Black political leaders, such as Jesse Jackson and Al
Sharpton, have used the death of Trayvon Martin to stir racial
division for political gain,
Carol
Swain, professor of law and political
science
at Vanderbilt University, argued in a Tuesday interview with
The Christian Post.
Most Americans, Swain believes, wanted an investigation
into the Feb. 26 incident in which George Zimmmerman, 28,
shot and killed Martin, 17, while on neighborhood watch.
Martin was unarmed and walking to his father's fiance's
house. Zimmerman claims he was assaulted and shot Martin in
self-defense.
After black political leaders became involved, though, "it
quickly became a racial issue fueling racial divide in
America," Swain said.
Swain is an expert on race relations, immigration,
black leadership
and evangelical politics.
Her newest book is called Be the People: A Call to
Reclaim America's Faith and Promise.
Today's black leaders "don't put forth ideas and solutions
that advance the cause of black people," Swain said. Rather,
they "prefer to heat up the situation."
These black leaders benefit from depicting the incident as
motivated by racism, Swain argued, because they can use it
for voter mobilization. She noted that there have been voter
registration drives at many of the rallies in support of
Martin.
Swain was also disappointed in the way that President Obama
weighed in on the issue. There are other high profile cases,
she noted, that do not get the same amount of attention when
the perpetrators are black. She mentioned an incident last
month in Missouri in which a 13-year-old white boy was set
on fire by two older black males in a racially charged
attack.
"There are so many cases of heinous behavior in our black
communities," Swain said.
The Vanderbilt professor worries that stirring up racial
tension could have some negative consequences.
"We all lose if we have a race war in America. ... We're
playing with fire. Once you stir up the emotion, anger and
hatred, you can't just turn it off when convenient."
Swain believes it is "time for a new racial paradigm in
America for black people. To advance the cause of race, we
need to focus on issues that affect poor people and the
issues that make people poor."
The author said she does not know whether Zimmerman was
motivated by racist attitudes when he followed and shot
Martin, but believes that black communities would be better
served if black leaders focused on the issues causing many
blacks to "head in the wrong direction," such as drugs,
violence and out-of-wedlock births.
The biggest problem facing black communities today, Swain
believes, is they put too much of their trust in government
and not enough trust in God.
"There was a time when we put our trust in God, and now we
put our trust in government. That's to our detriment."
