| In essence, these cases of non-black on black aggression are evidence of a witch hunt because they are large acts of aggression against a specific group of people without punishment of the attackers. In each example of profiling from the previous page, a black man was aggressed by a man of a different ethnicity. There are many many others to be found, but these examples got a lot of attention from the media in part because the victims of each incident died. These events show evidence of a witch hunt against colored people because they all show a colored person (ages span widely) who is attacked for no justified reason, and because the attacker takes little to no punishment for the actions. For each case presented, there was little to no reprecussion for the attacking party. Each case got attention and prompted action from the public, but no action from the judicial system to do anything positive. The lack of action is showing the people participating in the hunt, that there is nothing legally wrong with what they are doing, and that if given the chance, assaulting a colored person cannot be punished. |
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The special case in this mix is that of Trayvon Martin. The difference between this one and the others is that rather
than a case of white-on-black aggression, Zimmerman is Hispanic. This becomes significant later as we look at cases
in which hispanics are being profiled against and attacked as well. To help explain, I'm going to use an example from
the well renowned play "The Crucible" which is a piece about the Salem witch trials.
In the play people accused of being witches have two main options of response. The first is to choose not to confess, in which case you will be executed to save the rest of the people from a potential threat. The other is to confess to being a witch, which will save you from execution but sentence you to a different punishment. The choice puts the accused in a lose-lose situation and the most common response became to confess to witchcraft AND accuse someone else to bring them down with you. It was this action that lead to mass hysteria in the book. In a similar fashion, Hispanics and blacks alike are being profiled against and attacked in our society. These attacks are based on stereotypes and judgements we pick up in day to day life as we generalize about people we dont know much about. Despite being a member of a different group under attack, Zimmerman still used the stereotypes regarding blacks in the thinking that prompted him to go after Trayvon and eventually kill him. |