#oldbuttrue

On Stevie Wonder’s boycott of Florida in the wake of the Zimmerman acquittal,

”The brilliance of Wonder’s boycott is that it bypasses conversations of whether the Zimmerman verdict is “about” race (conversations Zimmerman’s defenders are all too eager to have, with voices raised) and becomes about laws themselves. George Zimmerman might not have gone free because of “Stand Your Ground,” but he did go free because he lives in a state where the definition of self-defense can favor the aggressor to almost psychotic extremes, and he went free because at least one juror explicitly believed in his right to “stand his ground.” If some people refuse to believe that all those things are connected, and that all those things don’t protect fearful men with guns far more than they protect young black men without them, then that’s their right. It’s Stevie Wonder’s right to believe the opposite.”

JAKE HAMILTON