If you’re wondering what ever happened to the Occupy movement, a group of Occupy-type squatters descended on the Florida statehouse in Tallahassee about a month ago and have been camped out there ever since. That this group is different from the original occupiers is evident from their name — they style themselves the Dream Defenders — and by the fact that their protest is so vapid that they make the occupiers appear resolute.
One of the Dream Defenders’ chief aims, as a case in point, is to get the Florida legislature to pass Trayvon’s Law. The nebulous proposal was first put forth by the NAACP, whose president, Benjamin Jealous, explains:
[It is] a series of legislative policies that aims to ‘end racial profiling, repeal stand your ground laws, form effective civil complaint review boards to provide oversight of police misconduct, improve training for community watch groups, mandate law enforcement to collect data on homicide cases involving non-whites, and address the school to prison pipeline.
Never mind that racial profiling was dismissed as a probative element in the George Zimmerman case, that police misconduct was never a factor, and that it has been demonstrated that blacks benefit disproportionately from Florida’s ‘Stand Your Ground’ law. Some people still need to vent, and the protest is a harmless a vehicle as any.
Besides it is due to wrap up this weekend, but not before a new mural titled “We Are All Trayvon Martin” is unveiled. According to a press release from Advancement Project (which bills itself as “a next generation, multi-racial civil rights organization”), the 8-x-50-foot work was created by “internationally renowned, Miami-based artist, Huong.”
The even better news is that the work is still technically in progress:
Depicting stirring imagery of Martin’s shooting, the piece leaves open spaces throughout, onto which viewers are invited to add their own thoughts on the event and related social issues. After the initial unveiling on Friday at 11:00 am, Huong will hold an interactive workshop encouraging the public to add their words to the mural. She has specifically invited Gov. Rick Scott to also sign the piece.
“The sorrow from [Trayvon Martin’s death] seemed to endlessly carry on, and African-American parents everywhere hugged their sons just that much tighter,” Huong said on what inspired the piece. “It was a rough time, but the positive was that it served to unify the country, even if just for one split-second. Everyone could finally agree on at least one premise: racism was still an issue and it had to be dealt with. Because of this, many were inspired to make a difference.”
One hopes Huong is a better artist than a social commentator. The view that the Trayvon Martin’s death has unified the country may be true but only if Huong is referring to a country other than the U.S. Here tensions have been running high ever since the Zimmerman verdict, and the race hucksters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have been working continuously to keep the fire raging. There have been some dozen “justice for Trayvon” beatings in which packs of black teens have targeted lone white males. It’s doubtful that that’s what Huong has in mind when she states that everyone can finally agree that racism is still an issue.
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