Trayvon Martin was not an end, he was a beginning to an end. His death was a useful tool at a specific moment in time. The actual goal was established long before George and Trayvon encountered each other.
Affirmative Action had run its natural course. Doors had opened and what began as an extension of the Civil Rights movement was no longer a useful tool for social engineering.
Equality in opportunity (Affirmative Action) had long been established. What was now needed was a progressive evolution to equality in outcome; enter “Disparate Impact” to take its place.
The entire construct of all the various alliances which sought benefit from using the Trayvon Martin shooting had one thing in common – the goal of social justice through equal outcomes. Zimmerman himself was irrelevant, merely a face/name to replace the worn out mantra of “the man”.
In the 60’s the Civil Rights Act was established to legislate equal opportunity. In the 70’s and 80’s Affirmative Action, or broadly “quota systems”, were put into place to leverage a social-equity in organizational entry. Through the 90’s and early part of the 21st century various studies were conducted to insure the entry opportunity was fundamentally well established. The entry was there, but for the social scientists the problem shifted to the “outcomes”. The outcomes were simply not matching the opportunities. (more…)
