All men created equal?

Ronald Mason, Contributor

THE NORTH AMERICAN developed, industrialised country with a population in excess of 300 million likes to assert their society as one in which all are created equal. The citizens are endowed with certain inalienable rights. That of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Historically, that has not been so. You may stretch and claim that all white men are created equal. From the period of Jim Crow through lynching through targeted assassination of Medger Evers and the murder of Emmitt Till among others. America preaches equality and downplays the reality. Let us understand that they are generally successful in portraying this façade of equality because some black men within their society are visibly successful.

There are the sports personalities emulated across the country. Arthur Ashe, Lebron James, RGIII, even the Cuban refugee Piug. He, Piug of most recent entry to America, only some 30-plus games major league baseball experience had a real chance to make the all-star team. This all-star team is supposed to be the best of a league that is over 100 years old. He, Mr Piug, is a black man of Cuban heritage. Yes, he satisfies the delusion of the all-men-created-equal statement.

At this point in American history, they as a society offer up the platitude that they are a post-racial society. Have they made progress since the 1965 Civil Rights laws? Yes, with a dose of heavy scepticism.

Sixteen months ago, a 17-year-old African-American teenager visiting with his father in the town of Sanford, Florida, was to have a confrontation that calls into question the dogma of post-racial society with all men created equal.

Trayvon Martin went to the convenience store and was returning at 7 p.m. on a rainy winter's night. He was dressed in a hoodie. A jacket with a hood attached, a normal attire. The facts of the contact with George Zimmerman and the subsequent confrontation are disputed. What is not disputed is that Trayvon Martin is dead, shot through the heart by George Zimmerman, who has admitted that much.

Troubling revelation

The reaction to a verdict of not guilty which came from the trial has left some of us torn and forced to revisit what was supposed to have been the past. Legally, the system has afforded all the benefit of a trial. The case as presented by the prosecution was lacking. The verdict was not contrary to the evidence, as presented. However, what has been offered as the supporting reasoning of at least one juror is deeply troubling. The familiar reference to "George". There is no separation or compartmentalisation of the case. He "George" has become one of us. They, the jurors and "George" had only the pigmentation of their skin colour in common. Young black Martin, the dead victim, was in the mind of this juror contributing to his death by not running home on becoming aware of this white stranger of the neighbourhood watch. He was not entitled to be free from fear. He was not allowed to be "equal". He was made into this menacing black criminal because he wore a hoodie and walked in the gated community, after dark.

Unequal society

What this has done is to force to the front of our consciousness, as parents of black males, the reality of the unequal society that America is. It is heart-rending to tell your teenage son not to walk with his hands in his pockets. He will be suspected of having a concealed weapon. An offensive weapon at the ready for use on suspecting white prey. He must be told, "you DO NOT run on a busy street, night or day, dressed in a three-piece suit or a hoodie". At that act, at that moment you set off at a running pace, you usually become a "fleeing felon" to be stopped by whatever means. Ask the current attorney general of the United States of America. When he was federal prosecutor, he set off running on the street in Georgetown, Washington, DC, the capital of America, and was forced to stop on the order of 'law enforcement'. How demeaning. Thankfully he stopped, and being of Caribbean heritage he had been distanced from the 400 years of dehumanising treatment of black people in America. Remember the Harvard professor, arrested for entering his own home under "suspicious" means.

I know the indignity. I operated an office in a preferred district of a major city in America. On an occasion, dressed in the uniform of an attorney, suitably attired with the accessories thereof, attaché case and money in my pocket, set out to ride the elevator from the lobby to the 10th floor. The elevator stopped and an elderly white woman was on-board when I entered. She was alone. My entry made it only two of us. Fear anyone. Greeting anyone. No, she froze at the back of the elevator and firmly placed her handbag under her arm. A black, one of "them". She was going to be lucky and only get robbed. God forbid. To this day, I am convinced I had more money in my pocket than she had in her saving account. As a Jamaican, I thought "cooyah".

My son was brought up in that environment. I recall the conversation about his chances of reaching his 18th birthday. President Obama said there was not a black America and a white America, but only a United States of America. True?

Ronald Mason is a US immigration attorney/ mediator/talk show host. Send comments to columns@gleanerjm.com or nationsagenda @gmail.com