Fifty years ago Dr. Martin Luther King showed us something timeless: although anger against racism is clearly justified, that anger is not part of the solution. Tomorrow hundreds of thousands will march in Washington DC, and this throng of all races will feel an immensely powerful solidarity, not fueled by anger but by the antithesis of that: love and acceptance.
There are tens of millions of us that would love to share directly in that elation. And I’m here to tell you that, to a lesser extent, we all can any time. Here’s how:
Stand on a street corner and hold a 20” x 30” sign at waist level saying "Honk Twice for Trayvon" and below that, in smaller text, "Honk Twice to Stand Against Racism."
The goal of Dr. King’s march was to attract media attention, to be heard. When we shift our goal from catching the media’s eye to connecting with as many eyes as possible, we strip away the barriers of time, cost, and travel. We can be on any street corner; close to home, close to work, or close to downtown commute traffic when the numbers of eyes are greatest.
I live close to San Francisco, so let’s use that city for an example. Between progressive groups and Occupy factions -- and their established infrastructure -- it’s not hard to put together a group of a thousand people. But instead of putting everyone all together in one geographic space, what if these groups take the “snowflake activism” approach and sprinkle folks randomly in all of the city’s districts? They can distribute them in groups of one to three people with the “Honk Twice for Trayvon” sign always the most prominent one. So downtown, the Mission, the Haight, Fisherman’s Wharf, the Avenues, the Tinderloin, Pacific Heights, the Marina, Chinatown; everywhere people drive, they will encounter a group with this sign. With those thousand people, there will be hundreds of unifying outposts that every person in every car will see. And if people choose not to honk, that hesitation or defiance will identify the dark spot on their souls.
The “Honk Twice for Trayvon” sign may be an exceedingly simple concept, but the reality is that every single sign encountered provides an opportunity for a tiny blast of tomorrow’s solidarity. Imagine getting in your car and hearing these little beep beeps everywhere and wondering why. Then you encounter your first sign and you know. And every time you hear that sound it will fill you with joy, knowing that the tidal wave of public opinion is eroding racism.
I hope this becomes a weekly occurrence, what I like to call Two Toot Tuesdays (although that’s a little hokey, Two Honk Tuesdays would probably be better received). In North Carolina they’ve established Moral Mondays as a weekday to stand against the oppressive tea party agenda aimed at disenfranchising voters, stomping on women’s rights, and hollowing out the middle class. I hope that the same folks there take to the streets on Tuesdays as well for Trayvon.
Why? Because racism is ingrained throughout the Republican agenda through voter suppression, anti-union actions, and by choking school and SNAP funding. The divisionism of racism is a cornerstone of how the GOP solidifies their power. If they could get away with it, there would be a Billionaires For Racism Alliance because billionaire dollars use racism to keep their taxes and corporate oversight low and their profits high.
And by us being on the streets with “Honk Twice for Trayvon” signs, we light the fuse on that source of billionaire power. Whether we hold the signs or provide the happy honks, we share a moment of solidarity that brightens our day, gives us hope for a less oppressive tomorrow, and reinforces the power that individuals have against the 1% whose greed is killing our planet and fostering hate for political gain.
Let’s Stand Strong for Trayvon. It’s not so much the individual that we celebrate, it is his unintended martyrdom that we thank him for. Trayvon was a young African American who was killed only because of his race, a future taken by fear inflamed by right-wing media. He now personifies the dynamics of racism, and if that focus can be used to pierce the balloon and move our species forward, then 50 years from now we’ll still be thanking him.