The Trayvon Martin verdict was a tragedy for the young boys family and African-Americans throughout the nation. I see rhetoric on both sides of the debate that worry me, from the right and even from my political soul-mates on the left. George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin, but lest we forget he is a single person not endemic of American society as a whole.
No question can exist in reasonable people’s minds that George Zimmerman racially profiled Trayvon Martin then killed him. The reaction of conservatives throughout the country since last year to gravitate to Zimmerman’s side and then warn America that riots might ensue after the verdict was cynical race based politics out of the book of George Wallace or Ross Barnett. Governor Rick Scott with his views on the Voting Rights Act and his attempts to purge voters is in a perfect position to exploit this verdict to rally his base, making Florida politics cynically about race. Let us hope that Scott rejects the instincts of many of his supporters. He after all three years ago choose an African-American running mate though that may have been an equally cynical decision in order to give him cover to push an agenda that further exacerbated race relations in this state.
Chief Justice John Roberts may believe we live in a post-racial society but he is dead wrong, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is the only reason African-Americans were able to vote in mass throughout the south including Florida. We have made progress when you consider for years conservatives emphasized issues of crime and talked about the Death Penalty in order to conjure up racial fears in white suburban areas and among union households. For a long time it worked, but we are past that today. Still Justice Roberts claims of a post-racial society are incorrect. Sure it is not 1965 but we aren’t where Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis had hoped we be in 2013 either.
As I said the killing was based on racial profiling and for that George Zimmerman should be held liable. However the liberal pundits on TV and the internet this morning saying the US is the most racist country in the world are DEAD WRONG. IN FACT THE UNITED STATES IS PROBABLY ONE OF THE MOST COLOR-BLIND COUNTRIES ANYWHERE WHICH MEANS AS A PLANET WE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH TRIBALISM. Try being a Korean in Japan forced to attend your own schools and segregated from society, a Turk in Germany, a Pakistani in England, a Tamil in Sri Lanka, or me on the internet in the last 24 hours when some Brits decide they don’t like Pakistanis or Americans. Try being Sunni Arab in Iran or a Shiite Persian in Saudi Arabia or the UAE (if you have not been deported in the last 72 hours). Try being a black African in Tunisia or Libya post “Arab Spring.” Christians in Syria are sure to face the same fate as the Black Africans in Tunisia or Libya if Assad’s Government is toppled and replaced by the Islamists currently backed by the west. Try being Jewish almost anywhere outside the US, Israel or UK. All of these scenarios are worse than what most African-Americans face today in Florida or rest of the United States. Perhaps it becomes a bigger problem if conservative politicians like Governor Scott choose to exploit them, but in this day and age I can see him being called to the carpet if he tries such a thing. In these other countries I mentioned racism is institutional and promoted by the media and governments. Some on the left feel we should be more like Europe or Japan. On some issues like guns yes we should be, but on race those countries have far greater racial issues and less political and media will to deal with them then the United States does.
Plenty exists to critique about American foreign policy, capitalism and societal issues but constantly harping on race and what a terrible job the US is doing while citing Europe, where the left itself is heavily divided about race but united in their hatred of the US is farcical. My hope is that we can have an intelligent and intellectual conversation about race that does not blame American society entirely but at the same time doesn’t exempt conservatives and large corporations from the subtle racism they practice. I am not much of a moderate on most issues but on this issue specifically we must take a step back and calm down. MSNBC’s commentators who see race in every little facet of American society and exploited this trial to make that point are not doing America nor the left any good.
