The Trayvon Martin "Blackface" Halloween Costume

If you have not yet seen the photos I'm sure you will very soon and so I'm not even going to re-post them. I will however comment on the most infamous post by a young female adult living in Florida by the name of "KT Cimeno" (Caitlin Cimeno) who's originally from Oak Bluffs, MA (Martha's Vineyard). She posted a "nice" and happy photo of two young white men dressed up in costume this past weekend mocking the killing of Trayvon Martin. The one white person portraying Trayvon was sporting very dark shoe polish styled "Blackface" with a hoodie on and a blood stain on his chest. The other man (who turned out to be her brother) was dressed as George Zimmerman with a "neighborhood watch" tee, gleefully pointing his finger like a gun at "Trayvon's" head with the caption by Cimeno reading "Happy Halloween from Trayvon and Zimmerman."

(side note: turns out the guy dressed as Trayvon is 25 yrs old and was arrested previously for auto theft)

This sort of ignorance and stupidity, although temporarily shocking, should come as no surprise to us. The idea that we live in a Post-Racial society is one of the bigger lies in current existence in America and that hard truth once again becomes crystal clear at moments like this.

But, this was not even Ms. Cimeno's most ignorant and hateful Facebook post. She had previously in August posted a photo of a young black girl wearing a "Black Girls Rock" tee and attacked the little girl saying "your mommy lied to you." I have posted that photo because I think it is more important than the Trayvon Halloween image in that it shows what sort of person(s) we are dealing with. This is not your average accidental racist or a person with some basic ignorant prejudices. This is a full-fledged, very hateful, very racist, and very ignorant young woman.

While the first reaction to such hatred might be to fire back with verbal attacks and put-downs, that's certainly not the most effective way to deal with this sort of thing. I have heard that the girl was fired from her job due to the negative publicity and complaints from people all around the country (much of this being exposed on Twitter -primarily via #BlackTwitter and #KTCimeno). She should of course face the consequences of her actions but ultimately what will be learned by any of this? She herself may never learn, and may simply become more isolated, more hateful, and more dangerously racist, which sadly is a missed opportunity if that's what ends up happening.

More importantly though, this is a time for ourselves to learn a lesson or at least briefly remind ourselves of who we are and what we stand for. I'm sure many of us, regardless of skin color, just recently enjoyed the company or entertainment of American's of all races over this past weekend. Whether it was through the diversity of a Halloween party, enjoying the musical talents responsible for creating our favorite songs, or the athletic exploits of our favorite sports teams... We are a melting pot of diversity in America whether we choose to embrace that fact or not. You might be the "whitest white person" or the "blackest black person," but most likely you are somewhere in between. Either way we are all citizens, neighbors, and human beings, and I think its important that we collectively face this sort of vile hatred and stupidity head on, and recognize it for its blatant ignorance, and check with ourselves to make sure that we do not in any way support or perpetuate such behavior.

There's always going to be some extremely ignorant KT Cimeno's running around in this world but our job is to make sure that such behavior is not at all accepted or tolerated, and that we do not personally carry or endorse any similar prejudices, even if on a more minor level. Like, the "my friend is black, black joke, Haha thing" is generally not that cool either in most cases (but maybe you should talk about that with your friend first before making the comment next time!?). So yes, if there's a teachable moment that presents itself with such people, and you have that opportunity or ability to drop some knowledge, go for it. However the most important thing we can do is simply take a basic stand and let everyone around you know that you don't stand for stupid shit like this. That should be the American thing to do.