CAPS 3: The Trayvon Martin Case

      History is filled with with conflicts arising from differences between dominant cultures and non dominant cultures.  An example from recent history is the Trayvon Martin case that occurred in Florida.  This situation was heavily aired on news stations all across the United States.  The Trayvon Martin case forced America to reevaluate its stance on racism in America.  Ultimately, George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murder or manslaughter due to the "Stand Your Ground" law Florida has in place.  The first article I found is a great overview of the Trayvon Martin case.  The article is from the "New York Times" and really focuses on the area the case affected.  Another reason the article was so good is the amount of interviews the authors did with local residents who knew Trayvon or Zimmerman.  "And, now this modest central Florida community finds its name being mentioned with Selma and Birmingham on a civil rights list held sacred in black American culture... (Barry, Kovaleski, Robertson, Alvarez 2012)".  The authors view Sanford, Florida as a peaceful and proper American town before the incident with Zimmerman and Martin occurred and they show how the town has changed which is a really interesting perspective to take.  The second article comes from "The Nation" and focuses on the image the media created for Trayvon Martin.  In this particular article, Patricia Williams looks at how the media turned Trayvon Martin into a "monster".  "And so, by the end of the trial, the 200-pound George Zimmerman, despite  martial arts training and a history of assaulting others, was transformed into a "soft", retiring marshmallow of a weakling.  The 158-pound Martin had been re-imagined as an immense, athletically endowed, drug-addled, "thug" (Williams 2013)".  Williams view on how the media shaped the image of Trayvon Martin made this article a must include for the blog.  The last article that ties in with the Trayvon Martin case comes from the "Huffington Post" and is from African American actor Romany Malco.  Malco dives into American racism issues and the stereotypes affected by the actions of popular black men.  "We lost that case by using social media outlets as vehicles to perpetuate the same negative images and social issues that destroyed the black community in the first place" (Malco 2013).  An interesting part of Malco's article is he offers up solutions to the problems in culture that he discusses in his article.

      This case has multiple co-cultures within it with the African American and Hispanic co-cultures.  With the articles presented earlier, the focus will be placed more on the dominant culture being the white population, and the co-culture being the African American population.  "Once demonized, this teenage boy with his packet of candy and sweet tea was established as Trayvon the Destroyer....(Williams 2013)".  Referencing William's article common descriptive words such as "6-foot, 2-inch" can be used to label someone as tall, over powering, or extremely athletic when in all reality, 6'2" is not too much taller than the national average for males. Labels are powerful tools in everyday life and can be used in the courtroom to change the image of people being in question.  "Nondominant groups thus find themselves in  dialectical struggles: do they try to adapt to the dominant communication style, or do they maintain their own styles? (Martin and Nakayama pg. 241)"  This statement from the text stems from the co-cultural group theory which states that the dominant groups formulate communication systems that consciously or unconsciously that support their perception of the world, this definition can be found on the same page of the text as the quote.  This can again be seen in Patricia William's article where she discusses the language used by the key witness in the trial, Rachel Jeantel.  ""That bald headed dude" is how she famously referred to Bernie de la Rionda (Williams 2013)".  The use of the word dude isn't in common older white males vocabulary who set up the government and usual reside over the courtroom.  There are many more examples of Racheal Jeantel's language that could be used for this argument, however most of the examples contain profanity which will not be included in this blog.  Ultimately, this use of a different language swayed some of the jury to think that Trayvon was uneducated, unsophisticated, and poor resulting in Trayvon coming across as a "thug" which destroyed the prosecutions argument.

    "We'd spend less time subconsciously repeating lyrics that about death and murder and more time understanding why we are so willing to twerk to songs that bemean women and boast about things we can't afford (Malco 2013)."  Malco's article goes into the rap culture that is an integral part of present African American culture and more importantly he focuses on the language of the rappers.  This language portrays mainly black men in a negative manner but also leads to poor choices by women in general.  The language used from these rappers highlighted in Malco's article lead to a perception that death and murder is acceptable amongst society and that women are not good for anything more than shaking their rear end.  It is also important to be aware of who is speaking or in this case rapping.  Rappers are on a pedestal of social status not just among the African American culture but the national culture as a whole.  These rappers have the power to influence the general public by the messages they send out through their music.  Unfortunately, for the last decade and the foreseeable future, the messages sent don't look to change anytime soon.

