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4:24am July 14, 2013

This is why it’s important to remember that adolescent is not adult.

Because children of color (especially boys) and poor children, among others, are already expected to be adults the moment they hit adolescence, if not sooner.

A thirteen year old black boy is considered an adult in a racist society. And racists want to consider Trayvon Martin an adult.

And teenagers are still children. Children approaching adulthood, but children. And it’s especially important to remember that when terrible things are done to them in the name of them being more adult than they are.

I have more to say on the topic, but out of respect to Trayvon and other boys that get killed for being black, I’ll keep it to another post, if I say it at all.

It’s just struck me in the posts remembering him. That most emphasize he was only a child, for good reason. Because to racists, black boys are always adults. And to claim adolescents aren’t children, just further takes childhood away from people forced to lose it too young in the eyes of a fucked up society. And children end up dying for this idea.

It may be a weird thing to comment on, but weird things go through your head when you’re furious at the world.