With the arrival of the first black president in the Oval Office in 2008, it seemed that the U.S. had made a giant leap in resolving race relations.
That didn’t last long. After the election, President Barack Obama conceded that the pride his inauguration brought for having moved beyond the legacy of race “lasted about a day.”
Two recent incidents involving the killing of unarmed persons have made abundantly clear that race relations need serious examination both locally and nationally.
The first incident was the Feb. 26 shooting and killing of black 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Sanford by a neighborhood watch volunteer.
The second was the March 21 beating and killing of the Iraqi immigrant and 32-year-old mother of five, Shaima Alawadi, in El Cajon, Calif.
Both cases are tragedies of the highest degree and have stirred the emotions of Americans nationwide. There has been much speculation that Martin’s killing was racially motivated. Geraldo Rivera made headlines for saying that Martin’s hoodie was as responsible for his death as his the killer.
The Orlando Sentinel reported that at a protest, the leader of the New Black Panther Party put a $10,000 bounty on the man who killed Trayvon.
The circumstances are similar in Alawadi’s killing. No suspects have been named yet, but one piece of evidence suggests we might be dealing with a hate crime: Next to Alawadi’s body was a note that read, “Go back to your country, you terrorist,” according to Alawadi’s daughter.
Perhaps Trayvon’s case was not a hate crime, but only a tragic killing of an innocent teenager by an otherwise mentally ill man. Perhaps something similar will be true for Alawadi’s killing.
Even so, it is clear that these two local killings have turned into national tragedies precisely because race relations are strained and unresolved in our country.
As Obama said about Trayvon’s death, “All of us have to do some soul-searching to figure out how does something like this happen.”
I appreciate Obama avoiding jumping to conclusions, but he seemed timid to bring the word “race” into the discussion.
Let’s be open about it: Racial profiling is a common occurrence in the United States. Even if Trayvon wasn’t racially profiled, countless others like Trayvon are profiled for being young, black and wearing urban clothing.
These incidents are not isolated and ignorable, but extreme manifestations of underlying racism in our society.
Why is the portrait of a criminal a young black male in a hoodie? What in our culture and society causes someone to believe that a mother wearing a hijab is a terrorist?
Examining these questions will help us understand the underlying racism present in our country, so we can take steps toward resolving it.
To be clear, by no means should we jump to conclusions about the role of race in criminal cases. However, the harsh reality is that race often does play a role in criminal cases and their outcomes, and race relations in our country are still strained and deserving of our consideration. If we want to improve the legacy of race in the United States, we must not shy away from examining our race relations as an entire country, no matter how far we’ve progressed or how many hurdles we’ve overcome.
Abdul Zalikha is a biology and English junior at UF. His column appears on Wednesdays.
