For the longest time, I’ve looked at the things said by Three Sonorans scribe D.A. Morales with confusion and, often, amusement — after all, one can only read so many varieties of “white people are the worst” so many times before it gets old. I stopped keeping track of him some time after he decided to depart from the Interwebs for a while at the beginning of last year, in keeping with his apparent wishes.
Sure, he continues to rail against the “Weakly” (side-note: do people still think they’re clever when they use that insult? It’s older than I am, guys) when he gets the chance, and yeah, he still thinks white people are the devil (even Terry Goddard hates brown people, apparently), but I can see where he’s coming from: a corner of the Internet where brown people can do no wrong, lest they disagree with him.
Still, even after tempering myself with all that he’s previously written, the Chicano crusader of all-things-race-related made me slam my head against my desk when I read this lovely bit of false-equivalency:
Dude, seriously?
You’re going to place a temper tantrum from a younger, shittier Usher on the same level as an instance where a kid was shot to death? Hell, I can’t even think of anyone of consequence (sorry, Beliebers and Kelly Osbourne) who’s defended Bieber since the Miley Cyrus lookalike was pulled over for drag racing and arrested for suspected DUI. If we’re comparing epithets, while Martin was called a “thug” on numerous right-wing blogs (check the top Google results for “trayvon martin thug,” if you’d like to check), Bieber was called a “piece of shit” by one of his more famous countrymen.
Justin Bieber is a dumb kid who made it big incredibly quickly and will soon be tried for his crimes (including vandalism of a neighbor’s home and an assault that took place on his native Canadian soil). I’d be happy if I never heard his name again (or one of his songs, for that matter), but I’m glad that he hasn’t killed anyone during his long descent from pop superstar to cultural footnote.
Trayvon Martin, on the other hand, was killed. Shot by George Zimmerman, who was later found not guilty of murder by way of self-defense, he died at 17 years old while walking down the street at night. His death (at the hand of a brown guy, it might be worth adding) and killer’s trial took over media for months. Since being found innocent, Zimmerman has taken to hiding as he loses everything of value around him, including his marriage. People are still talking about the validity of Stand Your Ground laws.
As I asked Morales on his Facebook page, on what planet are these situations comparable? Sure, both happened in Florida, but there is no possible way any right-minded individual can consider these similar without a few logical leaps of faith. Assumedly, it’s that Bieber is a white Canadian pop star who hasn’t had threats of deportation thrown his way by those in power, while Zimmerman sells shitty paintings from his house and Martin lays buried a Florida cemetery.
I’m not following this train of thought, guys — plus, if social media had its way, Bieber would be packing up his Never Say Never movie posters and heading back to Canada without his green card.
Nothing against Three Sonorans, or Morales personally, but what benefit does this voice bring to the crusade for civil rights and racial equality when it tries to place the crimes of a spoiled white pop star on the same level as a black kid who was killed while buying Skittles? I mean, no one looks good when they’re calling for the hanging of a dude who hasn’t even been taken to trial yet, no matter the skin color of the accused.
This article appears in Jan 30 – Feb 5, 2014.
So Justin is actually innocent?
The situations are comparable because all the news in the world, at the time TM was shot and killed, demonstrated that Justin Beiber was into all the same things as Trayvon (and worse, mind you) yet nobody called him a thug. Trayvon smoked a little weed and got suspendd from school for non-violent dennis-the-menace offenses and he is labeled as a huge thug that was also, surely, a Klingon Warrior that has a violent history despite his never being suspended or being arrested for assaulting people.
Yeah, Trayvon smoked weed… Well SO DID BEIBER! Yeah, Trayvon had a gold grill at some point… WELL SO DID BEIBER! Smoking weed and wearing a gold grill wasn’t so thug life when Justin Beiber was doing it. Buying weed isn’t so thug when people in colorado are lining up for blocks to buy it.
Also, for the record, if Zimmerman were so interested in hiding, maybe he wouldn’t be challenging people to fights on Twitter. In fact, he challenged a comedian (Ralphie May) to a fight this week because he didn’t like something the comedian had to say about him.
Only problem with the piece is giving Morales any publicity. Justin Bieber has been called all kinds of nasty names, including a thug. The reason he’s not called a thug more often is he’s too feminine-looking and doesn’t look capable of beating anyone up.
