Last Film of Courageous People Series

In Kingian Nonviolence Conflict Reconciliation, we talked about the nonviolence movement in the United States and the teachings of Martin Luther King.

Those who participated in KNCR as well as the SALD Community are all invited to join us as we look at nonviolent movements from across the globe. This series is titled, "Courageous People".

We will now look at the nonviolent movement and resistance that fought segregation in Nashville.


Feel free to bring lunch! This is open to all UC students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community leaders!

                                                  Tuesday, August 5th, 12pm- 1:30pm
                                                       6th Floor Steger Student Life

Lessons Learned: Questions about Social Justice Education Career Paths

I am occasionally asked about how one gets involved in Social Justice Education as a career path. Let me say that I love being asked this question because I feel that I have positively impacted someone's potential career choice.

Though I am grateful, I struggle because I often don't have an answer. Personally, I stayed involved with organizations that supported social justice values. This helped me better understand the field of Social Justice Education. Through participating in conferences like the Social Justice Training Institute or Tristate Diversity Conference and programs like RAPP here at UC I feel I have a better understanding of where my career path lies.

I resolve that I will have a better answer the next time I am asked this question through reflection and I hope that it happens again and again!

Lessons Learned is a RAPP Blog initiative intended for folks who hold formal leadership positions in RAPP programs to share what they're learning through their process

Lessons Learned: Learn Outside the Circle

During ARJ 2013, I learned how good it can be to learn once the sessions are over. The "parking lot" is a section of ARJ in which participants write down topics they want to discuss or learn more about. After session one night, I decided to lead a discussion from the parking lot and majority chose to discuss Trayvon Martin and the US Judicial System. I was shocked that 15+ people stayed to have this conversation outside of the session activities when they could have been sleep or exploring Grailville. I think it goes to show that when people are eager to learn and dialogue, we should all actively listen and participate in each other's growth!

Lessons Learned is a RAPP Blog initiative intended for folks who hold formal leadership positions in RAPP programs to share what they're learning through their process

U of Iowa Will Ask

From Inside Higher Ed:

U. of Iowa Will Ask

December 12, 2012 - 3:00am 

By Scott Jaschik

 

The University of Iowa is today announcing the addition of an optional question on sexual orientation, and a transgender choice under gender, as part of an effort to make its undergraduate application one that sends a welcoming signal to all students -- and to gather information about the institution's success at attracting and retaining students who aren't straight.

To date, only Elmhurst College has such questions on an undergraduate application (although some colleges include gay/straight alliances among the list of student groups in which a prospective applicant may express interest). But Iowa will be the first public institution to add the question to its application about student identity, not interest. While colleges routinely ask about applicants' racial and ethnic background, among other topics, they have until now shied away from asking about sexual orientation, even as some gay rights advocates have pushed them to do so. (One private graduate school, the Adler School of Professional Psychology, asks applicants “Would you consider yourself a member of the LGBTQ -- lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, queer -- community?”)

Advocates see Iowa's move as significant, given that it is a flagship university. "This is a huge deal in that it shows any campus that it can do the same thing," said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Campus Pride, which promotes the interests of gay and lesbian students in the college admissions process and once enrolled.

2011 National School Climate Survey: LGBT Youth Face Pervasive, But Decreasing Levels of Harassment

From GLSEN:

NEW YORK - The Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) today releasedThe 2011 National School Climate Survey, the only national study that for over a decade has consistently examined the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) students in America's  schools. The 2011 survey found for the first time both decreased levels of biased language and victimization and increased levels of student access to LGBT-related school resources and support.

The 2011 survey demonstrates a continued decline in anti-LGBT language over the years, and for the first time the 2011 survey shows a significant decrease in victimization based on sexual orientation. The survey has also consistently indicated that a safer school climate directly relates to the availability of LGBT school-based resources and support, including Gay-Straight Alliances, inclusive curriculum, supportive school staff and comprehensive anti-bullying policies. The 2011 survey had 8,584 student respondents from all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

"GLSEN has worked tirelessly for more than two decades to address endemic bias and violence directed at LGBT students in our schools," said GLSEN's Executive Director Dr. Eliza Byard. "With this report, we are beginning to be able to discern real impact of our efforts. Much work remains to be done to turn promising change into a concrete, sustainable reality, but those schools and districts that are taking action are beginning to make a real difference in improving the lives of students and providing better educational opportunity for all."

Despite signs of progress, the survey found that the majority of LGBT students are faced with many obstacles in school affecting their academic performance and personal well-being. Results indicated that 8 out of 10 LGBT students (81.9%) experienced harassment at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation, three fifths (63.5%) felt unsafe at school because of their sexual orientation and nearly a third (29.8%) skipped a day of school in the past month because of safety concerns.