References

Barry, D. Kovaleski, S. Robertson, C. Alvarez, L. (2012, April 1). Race, Tragedy and Outrage Collide After a Shot in Florida. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/02/us/trayvon-martin-shooting-prompts-a-review-of-ideals.html?ref=trayvonmartin&_r=0  

Malco, R. (2013, July 17). A Message to Trayvon Martin Sympathizers. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/romany-malco/a-message-to-trayvon-mart_b_3612231.html

Martin, J.N., & Nakayama, T.K. (2013). Intercultural communication in contexts (6th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw Hill.

Williams, P. (2013, July 31). The Monsterization of Trayvon Martin. The Nation. Retrieved from http://www.thenation.com/article/175547/monsterization-trayvon-martin

“So it’s a dark night, a 6-foot, 2-inch hoodie-wearing stranger is in the immediate housing complex,” he said. “How would the ladies of that jury have reacted? I submit that if they were armed, they would have shot and killed Trayvon Martin a lot sooner than George Zimmerman did. This is self-defense.” - See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/175547/monsterization-trayvon-martin?page=0,1#sthash.20r49UvG.dpuf

“So it’s a dark night, a 6-foot, 2-inch hoodie-wearing stranger is in the immediate housing complex,” he said. “How would the ladies of that jury have reacted? I submit that if they were armed, they would have shot and killed Trayvon Martin a lot sooner than George Zimmerman did. This is self-defense.” - See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/175547/monsterization-trayvon-martin?page=0,1#sthash.20r49UvG.dpuf

“So it’s a dark night, a 6-foot, 2-inch hoodie-wearing stranger is in the immediate housing complex,” he said. “How would the ladies of that jury have reacted? I submit that if they were armed, they would have shot and killed Trayvon Martin a lot sooner than George Zimmerman did. This is self-defense.” - See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/175547/monsterization-trayvon-martin?page=0,1#sthash.20r49UvG.dpuf

And so, by the end of the trial, the 200-pound Zimmerman, despite martial arts training and a history of assaulting others, was transformed into a “soft,” retiring marshmallow of a weakling. The 158-pound Martin had been reimagined as an immense, athletically endowed, drug-addled “thug.”  - See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/175547/monsterization-trayvon-martin#sthash.vcBETm25.dpuf

And so, by the end of the trial, the 200-pound Zimmerman, despite martial arts training and a history of assaulting others, was transformed into a “soft,” retiring marshmallow of a weakling. The 158-pound Martin had been reimagined as an immense, athletically endowed, drug-addled “thug.”  - See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/175547/monsterization-trayvon-martin#sthash.vcBETm25.dpuf

And so, by the end of the trial, the 200-pound Zimmerman, despite martial arts training and a history of assaulting others, was transformed into a “soft,” retiring marshmallow of a weakling. The 158-pound Martin had been reimagined as an immense, athletically endowed, drug-addled “thug.”  - See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/175547/monsterization-trayvon-martin#sthash.vcBETm25.dpuf

And so, by the end of the trial, the 200-pound Zimmerman, despite martial arts training and a history of assaulting others, was transformed into a “soft,” retiring marshmallow of a weakling. The 158-pound Martin had been reimagined as an immense, athletically endowed, drug-addled “thug.”  - See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/175547/monsterization-trayvon-martin#sthash.vcBETm25.dpuf

And so, by the end of the trial, the 200-pound Zimmerman, despite martial arts training and a history of assaulting others, was transformed into a “soft,” retiring marshmallow of a weakling. The 158-pound Martin had been reimagined as an immense, athletically endowed, drug-addled “thug.”  - See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/175547/monsterization-trayvon-martin#sthash.vcBETm25.dpuf

And so, by the end of the trial, the 200-pound Zimmerman, despite martial arts training and a history of assaulting others, was transformed into a “soft,” retiring marshmallow of a weakling. The 158-pound Martin had been reimagined as an immense, athletically endowed, drug-addled “thug.”  - See more at: http://www.thenation.com/article/175547/monsterization-trayvon-martin#sthash.vcBETm25.dpuf