRAYVON!