More importantly, by focusing on race thanks to MSNBC and other media, liberals I feel have allowed the gun control debate, a logical talking point of the Zimmerman trial, to slip away. Consider when “Stand Your Ground” passed the Florida Legislature it was pushed actively by the NRA , Republican Governor Jeb Bush and Republican Attorney General Charlie Crist. But in the legislature, Democrats flocked to back this legislation which resembled the types of laws passed in states governed by military juntas than anything you would see in the western world. Senator Rod Smith, later the chairman of the Florida Democratic Party sponsored the bill and worked hard to bring the majority of Senate Democrats to his side. Legislators from across the state, liberal and conservative, rural and urban, Republican and Democrat voted for this dangerous and quite frankly uncivilized piece of legislation. The gun situation in the United States is unacceptable, with the NRA and its supporters on both sides of aisle misrepresenting the constitution and dramatically misinterpreting history. If this country wants to be truly respected abroad and create a respectable society the issue of guns must be addressed. Those on the European left that are less driven by fear of American capitalism hate the United States because of guns and our willingness to push the death penalty, something that too can be considered racist. The gun issue has made this country a laughing stock abroad more so than George W. Bush’s foreign policy liberals love to attack ever did.
Guns need to be brought back to the forefront of the discussion. Race while important is not the takeaway from this trial I believe needs to be stressed. Moreover, anything that further polarizes American society, a society that is less polarized than most across the globe should be rejected. Those who believe the United States is an intolerant country (including those on the right who claim a war on Christians and whites) are simply not well read or well traveled enough. That is a view born our of ignorance based on fear fanned from both sides of the debate.
The liberal way is the compassionate way: we are the ones who fought to protect a women’s right to reproductive rights, to attempt an eradication of racism in society, that protected our natural resources, water supply and wildlife, that stood up for those less fortunate in society and took on the scourge of violence in America. Now we must intelligently and maturely deal with the far reaching impact of this trial and subsequent emotional outbursts by those on both sides of the debate. Yes the US has race problems and they need to be fixed but they are largely trivial compared to much of the rest of the world. But fix those we must and liberals can lead the way.
The Florida Squeeze 
You are the one who is unreasonable always talking about guns and banning them. Even liberals admit guns won’t be banned. Don’t like our gun laws, then move to another state.
Most people favor the death penalty even most African-American so to claim that’s racist is just wrong.
As for the racism you have encountered if you put yourself out there the way you do, you should expect it. Your name isn’t exactly John Smith. Don’t stick yourself out and then whine about it.
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MSDNC out of control. This is a good piece. Fine work honestly.
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Wow some reasoned moderation on this sure. Color me shocked. Kartik you must understand your allies on MSNBC and the lefty blogs are the ones stirring it up. They will hurt the Democrats more than you know they were the ones that have cost Democrats in Florida. Your alliance with them despite this recent blog post will have consequences. They are rabid angry dogs and a rabid angry dog does not differentiate. They will come after you get the same venom they have come after me and other Democrats who are liberals but Is that the parties rhetoric is going to far one direction. I agree that does not race is the issue here. You know Obama did not care about guns till Newtown.
He didn’t care he was always going to play the race card and after all blacks own guns too and collect guns too.
You realize that the rest do not want to take on the gun issue. Liberal Democrats often times think carrying guns is a way to show a rebellious streak.
You are on the money with this piece. But prepare for the abuse coming your way please.
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Race became an issue because the Democrats including this blog chose to make race more important than competence.
What a white person kills a black person it’s racially motivated when a black person kills a white person which by the way happens more often than the other scenario it is just isolated or even ignored by Democrats like yourself.
This blog maniacal reaction to the voting rights decision was racist in itself. This Theinhart on race almost a full week after that decision accusing the court of racism accusing the governor of racism accusing the GOP of racism accusing everybody but the Liberal Democrats of being racist.
You are smarter and more intellectual than that now you see the forces you unleashed with those irresponsible blogs that they are in fact wrong and creating the problem.
You must certainly understand our points that we made as commenters that the Democrats have lost their way that the Democrats have used race told the white electorate against us and inow the party of our ancestors this once the white party in the state of Florida but now is the party of blacks and other minorities.
I do not like racial polarization but you must understand the majority of Floridians are white they are not black they are not Hispanic they are white.
