First I want to reply to a post from the first thread. I'm too tired to go back and look for it, though. It had to do with wondering why Trayvon's father called the police to see if he'd been arrested, when he didn't come home.
Of course his father checked to see if he was arrested. I think it's difficult for a lot of white folks to understand the reality of young black males. It became clear to me, while I was still a school girl, many years ago.
As a white girl from the 'right side of the tracks' growing up in the South, I never, ever worried that my actions might cause me to get into legal trouble. Never. And I was right. I was free to go about my day, doing pretty much what I damned well pleased, anywhere I wanted to do it.
In junior high school and high school, my best friend was a black kid that I was in school with. We hung out, went to movies, went to parties, etc. He was also from the right side of the tracks, but, that made no difference. He had to be cautious in everything he did. There was always the very real fear that he would get arrested for minor kid stuff, or assaulted for simply being with me.
He finally brought me to understand why his mother was so upset about our friendship. At first, I thought she was racist. In fact, she was terrified that her very nice, respectful, straight laced, straight A student, son would be arrested or harmed by hanging out with 'that white girl' in the 'white places.'
This is the reality. Yes, thank goodness, it is changing, but, it is not changed. I think it was a very natural and sensible call for his father to make.
ETA: Secondly, I want to reply to the comments about Trayvon ducking onto someone's porch to get out of the rain. This is a neighborhood of condos, right? In my experience, condos don't tend to have a lot of distance between the sidewalk and the porch/door. My mom lives in a condo and I can move from the sidewalk to the shelter of her front porch in a couple sideways steps. It's not like Trayvon had to travel down a driveway to get onto a porch. Step to the side, slip on the hood, decide to make his way home. IMO. (if we are not talking about condos, let me know. It's been hard to keep up
)