We are at the end of an era of compromise and complacency.
We have no more time for armchair activists and social media pundits.
We do not live in a post-racial society.
One black man elected to our highest office does not negate the fact that black and brown youth are in a state of emergency.
Children are our society’s canaries in a mine.
It’s time to stop pretending our canaries aren’t dying.
It’s time for us to make decisions about our own lives. We’ve decided that we have worth.
On Feb. 26, 2012, Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman on his way home from a convenience store in Sanford, Fla.
Trayvon, a 17 year-old boy, was seen as inherently dangerous: a criminal, a second-class citizen by virtue of being black.
He was ultimately shot for being somewhere Zimmerman deemed inappropriate.
In 1955, two men also decided a black child’s life held no value.
Emmett Till, a 14-year-old, was dragged out of his home, taken to a barn, shot in the head and mutilated until unrecognizable because he stepped out of “his” place.
In 1787 — 226 years ago — at the Constitutional Convention, our Founding Fathers formally decided the life of a black person was not equivalent to that of a white person in America.
In fact, our Constitution claimed that we, who were already enslaved and abused, were three-fifths of a white whole and called it a compromise.
Surely not a compromise we agreed on!
The founders of this nation set a precedent, one that continuously manifests itself in our society.
So much so that on Feb. 26, when Zimmerman decided to shoot and kill Trayvon as he walked home, Florida was all but ready to send Zimmerman on his way.
As a result, we began to awaken and gain a new consciousness.
We took to the streets.
We protested.
And for a short period of time, we stood together, and we decided this was not justice.
Out of this turmoil arose the Dream Defenders, and we’ve been building ever since.
We’ve been building because we are living in a state of emergency.
Look at our public schools, for example.
What was once a visit to the principal or counselor’s office in our parents’ day is now a degrading ride in the back of a police car.
Shoving in hallways (battery), taking something from a classmate’s book bag (theft or robbery) or being a class clown (disorderly conduct) are all grounds for arrest in Florida schools.
In Alachua County, where black students make up about 32 percent of the student population, they account for 76 percent of school-based arrests, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Black students are about two to three times more likely to be suspended, expelled or arrested than white students for the same kind of conduct.
It’s not because black kids behave worse than other students.
You would think after 226 years, black youth would stop being unfairly treated like criminals and second-class citizens.
As Malcolm X said, “The young generation don’t want to hear anything about ‘the odds are against us.’ What do we care about odds?”
We have decided we are ignoring precedent.
We’ve decided we are whole.
We will no longer be second-class citizens in the country that was built on our backs.
It’s time we remember how we felt a year ago today. It’s time we remember how we felt when voter suppression laws swept this state.
It is time we remember no human is illegal.
It is time we stand our ground and demand our kids be taught rather than dismissed and senselessly killed.
It is time we stop reacting and start building: no more Trayvon Martins, no more Jordan Davises, no more Rodrigo Diazes and no more Emmett Tills.
So, we welcome you to the Dream Era; it’s only just begun.
Join us on March 5, the first day of the legislative session, on the steps of the Old Capitol of Florida, where we will deliver the real State of the State address.
The Dream Era is an era that will be propelled by black and brown youth who spent their formative years criminalized, marginalized, tossed aside and forgotten.
We’ve found beauty in the dark; we found strength in our struggle and determination through despair.
Now, we’re ready to set new precedents.
Jonel Edwards is a political science senior at UF. She is the vice president of the UF Dream Defenders and the president of the Gator Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. You can contact her via opinions@alligator.org.
