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In light of the many things surfacing on behalf of the slaying of Trayvon Martin more and more “what if’s” are out there with regard to the things that could have changed the outcome.  Oddly, as I listened to the radio in Los Angeles you hear mention about racial profiling, lack of African-American mentoring, and even some discussion about civil arrest.  While all of these things maybe of relevance in some fashion, there is a significant “left-wing” position to every discussion.  However, my use of left-wing this is not the typical way out in left field or radical approach we are accustomed to hearing from political parties.

Lets all face a stark reality.  The incident has nothing to do with how educated this young man was, how he was dressed, or even if he really sparked the fear of threat to the accused. However, the reality is that this incident has everything to do with equality.  Equality takes on more facets than just equal rights, but it also takes on a perception.  It is the perception that is key here.  There is this aspect of different races that perceptions are attached to.  You can look at an individual that is of middle-eastern origin and there is the perception of Muslim, terrorism, or just the intent to harm Americans.  This is a real reality.  Rather it is accepted or not, there is an overwhelming belief that African-Americans are violent by nature.  How often can an African-American male relate to walking down a street and someone of another race cross the street out of fear of them being robbed, or walked in an elevator and someone clearly take their purse and put it on their opposite hip out of fear of a purse snatching?  Ok, well many will state that this is racial thinking and this is a common irrational misunderstanding that African-Americans bring on themselves.  On the contrary, I can assure you many will support this concept as being reality versus this being a figment of the imagination.

The question is always to be determined about how things could possibly change.  How much of this fear do African-Americans bring to themselves versus how much is truly obtained at the hands of impropriety.  What can African-American’s do differently to change the assumption that we are not equal?  Before we even try to tackle the question of what African-American’s can do to change the perception we must admit that African-Americans are definitely seen by some to not quite be on the same playing field.  In this case, the death of this young man can certainly be linked to some perception that it only happened because he was seen as someone who “didn’t make a difference”.  Now, to move back to the question of how to change the image African-Americans have appended to them, we can look at a lot of areas.  I won’t try to answer this question here, but I want to share some of the answers I heard on the radio last night.  I heard eliminating gangster rap, stop wearing baggy pants, stop using Ebonics, stop using the “N” word toward each other, and of course the common one, get more educated.  Well, as I listened to all of the callers indicate these various points, you wonder if this short list of things didn’t exist, would that make a difference.  Probably, probably not.  You can spin this topic in a lot of ways but at the end of the day, it is a matter of creating a perception of equality where the life and livelihood of an African-American is as well-respected as that of another race.  However, it is equally important that African-Americans lead the way in making sure there is equal representation by simply showing society that we are a comparable race of individuals through accomplishment, dignity, and respect of other races as well.  This was an unjust death and as indicated, this is not just one family’s loss, but the loss for every family that wants and believes in equal rights.