BLACK & DRESSED IN A HOODIE

I got up and got dressed in a hoodie and tried to take a picture. Living alone (in my room) sometimes means I have to take my own picture or at least get one of my flatmates to take one but I always feel a need to explain why I am taking the picture & did not feel like talking this morning. I must have taken the picture twenty times before I found one that was passable by all standards-makes me look black, pained and unable to comprehend this madness! I took the pictures because I am worried. 

My nephew and niece live here in America and I adore them and last I checked they are black and my niece loves hoodies! Also, I have very many friends in the US who are black (others are white but I hardly notice!) and have kids and I am severely worried that their kids may not be able to walk some neighborhoods because of their fashion taste (let's forget the skin color issue if we can!). Or more appropriately becos some loony has psychiatric issues and this very permissive (or is that liberated? I forget) society will not do what it ought becos some asshole's (yes! I said it! sue me!) sensibilities may be offended.

Walking to work this morning (as part of my new fitness regime) a colleague and I were talking about how Americans have been sold a lie that a person's rights are sovereign. I do not say they are not but only in relation to the other person's is my view. If your rights impinge on mine, be prepared to either revise yours or make me revise mine and dont think for a nanosecond that your rights can be more important or more urgent than mine becos of ANYTHING. That is unacceptable and just in case you wondered, DO NOT THINK ITS OK TO EXERCISE YOUR RIGHTS AT MY EXPENSE FOR ANY REASON!!! That I am black, female, or any other label you choose to place on me does not remove my rights and replace them with yours neither does it make you superior in anyway. In actual fact, all it says to people with normal brains is that you are ignorant and so stupid, you should be in a bodysuit somewhere!

Trayvon had rights, equal to Zimmerman's! But you cant tell for all that's happened! The first sign is Zimmerman has been kolomental for a long time but rather than remove him from civil society (for naija, we go do family meeting, get ropes bundle am go Yaba left) no! It was someone's big idea to have him patrol the neighborhood just becos he was always the first to notice who did wrong but no-one thought it was cos he had lost touch with reality? I know I'm reaching, dont care! The shame of the American society is that some people becos of their ignorance and stupidity, felt his rights were subjugate to this less than normal guy and drug tested him but let the one who pulled the trigger walk free. 

This guy has in the past called the cops on his 'suspicion' 48times, now who does that? If its not the amebo of the neighborhood, then its the one who has lost his mind but nobody wanted to invade his personal space enough to stop him and I daresay that's cos his rights are more important than others'. This Zimmerman had had run-ins with the law several times but becos of injunctions, no one can look at the sealed records (why keep them then? let's just burn them!). This self styled commando has always wanted to join the force but has been unable to meet the required demands and still he was allowed to patrol the neighborhood and carry a gun, WHY?

I am not worried about Trayvon any more, I know he is fine where he is, its the buffoon that shot him and the system that is protecting him I am now worried about. The indignities meted out to Trayvon after he passed were not done by Zimmerman. No! He only shot him! Others took over from him and did a great job of making this into what it is-a racial murder. 

The ones who allowed Zimmerman to go home to bed! The ones who tagged Trayvon with a JohnDoe tag becos it doesnt matter, he's black, 'we can search for petty criminals gone missing in the morning', they must have said! The ones who drug tested him to make the charges that Zimmerman claimed stick better. The ones who upon realising what a mess had occurred attempted to cover it all up. The ones allowing Zimmerman to remain a free man instead of being in custody. All of them together are the ones who worry me. I am not even worried by the Police chief anymore. He has made his stand clear by stepping aside so as not to distract from this case so why is a grand jury necessary before Zimmerman is in jail? 

Every aspect of this case irks me and makes me sick to the pit of my stomach. This kid only wanted to spend some time with a friend and did not want to appear empty-handed or just even wanted a snack. When did that become a reason to end up dead? How is it that a gun-totting crazy can end a life, calling him 'fucking coon' and this, after being told by the police not to follow him. How? 

This is why I am dressed in a hoodie..................