If you read my post http://www.coreyjf.com/2012/03/filed-under-tmi-im-not-crazy-im-just-a-little-unwell/, you know I have recently begun treatment for some mild depression, anxiety and ADHD issues. While this post is a bit on the morose side, I want to assure my regular readers, I am doing very well. That said, the Travyon Martin killing has been weighing heavily on my mind. So many other writers have far more eloquently summed up this tragedy. But I’m a writer and writing is how I process. So that is what am doing. I can’t pretend to know what it is like growing up as a person of color. I’m extraordinarily privileged. I am a white male, living in an affluent area. I can run in the dark, by myself. I can run though trails, also by myself. If I’m out for a run and a girl happens to complement my butt, I can take it as just that, a compliment, not a threat, or an act of dominance through objectification. I can wear a hoodie, pretty much any time and anywhere I want without fear.
That is not to say I haven’t experience my share of hate based on ignorance and intolerance. As a Jew I have come up against plenty. The difference is, unless I am walking to Shul wearing a Kippah, or give someone my name, I revert to that privileged white male status. But even in that ivory tower, there are parts of me that never forget. There are people that want me hurt or dead because I don’t share their religious beliefs, or that as a Jew I am somehow tainted. Even worse, there are people that might want to hurt of kill my beautiful children for the same sick reasons. My boys are 3 and 5, but I know it won’t be too long before they learn of the hate that is out there. I truly dread and mourn for the day, that I have to explain to them, why our synagogue is lined with boulders.
© 2012, Corey Feldman. All rights reserved.
