Kyla Thomas (1st Period)- Trayvon Martin's death sparked a movement that lives on five years later

Summary: Trayvon Martin was an African American teenager,17 who was spotted by officer Zimmerman leaving a convenience store. Officer Zimmerman reported that the boy looked suspicious and shot him. This shooting, which took place 5 years ago still has an effect on black people today and the Black Lives Matter Movement. Since then, there have been many other deadly shootings of unarmed black people, such as Eric Garner in Staten Island, who was selling cigarettes in front of a store. He was the father of 6 children. He begged the officers to not shoot him, but the white officers showed no mercy and chocked him to death. Michael Brown was another unarmed teenager who was shot by a white police officer, The teenage was told by the police to walk on the sidewalk. Some say that Brown attacked the white officer, however, more reliable sources and evidence has proved that he held his arms up in the air indicating that he was unarmed. There were two others mentioned in this article.

Analysis: This article was very eye-catching to me considering the fact that I am a black girl and I can relate to this article. It is very tragic that white police officers just so manage to not shoot white criminals every day. This shows that racism still exists today. Before 1865, when slavery and segregation was legal, police officers sprayed black people with water hoses, lynching, etc. Even though the abuse to the black community has taken a different form, it is still alive and well. It should really wake up all African Americans and show us that we need to take extra caution with the way we present ourselves in public and the way we carry ourselves, because by society's standards, we are at a disadvantage. When we walk into a store, we need to make sure we don't go into the store with our hands in our pockets nor should we leave with our hands in our pockets. We have an automatic target on our backs. These shootings of innocent black people should be the best teacher to us that we can never get too comfortable and we should never feed into the stereotype. As black history month comes to a close, it is important that all races are respectful and recognize the lives that were lost and the rich history of African American culture.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/26/us/trayvon-martin-death-anniversary/index.html