How Trayvon Martin’s Story Impacts Me

Neighborhood watch captain, George Zimmerman killed Trayvon Martin on February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman was charged, received a fair trial, and ultimately acquitted.

I am grateful he was charged because it means justice is possible, but I must admit that his acquittal was a gut punch and impacts me to this day.

Before Zimmerman’s verdict, I never imagined that there are places I do not belong. Nor did I consider my appearance an appropriate measure of how I should be treated. I knew my worth and who I was. I also wanted to be accepted for who I am on the inside: someone fascinated by sports, video games, sci-fi, and space.

Most simply, I never feared for my life and wholly embraced it.

But frankly, this case created a profound shift because I realized the “not guilty” verdict included a myriad of underlying rules and expectations for minorities.

The “not guilty” verdict meant:

There are places I do not belong, my brown skin is judged by others as a threat, I am worthless in many spaces, I must work twice as hard for people to appreciate my humanity, and, sadly, I must fear for my life and be cautious. All of which further culminated into a deep, unshakable fear.

Trayvon Martin, being older than I was at the time, probably noticed the same things and lived with that same, deep, unshakable fear. A fear which he probably felt most strongly in the moments just before his death.

Although I was always too proud to acknowledge I had internalized these “truths”, this case ensured that I did not feel comfortable being myself and chasing my dreams for far too long.

After the tragedies of the past year, I realized there are still racial disparities despite promises of change, which emphasizes the absurdity of following different rules and expectations based on the color of my skin. In other words, I realized that internalizing these “truths” was not the right course of action.

Instead, I should unerringly try to be a positive force in this world rather than sitting idly by and accepting harmful rules and expectations.

Therefore, I now live for Trayvon Martin, and all others persecuted for being African American. As such, I will continue to fight for positive change in the criminal justice system.