DAVID SIMON
'The Wire' Creator David Simon on Trayvon Martin Case:
'Ashamed' to Be an American
In an
emotional, fiery post on his blog, The Audacity of Despair, Simon denounced the
verdict, saying he was "ashamed to call himself an American."
Simon knows a little something about
race. He worked for 12 years as a crime reporter in Baltimore ,
witnessing firsthand the despair referenced in his blog title. He then
channeled that knowledge to write nuanced, complex portrayals of race, drugs,
poverty, violence, and corruption on series like "Homicide: Life on the
Street," "The Corner," and "The Wire."
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From 2002-2005 on "The Wire,"
Simon and his team of writers depicted the often deadly consequences for young
black men living within the broken education, political, and justice systems.
The series was lauded as an American storytelling masterpiece, inspired
professors to teach about it in college classes, and was recently named the No. 1 series of all time
by Entertainment Weekly.
Outside of his television writing, Simon
often comments on social issues, and the Martin case stirred up particularly
forceful feelings in him. Here's the entirety of his post:
You can stand your ground if you're
white, and you can use a gun to do it. But if you stand your ground with your
fists and you're black, you're dead.
In the state of Florida ,
the season on African-Americans now runs year round. Come one, come all. And
bring a handgun. The legislators are fine with this blood on their hands. The
governor, too. One man accosted another and when it became a fist fight, one
man — and one man only — had a firearm. The rest is racial rationalization and
dishonorable commentary.
If I were a person of color in Florida ,
I would pick up a brick and start walking toward that courthouse in Sanford .
Those that do not, those that hold the pain and betrayal inside and somehow
manage to resist violence — these citizens are testament to a stoic tolerance
that is more than the rest of us deserve. I confess, their patience and
patriotism is well beyond my own.
Behold, the lewd, pornographic embrace
of two great American pathologies: Race and guns, both of which have conspired
not only to take the life of a teenager, but to make that killing entirely
permissible. I can't look an African-American parent in the eye for thinking
about what they must tell their sons about what can happen to them on the
streets of their country. Tonight, anyone who truly understands what justice is
and what it requires of a society is ashamed to call himself an American."
Strong words. But Simon didn't stop there.
Remarkably, he took the time to address many of the comments following the
post. A few highlights:
- One commenter chastised him for trying
to "fan the flames and incite violence," to which Simon replied,
"You've missed the thread of that passage utterly."
- Several others called on
Simon to prove that Zimmerman's actions in shooting Martin were racist. He
replied, "I don't think Mr. Zimmerman is by any necessity a racist.
But his calculations and his behaviors were racially motivated."
- In other responses, Simon bemoaned the
slippery slope effect — that the Martin case would be the first of many.
"The law has changed — and the culture of legal self-defense is
changing — in a revolutionary fashion. There will be more of these cases
now. Not less."
Is it strange, funny or just simply sad when you hear black people quick to boast that they are proud to be an American when we as a race never been treated as such nor received the liberties there of, then to hear a member of the white race, our oppressors denounce what he has had the privilege of being to this point because of us, is now ashamed to be an American because of the continue injustice to our race? The reason that these blacks are proud is because they don't know any better and here is all they have ever know, which is also why they are quick tell those of us that is not afraid to speak up and out about what the great America has done and continue to do, "Go back to Africa," they say... THINKING OUT LOUD, I guess it is sad.
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