Any Colored Child Can be Trayvon Martin

In the wake of Zimmerman verdict I have been musing on the issue of race and ethnicity and how does it affect me and other browns. Biologically all humans are Homo Sapiens and hence essentially similar at the core. However, people do not interact based upon science or ethics but according to perceptions and heuristics. Perceptions, in turn, are affected by historical, social and cultural experiences among people of different races and ethnicities. United States has a very traumatic history of persecution of Blacks through slavery and discrimination through Jim Crow and discrimination and persecution of new immigrants through xenophobia.  Whites in this country looked down upon colored people, black, brown and yellow as inferior. Although things have improved after civil rights legislation and outstanding progress made by the African American community, tensions and suspicions remain on both sides; a few Whites still lament the loss of their hegemony and continue to harbor stereotypes that associate blackness with crime and depraved lifestyle and a few Blacks harbor a persistent feeling of persecution that makes them more sensitive to even 'usual' altercations of life. The white racists look down upon browns and yellows too, but Blacks bear the brunt of Zimmerman type attacks because they are the most visible minority and crime statistics, whatever may be the reasons, are stacked against them. However “rolling up of car windows and accelerating pace when a colored person, particularly a bearded or turbaned person”, although more common with blacks, is not unique to them. Being surrounded or followed by an unfamiliar person in an unknown or unfamiliar environment at an unfamiliar time may evoke a similar response from anyone irrespective of race and ethnicity and the racial question in America has become multicolored: there have been racist incidents between blacks and yellows (1992 LA riots between Blacks and Koreans) and Hispanic and blacks and browns (1987 Jersey City Dot buster hate crimes against Asian Indians). Each group has its own stereotype of who is more aggressive and a threat. Some of these stereotypes are based upon personal experiences, some on the basis of crime statistics, some on the basis of media reports and some on group tales that pass from person to person often getting a mythical character to them. The outcome is overgeneralization.

In the face of such ubiquitous prejudice and stereotyping, vigilantism of people like Zimmerman becomes dangerous for all people of color. Even if Zimmerman had felt threatened, he should not have gotten out of his car, especially when he was advised by the police. He violated the civil rights of a young American of free movement and provoked the youngster to have an altercation. While there may be reasonable doubt about the altercation there is no doubt that the young man was denied his right to move freely on public property. To prevent such loss of young lives, we need a multipronged approach with sociological, legislative and judicial action involving all races and ethnicities.

We should study honestly and openly, these perceptions, stereotypes and their origin and heuristics that operationalize them into serious and fatal outcomes as in Trayvon Martin case. First and foremost we should become familiar ad knowledgeable about one another. Asian Indian community has to begin getting involved because one day an Asian Indian child could be victim of vigilantism.