I’m a mom to a son and my heart bleeds for Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mom. Trayvon Martin was the young black teenager who was talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone as he walked back to his father’s fiancee’s house. Trayvon was returning from the store where he bought candy in a mostly white neighborhood. He was senselessly shot by a man who claimed Trayvon looked “suspicious.” He was a boy with a girlfriend holding a bag of skittles, but apparently since he was a black boy we have to mention he was unarmed. Ugh. But anyway, I cannot fathom how awful it would be to lose your child in such a senseless and horrific manner.
I’m not sure why, but I was sitting here sipping my afternoon coffee when I pictured young Trayvon innocently walking on the sidewalk. Then I wondered how it would have been different if he was a runner? Would he have appeared even more “suspicious”? If a young black man can’t walk down the street with a bag of skittles and a cell phone, I imagine the George Zimmermans of the world wouldn’t look to kindly on a young black man running through his neighborhood. Does a young black man who wants to be a runner need a sign that says, “I didn’t steal anything I’m just a runner?” Or does the fear of looking suspicious simply deter young black men from the sport all together? I don’t know the answers, but the thought of even one person being afraid to enjoy the sport I love because of people like George Zimmerman makes my blood boil.
Justice for Trayvon, indeed!