George Zimmerman – Still a Racist

There are two things that make me embarrassed to be an American: healthcare and the state of Florida. There are actually a few more things but were I to list them all out I’d go over my word count and get fired.

Anyway, the state of Florida, a proverbial blemish on the rest of the country, has failed all of us once again by allowing a new slop of bullshit into the news cycle. But it’s got multiple layers which makes it more of a bullshit cake, the worst kind of cake one can consume after a fruitcake.

The base layer of the cake starts with Andy Hallinan. Hallinan is a “businessman” who owns his own store, very “American Dream” right? The name of that store is Florida Gun Supply. Hallinan who loves his store and loves his guns then decides to declare his store a “Muslim-free zone”. Hallinan refuses to service any Muslim clientele because “the core tenets of [the Islamic faith] is to establish a one-world order and do so by violent acts.”

The second layer of our cake is made from a healthy heaping of George Zimmerman also known as the man who murdered Trayvon Martin fueled by racism, and then was acquitted for the crime. Zimmerman, who felt bad that Hallinan was being sued by the Counsel on American-Islamic Relations, teamed up with the gun store owner to raise funds for the upcoming legal battles. How are they raising funds? Art.

Zimmerman painted the above version of the Confederate flag to sell to Hallinan’s customers and anyone else who supports the cause. On the flag we can see the slogan, “The second protects our first.” This is Zimmerman’s grand statement that the second amendment — the right to bear arms — protects the first amendment. Guns protect speech. Violence protects talking. Good job Florida.

Now we’re on to the cake’s top layer; Florida’s response to this mess. After originally claiming his shop a “Muslim-free zone”, Hallinan back pedaled and invited a member of CAIR to learn to shoot at his store. He then canceled that meeting citing that he had learned CAIR was deeply rooted in terrorism. In the midst of all this blatant discrimination the people of Inverness, Florida where the store is located have hosted only one meager protest against the shop. The protest wasn’t even about defending Muslim clientele, it was a protest about showing Inverness as a place where people can coexist. They’re worried about their image. No one cares that two bigots have teamed up to make a super duo of hatred.

And to whom is this hatred aimed? That’s literally the icing on the cake. Anti-Black sentiment in this country is at a frightening high and right there standing next to it, just as tall, is anti-Muslim sentiment. Zimmerman is taking the battle flag of the South, a long time symbol of Black oppression and refurbishing it for the purpose of Muslim fear mongering.

The #BlackLivesMatter contingent has been tireless in their destruction of the Confederate flag and yet that red, white, and blue monstrosity is rearing its ugly head over a different group. What the Muslim contingent fails to realize sometimes is that BLM is a reflection of the ideals of the Muslim struggle. We have all been fighting the battle for our humanity separately when we should have been glued together the entire time.

Day after day it’s becoming more and more dangerous to be Black in America or to be Muslim in America. The same can be said for other parts of the world. Black lives and Muslim lives are at risk globally where things like darkened skin and religion are essentially targets of wrong minded people like George Zimmerman and Andy Hallinan.

How long are we going to stand on the side lines and say, that’s not my problem? 

More importantly, how long are we going to allow Florida to remain in the Union? Can’t we sell it back to Spain or something?

__

Image: Flickr