Dear DMX: No, don’t do it; please don’t do it (Drake voice).
Today is Trayvon Martin’s birthday.
He would have been 19 years old, had George Zimmerman not executed him in cold blood.
Trayvon Martin is far from forgotten–but unfortunately so is Zimmerman, who continues to resist his inevitable descent into obscurity by any means necessary.
On a day when we should be celebrating Trayvon’s life, taken far too soon, we are instead discussing Zimmerman’s latest exploits, as Trayvon’s murderer relentlessly trolls America, taunting the Martin family, prosecutors, the press, and the general public.
In an unprecedented move that’s both an affront to the justice system and a testament to the travesty that is American pop culture, a “celebrity” boxing match has been confirmed between Zimmerman and DMX–worse yet, Americans will probably pay big bucks to see it.
Seriously, America? We have to stop this. This cannot happen.
Zimmerman should have been stopped in his tracks a long time ago, but the man’s track record puts John Gotti–the Teflon Don–to shame. I hesitate in drawing this comparison, because Zimmerman, ever the narcissist and pseudo celebrity, would probably be delighted.
I thought Zimmerman’s audacious attention whoring was at its peak when he was selling paintings for six figure sums on eBay, but like Meek Mill said, there’s levels to this sh*t. Zimmerman is clearly hell bent on taking his penchant for being a horrible human being to new heights.
Which is exactly why DMX can’t lend his celebrity to what should be a decidedly lost cause.
Zimmerman’s ridiculous request–to fight in a “celebrity” boxing match–should have fallen upon deaf ears and been dismissed as the psychotic delusions of a pseudo celebrity. He shouldn’t have elicited nary a response, let alone one from hip hop cultural icons such as The Game and DMX.
It should have been like MIMS trying to diss Jay Z–unworthy of a response, lest the delusions of grandeur persist.
Like, we can’t hear you up here, boo. Your name is what? And I know you from where? Elementary school? I don’t know you, man!
Like Richard Sherman and many others before him have said, “A lion doesn’t care about the opinion of sheep.”
Except George Zimmerman knew he’d get a response from someone, because people are so emotionally invested in the case. He was banking on that and quickly capitalized off of it. He’s using our emotions against us, playing on the American public’s longing to see justice, meanwhile laughing the entire way to the bank.
He knew the chance to give him a taste of the justice he’d thus far managed to thwart would be well received, and it was–over 15,000 people applied for the chance to beat the brakes off Zimmerman.
One was chosen: DMX.
I understand every single one of those 15,000 applicants and their overwhelming urge to knock Zimmerman’s smirk right off his face, beating him into a bloody pulp and disfiguring his face so horribly that even his own mother wouldn’t recognize him, making him identifiable only through dental records. I understand the rage, the anger, and the sadness people felt when Zimmerman was acquitted.
That blinding rage will render us a nation of fools–and potentially net Zimmerman a nice little nest egg–and worse yet, more opportunities.
We still haven’t gotten rid of the kultural kancer that is Kim Kardashian and it looks like we’re going to be stuck with Justin Bieber a while longer too; the last thing we need is to continue being assaulted with a barrage of George Zimmerman headlines.
Let him die off all ready; let him thirst and starve for attention, because that’s what would kill him the most–to fade away back into his struggling existence of irrelevance and oblivion.
You give a dog any type of table scrap and it”ll start begging for food and handouts all the time. George Zimmerman is no different.
The question is, will we allow him to continue to exploit and re-victimize Trayvon and the Martin family every chance he gets?
We simply cannot.
DMX, while I know you want to smash Zimmerman’s face in, you can’t. Even if you beat him down within inches of his life, he’s still prospering and he’s using your name to do it. There will still be something in it for him or else he wouldn’t be doing it.
No ass beating in the world is worth seeing him continue to come up for being a murderer.
Because let’s face it–George Zimmerman would have never made six figures in a year in his whole lifetime if it wasn’t for Trayvon Martin. He never would have sold the first painting in his life if it wasn’t for the fact he’s a murderer. He didn’t sell the painting for six figures because it was good; he sold it because of his notoriety as a murderer. He couldn’t make it as a cop. And despite his MMA training, he obviously was no good at that either if he had to murder an unarmed kid because he was supposedly getting his ass kicked and feared for his life.
That’s gotta be a hard pill to swallow–that your whole existence is relevant because of someone you looked down upon and hated; that relevancy was unachievable on your own. Without this new-found relevancy, you’d have continued to be exactly what you are: An “ain’t shit” human being.
Any kind of “success” that George Zimmerman sees will never be on the strength of his own talents or merits. It will always come secondary to him being a murderer; he’ll always owe these new-found opportunities that he seems to enjoy so much to Trayvon Martin.
Trayvon Martin–because of Zimmerman–is no longer with us to have any kind of opportunities of his own.
As much as it is in our power to do so, we need to deny Zimmerman the same opportunities that he denied Trayvon Martin.
We cannot allow Zimmerman to continue to think he should be afforded the privileges and accesses a celebrity is afforded.
I hope that DMX realizes he’s being baited and used and wants no part of it. I hope that any other celebrity who steps up to take his place comes to the same conclusion.
Remember that every dollar you spend casts a vote for the kind of world you want to live in. Don’t give Zimmerman a chance to profit off of being a murderer any longer. If this boxing match does happen, boycott it. Don’t buy tickets, don’t pay per view. If it flops, the likelihood of him being able to pull such a stunt in the future will be greatly diminished.
Zimmerman is no longer on trial anymore; now it’s us who stands trial: Are we really going to play a role in helping George Zimmerman become a celebrity because he’s a murderer?
The jury is still out on this one, but here’s the closing argument: We’ve gotta stop making stupid people famous.
April Dawn (@scarlettsinatra)