So Justin’s crimes are excusable?
NOs-time for you to brush up on your facts.Trayvon was EXPELLED from School. Not just suspended. He was sent down there to live with his father(a gang member)because his mother had lost all control. Look at the bright side.Numerous crimes have been avoided and uncounted father-less kids have been avoided also.
I thought this story was about the glib foolishness of Abie Morales, not Martin or Beiber.
Isn’t it lovely hearing from the “Three Sonorans” again! If I remember right he was asked not to post his blog on the Tucson Citizen. Yet he would “ban” comments from people who disagreed with him.
Hello Three Sonorans…this is Fraser007 back at ya!!!
Typo: delete right and insert when in the first line,.
David Mendez? – se te olvido de dondes vienes? You fail to realize that it is the comparison of what happens to a brown person as what does not happen to a white person in terms of the legal outcome. If you live in the United States, you have have to be blind and deaf and dumb not realize there two forms of “justice” – one for rich people/white people and one for the rest of us. Morales’ statement points that out and nothing else. Si no fureras tan vendido, you would realize that and STFU. Me entiendes Mendez?
icecld, I come from the United States, where we have a little thing called due process. Let’s let the terrible musician go through his trial before we toss him back to the frozen wastes where he belongs. As far as “white justice” is concerned in the case of Trayvon Martin, you do realize that Zimmerman is a brown person as well, right? Remember, he played the race card in an attempt to prove that he couldn’t hate minorities, since he’s part of a minority group himself.
It’s not that I’m blind to inequality in this country, Icecld. It’s that the case of a rich, foreign brat hardly compares to a kid that was killed by a neighbor with a hard-on for vigilantism.
David Mendez – you still FAIL to understand the comparison here. Let’s wait for the outcome – I guarantee that little white boy will will walk away with a slap on the wrist. In comparison to what would happen to brown person doing the same thing. George Zimmerman is as white as the inside of a coconut – just has the same outside shade as one too. His father – WHITE judge influenced the judicial system there that made that outcome. Wake up dude.
Billy Dalton YOU need to work on your facts. Trayvon was not expelled from school, he was suspended. If you don’t know the difference, you might as well shut up and go away.
Trayvon was sent to VISIT his father. He was supposed to go back to Miami within ten school days to report back to that school that you incorrectly believe he was expelled from.
I don’t know what your last sentence eludes to since this shooting did not change the crime rate in that neighborhood one iota. That neighborhood didn’t need Zimmerman patrolling around with a gun, it needed better lighting and locks that actually work.
Also, Justin’s crimes are not any more or less excusable than anyone else. Just that people were all too willing to write off his behavior as ‘boys being boys’, but Trayvon does the same thing and he’s suddenly this giant thug when his worst offense on record was smoking weed like 40% of the other teens in the US.
Yeah, somebody called Justin a name… Woooooo! That’s impressive! Well Trayvon’s worst offenses haven’t even touched the levels of bad behavior Justin has devolved into at this point.
I remember that, before all this news concerning Justin being a bad boy became a big deal in the media, I was telling a zimbot that Trayvon hadn’t done anything that Juston Beiber or Miley Cyrus hadn’t done and he called me a liar in the face of pictures all over the internet of Beiber smoking fattys, wearing gold grills and dressing all hippity hop.
Right-wing reactions to Trayvon martin vs Innocent Little Justin remind me of that one episode of WWYD where they have the bicycle thief. Same actions and manner of dress by the actors, totally different responses from the people based on their skin color.
• White bike thief dressed a certain way blatantly stealing a bike
= One person calls the cops, a couple people ask what he’s doing and after he tells them he is stealing the bike, they do nothing.
• Black bike thief dressed a certain way blatantly stealing a bike
= Angry mob blows up 911 and actively do everything under the sun to stop and him.
I’m not saying you shouldn’t stop crooks, but dudes, apparently it wasn’t that serious when the white teen was doing the exact same thing. Way to make yourselves look like total tools.
Then there is the fact that blacks and whites use drugs at the same rate per capita, but blacks make up something like 90% of drug arrests for using drugs. Why is it ok for little Timmy to smoke a fatty, but it is totally intolerable for Tyrone?