Trayvon Martin and the Struggle Against the New Jim Crow

7:00 Wednesday, April 11th @ Science and Engineering Library room 332

Todd Chretien Presenting

"Like the execution of innocent Georgia death row prisoner Troy Davis last fall--and the prosecution of the Jena Six in rural Louisiana a few years earlier--Trayvon Martin's case has crystallized for millions of people the continuing ugly reality of racism in 21st century America. But not only that, Trayvon's story has also moved people to take a stand and demand change."

From the article "We have to win justice for Trayvon" in the April issue of the newspaper Socialist Worker, it would be possible to append innumerable accounts of racist violence that have been at the forefront of American consciousness and media for the past month. The case of disabled former US marine Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., who was gunned down in his own home in November by racial-epithet-hurling police officers, will be shortly coming before a jury in New York, while us Californians struggle to comprehend the ignorance and hate behind the murder of Iraqi-American woman Shaima Alawadi near San Diego on April 2nd--Alawadi was beaten to death with a tire iron, and left next to her body was a note telling her to "Go back to your country."

Indeed, while it would be possible to bring to mind many such occurrences of hate-fueled violence, it would be manifestly impossible to list the accounts of prejudice and hatred people of color face on a daily basis--often at the hands of police. But, as the Socialist Worker article points out, stories such as these have moved millions of people across the country to "take a stand and demand change."

The fact is that we are no longer fooled by those who would have us believe that we are living in a "post-racial" society where the issue of racial prejudice and violence has been surmounted and that the racial question, therefore, has lost its significance. Concurrently, we are all too aware of the fact that for far too many people in this country--and far too many police officers--being a person of color naturally equates to being a criminal, and Trayvon Martin's murder and the innumerable cases like it are starting to drive people to change this all-too-prevalent view at the levels of community, law enforcement, and the judiciary.

We must first recognize the systemic nature of racism in American society. But beyond that point, questions have a need to be collectively discussed and determined: How do we turn our outrage into protest, and our protest into real social change? How can we begin to collectively move toward a world that is truly equal? Join the International Socialist Organization at Santa Cruz for a presentation and discussion on these and other issues concerning the eradication of racism and moving toward a world that we might one day want to live in.

7:00 Wednesday, April 11th @ Science and Engineering Library room 332