I am really discouraged. When Obama was elected I was proud, thought that race relations were

[peacebird]

looking up.
Then the backlash of the knuckle draggers and birthers happened. I was still optimistic, because they are a small group. Or so I thought. But with the murder of an unarmed teen in Florida and the caustic attacks here on DU over it, now I am totally undone.

I believe in the rule of law, as I can see from posts that most DUers do also. But there are, as Harry Potter fans will recall, disruptors. They seem to live for posting, and they post dishonestly. They post strawmen attacks, and twist what people say until they proclaim that we have declared z guilty and we do not acutally want to see him tried.

What total bs. I want this man tried, and I believe most of DU stands beside me in that desire.

But I must say that the actions of z and the sanford pd have left me feeling like this country has FAR to go in its race dialog.

[tblue]

1. I know. Don't give up though.

I don't know what else has been posted on DU because I haven't checked in for several days. Is what you're saying that people are pushing back in defense of Zimmerman? Of course we want him tried! We are not looking for vigilante justice. We want legal justice! We want the courts to go to work. If he is tried and not convicted, I guess we'll see what happens. There will be an outcry, to what degree I don't know. But he needs to be retained and the murder investigated. Period. Where is he anyway? In hiding I bet. His life will never ever be the same no matter what.

[HipChick]

2. I was never that naive..

Neither are the people that have to experience racism as part their everyday lives

[guitar man]

3. I wanted to believe that too

But deep down I knew that when he was elected it would be like shining a light on cockroaches .

[MindandSoul]

4. Don't be discourage! You're correct. . . we don't want a lynching, we want a trial.

What we DON'T want is a white wash, or the shooting of an innocent boy (of any race for what I'm concerned) by someone older, stronger, more paranoid, and holding a gun to be called "self-defense" without even looking at evidences and hearing witnesses.

I believe that there needs to be a trial by jury. Let 12 people decide, not just one police detective or police chief.

[teddy51]

5. I don't understand how we have stepped back so far in this country with respect to

race relations. Shit, we are now back beyond the 1950's, and threatening to drop even further. WTF

This also applies to Unions in this country as well.

[peacebird]

6. Agree, and it is disheartening...

[certainot]

7. 1000 IGNORED radio stations have been allowed to decide what is and what isn't acceptable

if it's OK on 1000 radio stations it's okay - there will always be money in politics and racist hatemongers running around, but RW talk radio gave them a giant megaphone and the left spent the last 20 years ignoring it to listen to music.

[NOLALady]

8. I knew better.

A DU'er's relative commented after the election, "Watch em act a fool now" or something like that.

I saw them acting like fools Brown vs the Board of Education. Emment Till was killed the following year. They acted like fools after the passage of the Civil Rights Bill. I knew that an element was going to become completely unhinged.

You can always count on a certain element (e.g. teabaggers) to act like fools.

[Ecumenist]

12. NOLALady, I was thinking the same thing in the days and weeks leading up to the inauguration

I was hoping that things would be different but I feel it's like when you cage a rabid animal in preparation to put the animal down. They go beserk. There's a reason the french call Rabies, "La RAGE".

[RZM]

9. It's naive to think that one man's election can change a long-term situation

The whole 'post-racial' thing was a smokescreen. People are the same as they always have been. It reminds of something that happened right after 9/11.

I used to work as a reporter. I would stop by the local police station every week for the arrest reports and dispatches. When i went to pick up the reports from the week of 9/11, I fully expected everything to be down, since the country was in shock and mourning. I asked the dispatcher:

'Is crime down this week? I bet it is.'

She said: 'Of course not. You think that's going to stop them?'

And she was right. They were the same as any other week.

[onestepforward]

10. Electing Obama was a step forward,

but we have many more to go.

I do believe that in the end, justice will be served. WE demand it and WE will make sure that it will happen.

[daligirl519]

11. Two steps forward and one step back. . .

Such is history, in my opinion. I am, though, very puzzled about all the talk I hear from people that really thought racisim and bigotry was gone. It never has been. The Civil Rights Movement took it underground. It's just back in the light of day. And a good thing, I think, for the survival of this country. This newest thing with Trayvon Martin is getting a lot of press, but there have been modern-day lynchings going on all along.

[onestepforward]

13. You're so right,

racism and bigotry is alive and well, but I believe it's slowly being diminished with each new generation. It is easy for me to see because I am around it. I live in a mostly white suburb in Texas. I see it with regularity on my local message board. I occasionally hear a racist comment in a local store. My husband is a Latino and I can't count the times that police have followed him or acted aggressive with him for simply going to the grocery store or getting gas.

I have also seen slow, but positive changes in the past 15 years or so. Some have actually been quite heartwarming.