I had a racist conservative I argue with online send me this video. The video is of a pastor, Dr. James David Manning talking to his congregation. He is chief pastor at the ATLAH World Missionary Church in New York City. In the video Dr. Manning calls Trayvon Martin a trouble making pot smoking thug. He also trashes Martin’s parents as bad parents. He goes on to talk about the family of George Zimmerman who killed Martin. He claims they were great parents and if George wouldn’t have shot Martin someone else would have as he was a thug. At the recent rally I attended for Trayvon Martin in Youngstown a speaker mentioned Pastor Manning trashing Trayvon. He went on to say that there will always be at least one person speaking against their own race for some personal gain. The people who love these race traitor types are folks like the racist conservative who sent the video to me. Dr. Manning became one of their favorite go to guys when conservative media like FOX NEWS wants to discuss race issues. That came about because Dr. Manning did several sermons criticizing 2008 Presidential candidate Barack Obama. He went as far as calling Obama’s mother “white trash” for becoming pregnant to a black man out-of-wedlock. He said, “It is common knowledge that African men, coming from the continent of Africa—especially for the first time—do diligently seek out white women to have sexual intercourse with. Generally the most noble of white society choose not to intercourse sexually with these men. So it’s usually the trashier ones who make their determinations that they’re going to have sex.”
Dr. Manning is a birther (disputes Obama being born in the U.S.) and has compared him to Hitler and Satan and frequently calls him a criminal. Dr. Manning is the one who is a criminal as he has served time in New York and Florida for burglary, larceny, criminal possession of a weapon, and other charges. In Manning’s sermon he makes statements against Trayvon and his family and uses the Zimmerman family as an example of married hard-working parents who did their best for their children. I’m here to say both families made their share of mistakes and the Zimmerman family is the last family I’d want to use as role models for parenthood.
George Zimmerman’s cousin came forth about a month after Trayvon Martin’s murder and accused George Zimmerman of molesting her when they were children. The incidents occurred at Zimmerman’s family home when she was 6 and he was 8. She alleges the attacks continued until she was 16. She said Zimmerman assaulted her numerous times, groping her with his hands, kissing her, fondling her inside her pants and inserting his fingers in her vagina. Zimmerman’s attorneys fought to keep the woman’s testimony out of the trial and Judge Nelson agreed with the defense. The woman also says she has spoken to another girl George Zimmerman molested as a child. This cousin also has said she believes Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin over race because of his family’s racist past. Part 1 and Part 2 of her testimony here. The cousin’s testimony also stated that Zimmerman’s family was littered with racists, especially his Peruvian mother. The cousin is the second person to come forward with such racist claims against the Zimmerman’s family
The Miami Herald has published information from George Zimmerman’s 2005 MySpace page. The paper found some derogatory statements about Mexicans in some of his postings. He wrote, “I dont miss driving around scared to hit mexicans walkin on the side of the street, soft ass wanna be thugs messin with peoples cars when they aint around (what are you provin, that you can dent a car when no ones watchin) don’t make you a man in my book. Workin 96 hours to get a decent pay check, gettin knifes pulled on you by every mexican you run into!” Other postings made reference to his other legal troubles in the 2005. He made a comment about the domestic violence charges against him being dropped. He also mentioned the assault charge on a police officer being downgrades. Zimmerman’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, has taken control of his online presence. He had planned to wipe out all of his online data, including a website he had set up to raise money for his defense, but he changed his mind after he saw that Zimmerman’s website had raised over $200,000. These statements on Myspace show Zimmerman has a history of racial profiling.
Those in the right-wing media ignored statements about Zimmerman being a molester and coming from a racist family. They ignored his MySpace or any other social media he posted on. They did not ignore Trayvon Martin’s online social media postings and were more than happy to expose any they thought made Trayvon look like a thug. Here is an example of right-wing media portraying Trayvon as a burglar and speculating that his trip to the store was to get ice tea and Skittles to turn them into a drug concoction. Meanwhile, they portray Zimmerman as a community saint. They claim he is the type who rolled out the red carpet and gave gift baskets to new black neighbors. See video here.
Zimmerman was following Trayvon because he had profiled him as a young black man wearing a hoodie. Martin who was on his phone with his friend, Rachel Jeantel told her he was being followed by a “creepy-ass-cracker.” What we ended up with was two people who don’t know one another acting on wrong-headed stereotypes. Throw a gun in the mix and you end up with a body. Yes, the trial is over but let us not move on. Let’s examine the mistakes both Trayvon and George made. Let’s examine the deadly mentality of laws like “Stand Your Ground.” Let’s question the motives of politicians who are owned by the NRA. Let’s get past blaming the victim and look at the records of everyone involved. Let’s question the media’s motives when Sean Hannity asks softball questions of Zimmerman and wants to contribute to his defense. Let’s call commentators like Geraldo Rivera out for suggesting people wearing hoodies are asking to be shot.
Conservative whites are angry that Rev. Sharpton has come to support the Martin family. These white conservatives are years later still claiming that Rev. Sharpton needs to apologize for supporting Tawana Brawley who accused 6 whites (including 2 policemen) of raping her. A grand jury dismissed the case so it never went to trial. I ask when will these white conservatives apologize for believing Ashley Todd, of College Station, Texas, who lied and said a black man robbed her at knifepoint in Pittsburgh and then cut her cheek after seeing a McCain sticker on her car? When will they apologize for Boston’s Chuck Stewart who shot himself and killed his wife with a shot to her head? He claimed a black man did it and police arrested an innocent black man. Stewart’s brother blew the whistle that Chuck had done the act. Chuck jumped from a bridge killing himself before he could be arrested.
I have yet to hear white conservatives and the media apologize for Susan Smith who claimed her car was hijacked by a black man who drove away with her sons still in the car. Nine days later Smith confessed to letting her car roll into a lake drowning her children inside. She wanted to kill her children so that she might resume an affair with a wealthy local man who had no interest in a “ready-made” family. Then we have Philadelphia police Sergeant Ralston who shot himself and said two black men shot him. I could name a ton more such cases of falsely accusing people of color that white conservatives and the media bought into in a frenzy because of their fear of black on white crime that they will never apologize for. They don’t care how many minorities were harassed, roughed up or wrongly imprisoned because of these lies. They only care that Rev. Sharpton has not apologized for Tawana Brawley or the Duke Lacrosse team being investigated for rape. Limbaugh, Hannity etc. will trot out Duke and Brawley as an example of false accusations every time there is a new allegation of racism made by someone who is black. Racist whites feel these two wrongs will cover all of the lies of the future Todds, Stewarts, Smiths, Ralstons and Zimmermans accusing minorities of crimes they didn’t commit.
We of course need to know what is going on in the psyche of Todd, Stewart, Smith and Ralston that makes them think they can easily get away with blaming blacks for crimes they themselves had committed. We also need to study the white psyche that accepts blaming black people for hurting white people as such an automatic and easily believed reaction.
Ray Zimmerman (no relation to George): “I Want a Marriage Like They Had in the Bible”
“To the Victims of This Tragedy We Send Our Thoughts and Prayers”
Local Band: Take II
“What age is a black boy when he learns he’s scary?” ~ Jonathan Lethem, “The Fortress of Solitude”
Elecpencil 