Pursuing Trayvon Martin - Historical Contexts and Contemporary Manifestations of Racial Dynamics (Paperback)

On February 26, 2012, seventeen-year-old African American male Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a twenty-eight-year-old white Hispanic American male in Sanford, Florida. Zimmerman killed Martin in a gated community. Pursuing Trayvon Martin: Historical Contexts and Contemporary Manifestations of Racial Dynamics, featuring a new preface by editor Janine Jones, examines the societal conditions that powered the shooting and the ramifications of the now infamous affair for race relations and violence in America.Pursuing Trayvon Martin addresses issues across various thematic domains that are both broad and relevant: how the context of Trayvon Martin's killing can be compared to the historical legacy of racism in the cases of Emmett Till and Rodney King; how contemporary conceptions, perceptions, and treatment of black bodies from the historical perspective of white supremacy in the United States continue to function or not function in our contemporary moment; how we ought to think about the political and legal implications of the Trayvon Martin case within the context of the politics and laws that have historically informed and shaped black people's lives; how we should think critically about the historical exclusion of black bodies in public space and the ramifications for the ways in which black people must navigate public space today; and, finally, how we should think about the ways in which the historical negative gendering of black girls and boys, black men and women, with respect to their white counterparts, in a white supremacist society, have impacted various intersections of race and gender in our contemporary setting.Pursuing Trayvon Martin is an important read for scholars in the fields of philosophy, criminal justice, history, critical race theory, political science, critical philosophies of race, gender studies, sociology, rhetorical studies, and for anyone hungry for critical ways of thinking about the Trayvon Martin case.