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Andrea Mays, a Ph.D. student studying American studies in her final year at UNM, said in a speech Sunday afternoon that her brother was shot and killed in the streets of Chicago two years ago.
Police were able to arrest suspects, but Mays said justice was not served.
“The three young men who rained those bullets at him were caught, were tried, were jailed,” she said. “As I sat at the arraignment, I looked at their faces. Not so different from his. When the D.A. told me, ‘Ma’am, we’ll get justice for your brother. I’m going to ask for the death penalty,’ I was not comfortable. It seems like a rather odd equation that the lives of three young black men in exchange for the life of my young black brother should somehow be justice.”
Then, as a man held a sign that read “Justice for Trayvon” beside her, Mays read a poem about her brother’s death she wrote immediately after. It was titled “Post-Racist Captivity.”
Mays attended a rally at the Albuquerque Civic Plaza organized by local Albuquerque residents to protest a Florida jury’s verdict acquitting George Zimmerman, the Florida man who shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012.
The jury made the wrong decision, Mays said.
“What happened yesterday was not even an equation,” she said. “Nobody was accountable. Trayvon Martin’s death, in the eyes of many Americans, is a blameless crime.”
Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch coordinator, shot Martin, an African American, in Sanford, Fla. on Feb. 26, 2012. Zimmerman claimed that Martin attacked him and that he shot Martin in self-defense. Police later found that Martin, who was wearing a hoodie and carrying a bottle of iced tea and Skittles, was unarmed.
In the midst of allegations of racist motivations, the multi-racial Hispanic Zimmerman was tried for second-degree murder and manslaughter. He was found not guilty on both charges Saturday.
Local activist Brenda Rodriguez, one of the organizers of the rally, said no particular organization sponsored the event. She said she got together with other local activists on Saturday and publicized the event through social media that night.
“I created the Facebook event last night at midnight,” she said Sunday. “I actually expected myself and 20 people in my circle of friends to just get together. I was kind of overwhelmed. I woke up this morning and I was like 140 people are going to come to this event.”
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About 200 people attended the event.
Rodriguez said the event reflects the Albuquerque community’s commitment to equality and against discrimination in the country.
“Albuquerque folks are part of this and we do have a say in this,” she said. “I’m really proud that Albuquerque is in the list of cities that are having a national day of action. We’re saying that this is not fair and we are not going to take it.”
During the event, activists delivered speeches and poems to the audience who were carrying placards in the rain. A vigil that featured musical performances followed.
Bahati Ansari, a local community organizer who attended the event, said Martin’s death was a racist incident. She said the incident affected her personally.
“Trayvon’s death opened up a lot of feelings for me,” she said. “I do have sons. I worry about that, and the conditions of how people feel about me as an African American. Trayvon went to a store, got him some iced tea and went to his own community, and someone came out of the car and attacked him. That’s really incredible how somebody could get away with it.”
Racism still exists today, Ansari said.
“It’s really, really dangerous when it’s institutional — when institutions do not protect me because of my skin color,” she said. “Zimmerman was protected. We’re always put in the position to try to prove that it is racism. It’s all over the place.”
Ansari advises the Albuquerque community to get involved to avoid a similar incident in the city. She said communities need to strengthen themselves to avoid violence.
Albuquerque resident Erin Hansbrough said she attended the event in support of Martin. Hansbrough said that “racist” killings also happen in Albuquerque, and that she stands against them.
“Albuquerque’s police department has a very unfortunate long-standing history of harassing and killing,” she said. “People with so-called security positions are using their positions to perpetuate violence. APD functions … as the operating arm of a racist system.”
Hansbrough urged the Albuquerque community, especially white people, to rally against racism.
“White people, myself included, it’s safer for us to go out and stand up,” she said. “We are not targeted by police the way Trayvon Martin was. We need to take advantage of this privilege to say we are not going to continue this.”
Rodriguez said she does not expect Florida courts to reverse their verdict of Zimmerman’s case. Still, she said she hopes the protest will start dialogue about modern racism in the state and in the country.
“This was organized at midnight, and it escalated,” she said. “What could happen if we sat down and talked about what we wanted to do?”
But Ansari said she is optimistic justice will soon rest over Martin’s death.
“I think that the Department of Justice is going to pick it up because people are putting a lot of pressure on them right now,” she said. “I am optimistic about it. I gotta be.”
