Laurence Thomas is a professor in the Department of Philosophy and Department of Political Science of the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

By Laurence Thomas

Whether one agrees with the George Zimmerman verdict or not, what cries out for an explanation is the fact that the nation--blacks in particular--would seem to be more distraught over Zimmerman killing a black teenage youth than the crimes that black people commit against black people on a daily basis. At this point in history, there is so much killing of blacks by blacks that the KKK no longer need to concern itself with committing violence against blacks, since there is staggering success on the part of blacks in that regard. With no other ethnic group in the United States, do we have its members committing so much violence against one another on a daily basis.

Yet, there is no sustained outcry on the part of blacks with regard to black-on-black killings. With both Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, we have a deafening silence when it comes seeing the wrongs that black people commit against one another. Yet, both seem to have the eyes of an eagle in the matter of seeing the wrongs that a white person commits against a black person.

There is an irony here that seems to be lost on everyone. If the only time that the killing of a black person really troubles the black community-at-large is when a white person, rather than a black person, has done the killing, then in effect what is being said is that a black life has more moral value when that life is ended by a white person instead of a black person. And unless I am missing something, that is precisely the point of view that the KKK would hold.

I shall not take sides with regard to the Zimmerman verdict. There is no need to do so. For in view of the deafening silence on the part of blacks throughout America when black people kill black people, the tremendous reaction of anger on the part of so many blacks throughout America over the Zimmerman verdict does not really reflect a genuine commitment to racial equality on the part of black people. Rather, it more accurately expresses the anger that black people have for not having the courage to take themselves in general far more seriously. And white people who join black people here merely contribute to the horrendous self-deception in this regard that is so pervasive in the black community.

For if we take ourselves seriously, either individually or as a group, then what most matters is what we do ourselves.