Trayvon Martin – Contemporary Racism

Growing Up “Innocent”

Teagan Richichi — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:48:35 +0000

In America, the notion of childhood innocence is fairly ingrained within our cultural imagination, but who gets that innocence is, like many things, largely dictated by race. The hypothetical child is assumed innocent of knowledge around topics like sex and violence, and the hypothetical child is also assumed White by the White social imagination. For Black children, this assumption of innocence and of childhood itself is often denied, but how it happens is altered by ...

Common’s New Album is Anything But

Brittany Smith — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 19:52:16 +0000

This week, the rapper Common released an album titled Black America Again. It’s genius. Pure activist genius, right before Election Day. His music is complex and interesting, his lyrics exploring the nuances of systemic racism in the United States. He focuses on an array of issues, including mass incarceration, the injustices occurring in Flint, Michigan, and cultural stereotypes, which marginalize people of color and perpetuate systemic inequality. “The Day Women Took Over” highlights the accomplishments ...

Ferguson…

Connie — Sun, 07 Sep 2014 13:58:59 +0000

See our Facebook page for many links to information and commentary. Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Contemporary-Racism/197505590293825 The links include this one: The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Indecision Political Humor,The Daily Show on Facebook

Racism in aisle ’14

Chelsey — Sun, 23 Feb 2014 19:12:50 +0000

Since I have been in this class, it is amazing to me how many things I see on social media sites that relate to everything we are talking about in class. This week I was browsing my Facebook news feed and I saw two posts, one after another, that completely shocked me. A woman, that goes to Muhlenberg, had a post that explained a recent experience with racism. Her post stated: “So I went to ...

Jordan Davis and Michael Dunn

EmilyBlakeslee — Mon, 10 Feb 2014 03:33:58 +0000

For our contemporary racism class, we read an essay by social psychologist Jennifer L. Eberhardt. The essay summarized her and her colleagues’ work on the cognitive associations we make about Black people and crime. For me, the findings were like a knife in the gut: we have unconscious prejudices that we often aren’t aware of, that can have dire consequences. In one study, participants were either unconsciously primed to think about crime or received no ...

Social Power and Stand Your Ground

brianna — Sun, 09 Feb 2014 18:08:52 +0000

After discussing the Trayvon Martin tragedy in class this week, I felt very emotional and downright angry at how the case developed and was handled. How is it possible that George Zimmerman was able to kill an unarmed teenager and walk away a free man? While I do feel that many factors led to a jury finding Zimmerman not guilty, one detail of the case has stood out to me – the Stand Your Ground ...

This is 2012…isn’t it?

Alexis — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 03:40:46 +0000

As I have watched the news and blogs lately I am shocked and saddened over the direction it would appear the United States continues to head. I think at this point we can all agree that this country is far from enlightened when it comes to issues of race and interracial interaction. I think it is also safe to say that we all are painfully aware that there is a lot of work to be ...

Taking The Next Step

Tory — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 00:59:55 +0000

Throughout the past few weeks I have noticed many people posting comments about Trayvon Martin on Facebook. Their comments range from different news articles, pictures of a boy holding skittles and their own personal opinions filled with anger at the injustice of the situation. Whereas I am glad to see that these individuals are clearly outraged by what happened, I also know that these postings are their only efforts to speak out against this problem. ...

Trayvon Martin

Simone — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:15:34 +0000

Though overt racism is no longer condoned in American society, it has been demonstrated that implicit or unconscious racism is still at work today. Whether known to the individual or not, racist beliefs and attitudes could greatly affect one’s behavior toward a member of another race. The case of Trayvon Martin screams explicit racism with a capital “E” letting me know that explicit/overt racism is alive and well in American society. A young black man ...

Trayvon Martin: ‘Racism without Racists’

nashkrod — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:06:39 +0000

Everyday people of color, especially young men of color are profiled. They are seen as criminal, unsafe, suspicious, etc. Unfortunately, this issue has to be brought to light to the eyes of many Americans through the story of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, who was shot and killed for appearing “suspicious.” Trayvon was unarmed, wearing a hoodie, and about 100 lbs lighter than his killer, George Zimmerman, but for some reason Zimmerman felt threatened. Zimmerman has yet ...

Making Excuses

Alexis — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 04:00:37 +0000

In the film The Blind Side while the “white” women were eating “$18 salads” at a restaurant, Sandra Bullock’s character asks if any of the other ladies had ever been to the “other side” of town after some teasing remarks, the one woman stated; “I’m from there, but with a little hard work and now look at me”. For me this resonated with the frameworks we discussed in class on Wednesday and how if “they” ...

If He Wasn’t Wearing a Hoodie…

Michela — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 02:40:53 +0000

In light of the delayed Trayvon Martin coverage this week, Fox News caster Geraldo Rivera excused the actions of Zimmerman because of the hoodie Martin was wearing. Not only was Rivera blaming the victim, but he used a cultural frame to dismiss this grave injustice. It wasn’t just Rivera that has expressed this sentiment; this week when I was expressing my frustration and anger about the case, a friend of mine said, “I understand that ...

Trayvon Martin

Connie — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 13:09:53 +0000

U.S. Opens Inquiry in Killing of Trayvon Martin – NYTimes.com.