Continued use of race as a wedge issue will only keep ejecting republicans Kartik.
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How about Muslims in India, Kartik? Far worse than Hindus in Pakistan I reckon?
Otherwise a fair and good read this is.
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I do not condone the violence pushed by Hindu nationalists against Muslims in India a nation founded in 1947 on secular principles. However I must point you to this unfortunate statistic from wikipedia:
There were 8.8 million hindus in pakistan in 1951. Now, there are are less than 1 million hindus only. They are not converted, they are butchered to the present level.In 1951, Hindus constituted 22 percentage of the Pakistani population (that includes the modern day Bangladesh);[89][90] Today, the share of Hindus are down to 1.7 percent in Pakistan,[91] and 9.2 percent in Bangladesh[92] (In 1951, Bangladesh alone had 22% Hindu population[93])
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Hindus
Also this is timely because of the following:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Bangladesh_Anti-Hindu_violence
Thanks. We must strive to eradicate racism across the globe and racism by the both Hindus and Muslims.
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Kartik,
This is a nice piece. However I have to take you to task for your inflaming of tensions just yesterday by without cause calling a respected Guardian writer “xenophobic” because he attacked Americans and then implying he was racist because the American concerned that had bought Fulham, my favorite soccer team is Pakistani. You yourself played the race card twice and the unfortunate hits back at you were caused by this blatant playing of the nationalism card by you. I am worried about this new ownership because the guy simply wants to make money and destroy the club but instead you decided to create a war between Americans and Englishmen online. You did that, and yet at the same time you can write something so eloquent as this calling for maturity and calm. HYPOCRITE.
It’s not the first time you’ve done this in soccer unbeknownst to your political friends. You once wrote a story that anyone who didn’t give the US Women’s Team similar recognition to the men’s team was a sexist and that the US shouldn’t naturalize men who were abandoned by their servicemen dads but wanted to reconcile with their fathers.
Quote from a blog comments section:
kkfla737 6/4/2011 2:41pm
The US should not be naturalizing Germans, raised in Germans by females who were abandoned by womanizing American soldiers. The message this sends is that America is a bastion to male chauvinism which of course it is. We should be focused on winning the Women’s World Cup not this sham CONCACAF men’s competition upcoming.
This piece is well done but you are a first rate hypocrite.
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David Conn’s pieces are constantly dripping with anti-americanism and factual fallacies about the United States. We are both Man City fans and leftists but our world view similarities end there. His piece was headlined:
“Fulham sale adds to the alarming US takeover of English football
No one seems to question why an increasing number of rich American businessmen are buying up England’s leading clubs”
So who started the pissing contest? Not me…
As for the other charge I plead guilty. I was far more focused on the Women’s World Cup in 2011 than the Gold Cup and don’t like the fact that men can knock up women and then shirk their parental responsibilities. You obviously feel otherwise. Women in my opinion do far more in this day and age to make this world a harmonious and livable place then men do. That’s not a universal rule but yes I feel that in general. I embrace the feminist label.
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great piece!
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Our gun laws are exactly the reason that the rest of the world looks at us like retards! And, if you need a gun THAT bad, something isn’t mentally right with a person.
As far as race, I kind of disagree. I think the United States is highly racist, but we just have a better way of hiding it. For example, take the 2002 French presidential election. Even though Le Pen made it to the second round, he couldn’t even get 18% of the vote in the second round. And if you look at other far-right political parties in Europe and other industrialized countries (with industrialized being a key word in this argument), the right-wing usually performs poorly.
Still, if you took someone like Le Pen and made him the Republican nominee for President, he would automatically get 44% of the nationwide vote. That is the reason why I do think we are more racist. Politicians can’t hide their racism in other countries. But in the US, they can hide these racist views under “southern pride”, “the confederate flag”, “states rights”, “welfare queens”, “immigration problems”…you name it…. to promote their racism.
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