Creepy White Kid With Shifty Eyes and No Friends Loitering Near A School Wearing A Backpack: Shoot!

I had a hard time with the Trayvon Martin case first, when the young female took the stand that had last spoken to the boy that was killed, and then with the verdict. I had to stop watching the trial when I saw how that girl was treated in cross examination and in the news media. I know many people agree with the verdict - they tend to to be my Republican Facebook friends and many people disagree and they happen to be either my minority, Independent or Democrat friends. Interesting divide? Predictable? Ultimately, I try not to think about it too much because I have this cute, sweet adorable little nephew that happens to look like this:

He's so cute that sometimes I just want to yell "FUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK That's cute!"

So my nephew is black (and white) and, as established, fucking adorable. If some gun-toting weirdo chases down an unarmed kid against the instructions of the police, kills him and gets exonerated - and it's because that unarmed kid is black - would that standard apply to my nephew? This is where I have to put it all away and stop thinking about it so that I don't get on a plane to Florida, hunt down George Zimmerman, pick a fight and let the battle rage until I'm scared enough that I want to shoot him in the face with the crossbow, luger and shark harpoon I happen to have in my pockets - because who is that helping? Isn't that the kind of old-fashioned racism that went out of style in the 50s and now kids read To Kill A Mockingbird so that they're aware of how it used to be? I've already heard black parents say something similar (and the President) and I realize that what I'm experiencing is low-level compared to those fears that because a black family is raising a child that, predictably, is also black, their son or daughter is deemed a danger and a threat if seen walking through someone's neighborhood.

Stand Your Ground is a weird law that I don't quite understand. One of my aunts was in a Florida jail after beating a (white) crackhead with a jug of laundry soap, even though she was pleading self defense under stand your ground. Unlike Zimmerman, my aunt was arrested immediately, but that crackhead didn't even die. Also, I should mention that my aunt is also a crackhead. Crackhead business is often confusing, no matter what the circumstances, so I'm not sure whether the soap jug was truly necessary in the scuffle. Interesting side note on that story: it happened when my husband and I first started dating and one of my cousins posted the mugshot on Facebook and a bunch of my other cousins were making ridiculous comments about it and for about 35 seconds I actually found it really embarrassing. He married me anyway.

So I'd like to read and read and read everyone blasting the Florida justice system for protecting the killer of an unarmed child, but it gets me more worked up than usual and I have to shut this one down. I would like my nephew, Baby IQ, to never experience the type of racial tension we all experience now. If we can get this cleared up in five years or so, that would be great.

I was just complaining to my perfect husband the other day that I have a hard time coming up with blog posts sometimes amid all the other work I'm trying to get done and he said "huh, guess nothing is really making you mad lately." Hah.