Trayvon Martin and the Forty Acres

On Tuesday a rally to recognize the Sanford, Florida murder of Trayvon Martin and the current freedom of his confirmed killer George Zimmerman was held on the South End of the Capitol grounds here in Austin, Texas.  This collegiette was present as many other Longhorns and Austin residents spanning a wide range of age and ethnicity stood in silent solidarity.  This case has been a hot-button issue for weeks spurring rallies across the nation and a “Do I Look Suspicious?” campaign in which a wide array of people (especially college students) are taking part through social media.   Her Campus Texas was there to grab a few quotes from rally attendees.  

Shondra Patterson, Economics Senior: I came out because I feel like there’s not that much as a minority that we can do [so] whenever there’s something that comes along like this where all different races and all types of people are coming along to voice their opinion in one accord, you have to come out and show your support because if you don’t no one will.  If we don’t step up as minorities who’s going to step up for us? 

Elbia Mendoza, Austin Resident: I’m really here more in support of the family–I can’t imagine–all families really that this has happened to.  We need to make a large statement, a bold statement…find some other ways to make some changes to call attention to the continuous killings and continuous murders that happen. [We are] Waiting for the system to remedy it or find some sort of justice but it keeps showing over and over again that it doesn’t, it continues to happen.  I’m just here in solidarity to support the family, to just be here, to just think of Trayvon–I didn’t know him–and thinking of what this means and what this must mean for his family, and what it means for the community. 

HC Texas: How did you go about organizing the rally?

Rudy Malveaux, Rally Organizer: Facebook phenomenon.  All of this was done on Facebook.  We decided to do it because we noticed everybody was writing about it, tweeting about it, and posting or whatever, and there needed to be a place where we could all come together and kind of, I guess you would say commiserate, but at the same time celebrate: The commiseration’s obviously the death of another black male but the other side of it, the happier side, is that this is the first time I’ve ever seen people from all races, backgrounds, you know economic background or whatever, and they’re all out here in the name of love and justice.  I’m really kind of amazed again, with the power of Facebook combined with people’s love and passion for justice.  It’s amazing. 

Here on the Forty Acres, a political cartoon run on the same day as the rally in the Opinion section of UT student newspaper The Daily Texan sparked some serious controversy (it even landed on the mega popular website Gawker  as “Most Racist Trayvon Martin Cartoon Contest” winner) and added to the dialogue of the rally in which so many students took part.  After a series of released statements from the paper and a Wednesday afternoon protest of the Texan took place in the communications plaza by students, faculty and staff, an apology was issued both online and in print from the editorial board and the cartoonist, Stephanie Eisner, was reported as no longer working for the Texan.  

A little dialogue from the protest: 

Viviana Aldous, Editor-in-Chief of The Daily Texan: We are sorry, first that we offended people that’s never our intention… and second, that there was an editorial oversight that allowed the cartoon to run.  

Protestor: So you yourself saw this?

VA: Yes there were five of us who saw it. 

Protestor: I’m trying to think…when you saw this, what exactly did you think was going to happen? You thought this was okay, because clearly you gave the go-ahead.

VA: Honestly, I certainly didn’t anticipate this and again, that’s my lack of judgement.  

Editorial Board Member: We all talked about it as a group, and I think that we approached it from the angle of looking at the overall message…

VA: …That was critical of the media’s portrayal of the case.  That’s how we interpreted it and that’s an example of our editorial oversight.