‘The Wire’ Creator David Simon Is Understandably Pissed Off About The Trayvon Martin Verdict

In “Newsworthy News That The Newsroom Will Smugly Cover On News Night” news: George Zimmerman, not guilty. We’ll leave the finer points of the controversial trial/verdict to the experts, experts like Olivia Munn and Dumber (or is he Dumb?), but needless to say, people are not happy, including David Simon, who’s usually such a regular Johnny Chuckles. On his blog, The Wire creator shared his well-reasoned opinions on Martin and Zimmerman, all written like the grimmest “white people be like this, black people be like that” joke I’ve ever heard.

You can stand your ground if you’re white, and you can use a gun to do it. But if you stand your ground with your fists and you’re black, you’re dead.

In the state of Florida, the season on African-Americans now runs year round. Come one, come all. And bring a handgun. The legislators are fine with this blood on their hands. The governor, too. One man accosted another and when it became a fist fight, one man — and one man only — had a firearm. The rest is racial rationalization and dishonorable commentary.

If I were a person of color in Florida, I would pick up a brick and start walking toward that courthouse in Sanford. Those that do not, those that hold the pain and betrayal inside and somehow manage to resist violence — these citizens are testament to a stoic tolerance that is more than the rest of us deserve. I confess, their patience and patriotism is well beyond my own.

Behold, the lewd, pornographic embrace of two great American pathologies: Race and guns, both of which have conspired not only to take the life of a teenager, but to make that killing entirely permissible. I can’t look an African-American parent in the eye for thinking about what they must tell their sons about what can happen to them on the streets of their country. Tonight, anyone who truly understands what justice is and what it requires of a society is ashamed to call himself an American.

Should I ever meet Simon, remind me not to ask him, “How many Lee Greenwood songs are on your iPod?”

(via Getty Image) (Via David Simon)

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