‘We Are Not Trayvon Martin’ Tumblr Springs up as Space for Whites to Share Sympathy with Martin Supporters
Demetria Lucas, The Grio, July 22, 2013
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That’s why I could not resist clicking on a link that was sent to me in a recent tweet about a new Tumblr site that’s gone viral: We Are Not Trayvon Martin.
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The site, started by Joseph Phelan, a white man, on Sunday, hours after he heard the verdict, invites others to share how they are not like Trayvon Martin. Specifically, it is a space for people to share how their race leaves them feeling safe rather than vulnerable.
“I don’t need to be Trayvon Martin to know that what happened to him, and James Byrd, and countless other Black men is simply wrong,” Phelan wrote in his initial post. (Byrd was murdered by white supremacist in 1998.) “I don’t have to be Trayvon Martin to stand with those who are Trayvon and say enough is enough.”
In short, We Are Not Trayvon Martin has morphed into a roster of mostly white Americans acknowledging their undeserved white privilege, how it protects them in every facet of their lives, and just how wrong it is that black people are treated differently. What the site is not, as Phelan told JetMag.com, is a place for “White folks to whine.”
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{snip} The participants recognize that — in opposition to the denials of Juror B37 — race played a significant factor in this case, and that it is not okay.
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Of course, not everyone is happy about the We Are Not Trayvon Martin site. Some view Phelan’s project as a way for non-black people to insert themselves into a conversation that has little to do with them.
Still, We Are Not Trayvon Martin hosts an important and necessary conversation. Injustice can’t be stamped out until it is actually recognized. The site is actually hopeful too, a welcome reprieve from some of the understandably fatalistic essays I’ve read lately that state there’s no hope for a black man’s justice in America.
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But, as We Are Not Trayvon Martin proves, for some social segments, reactions are more nuanced than that. It is enlightening to realize that there are non-black people who believe the verdict was unjust, and feel this deeply. That means there’s hope that we can all not only just get along; but also more importantly, that someday far, far off, we can all be treated equally.
