Not guilty says the Florida justice system.

Congratulations Mr. Zimmerman, you are a free man.

 You can no longer be tried for the murder of Trayvon Martin.

You can start the rest of YOUR life now.

Find a good agent and accountant because things good get interesting for you from here on out.

There will be book deals,  movie scripts, speaking tours, and no doubt a guest  hosting spot on FOX news.

Blacks are understandably outraged, but it’s not surprising that a jury of mostly white Floridians decided to set him free. To them, Trayvon Martin is not like their children; his life was  deemed less valuable.   As a young African American male he fits into a stereotype that was placed firmly in their minds years ago. It’s unavoidable when you live in America. Besides, the thinking goes, aren’t thousands of young African American males murdered and senselessly killed every year by other young African American men? 

To the jurors and some people in America, George Zimmerman’s actions on that rainy winter night  was justifiable. They would have done the same thing.  It was a jury of his peers. It was not a jury of  Trayvon Martin’s peers.

People will argue that the prosecution did a poor job, and that their hearts were never in it. While I agree that they could have done a better job, it didn’t really matter how well they prosecuted their case; they were fighting an uphill battle from the very start.

The fact that we had to raise our voices to even get an arrest in this case speaks volumes. If it was not for the case becoming something African Americans rallied around ---because many of us saw in Trayvon Martin our cousins, our brothers, and our sons--- George Zimmerman would not have been arrested in the first place, and cable news advertising directors would not have been celebrating over the past few months.

So now it’s over, and all is quiet (so far) on the streets of Florida. The riots FOX News and others in America were predicting have yet to materialize.  All the people implying that blacks would riot like a bunch of savages are as racist and ignorant as the man who profiled a 17 year old and shot him to death on that February night in 2012.

What they failed to realize is that most of us (black folks) expected this. People of color in this country did not expect justice for the Martin family. We know, that because of prejudices and other imperfections in American life, that lady justice is not truly blind. And we understand,  that sadly,  children who look like Trayvon Martin will never be looked at like the children who look like the Judge (or five of the six jurors) who presided over the case.   

 #IAmGeorgeZimmerman was recently trending on twitter.

I think I will go on twitter and start another trend: #AmericaisGeorgeZimmerman