"The 2011 survey marks a possible turning point in the school experiences of LGBT youth," said Dr. Joseph Kosciw, GLSEN's Senior Director of Research and Strategic Initiatives. "But an alarming number of LGBT youth still face barriers that inhibit their ability to receive an education. And although we have seen an increase in school supports that can improve school climate for these youth, many of these young people reported being unable to access these supports in their schools."

Key Findings of the 2011 National School Climate Survey

Hostile School Climate and its Effects on Educational Outcomes and Psychological Well-Being

From Teaching Tolerance:

Weighing In - Healthy at Any Size?

Celebrities like singer Jennifer Hudson and actress Kirstie Alley parade their drastic weight loss in commercials and magazine articles. Popular TV shows like The Biggest Loser promote fast, extreme weight loss. And fat jokes cut across race, ethnicity and gender lines to provide easy laughs for comedians at the expense of the heavyset.

Illustration by George Bates

Society is more fatphobic than ever before, with subtle and overt messages all around us that not only is fat bad, but so are fat people. It’s easy for overweight children to feel singled out and shamed about their body size, at home and at school. Experts say children can easily interpret even the well-intentioned “war on childhood obesity,” meant to promote health, to mean a war on their bodies and on them.

“The number of obese kids has increased, so negativity has increased,” says Reginald Washington, the chief medical officer at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children and a leader in the fight against childhood obesity. “It is true that if you are obese you are discriminated against in schools and the workplace, and even in your home. Physical education teachers see them as lazy and are harder on them in class. Studies have shown this.”

Size-based stigma stems in large part from the myth that being fat is a result of a lack of self-control and willpower, says Rebecca Puhl, a psychologist and coordinator at Yale’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity. “There are prevailing public perceptions about the causes of obesity, like the widespread belief that obesity is simply an issue of laziness,” Puhl says. “This perception drastically oversimplifies the complex causes—societal and biological—of obesity.”

Bullies Leave ScarsLamar Richardson (not his real name), 25, of Greenville, N.C., remembers being humiliated in his sixth-grade physical education class when the coach jokingly suggested he wear a training bra. Richardson can still hear the laughter of his classmates.

Diversity's Evidences: An Essay on the Significance of Diversity in the Classroom

From Inside Higher Ed:

 

Diversity’s Evidences

July 16, 2012 - 3:00am

By Len Niehoff 

 

This fall, the United States Supreme Court will consider the case of Fisher v. University of Texas, which asks whether that university’s use of affirmative action in admissions passes constitutional muster. I served on the legal team that defended the University of Michigan Law School admissions policy in Grutter v. Bollinger, where the Supreme Court held that fostering a racially diverse student body is a compelling state interest that colleges and universities can pursue in a narrowly tailored way. I believed that the Court correctly decided Grutter when I was helping to litigate the case, but I believe it even more firmly in my newer role as a law school faculty member.

For a number of technical reasons, it seems unlikely that the Supreme Court will treat Fisher as an occasion to revisit Grutter. If the Court does do so, however, then it should let Grutter stand. The reason is simple: The primary reason to leave Grutter alone is that the Court there got it exactly right.

Grutter recognized that having a diverse student body serves a variety of important educational objectives. One of those objectives can be described syllogistically: personal characteristics help determine our experiences; our experiences inform our thoughts and perspectives; therefore, having students with a wide array of personal qualities helps enrich the educational environment by infusing it with a rich variety of ideas and points of view. Of course, a diverse student body serves other educational goals as well, for example, by challenging stereotypes and building cross-cultural understanding. But the heart of the Grutter decision rests on an understanding of the unique value of learning in an environment where we encounter people whose characteristics, experiences, and perspectives differ from our own.

For many years, I have seen the benefits of having a diverse student body in one of the courses I teach — Legal Ethics. This seems unremarkable in light of the fact that the discussion of ethical matters tends to draw out the philosophical, religious, cultural, and experiential differences among the participants. It is therefore unsurprising that I have witnessed many lively exchanges in that class between students who brought dramatically contrasting orientations to the questions at hand.

Expanding Age Gap between Whites and Minorities May Increase U.S. Racial Divide

Linked through Diverse Issues in Higher Education:

Experts: Expanding Age Gap between Whites and Minorities May Increase U.S. Racial Divide
by Teresa Wiltz, America’s Wire , July 10, 2012


WASHINGTON – A generation gap in several states between older Whites and younger Latinos and African-Americans has race relations experts concerned that age differences in the population are influencing spending and public policy in areas such as education, transportation, immigration and infrastructure.

As the United States rapidly advances toward having a majority-minority population, Whites continue to grow older, while non-Whites are increasingly younger. Evidence is mounting that what has been considered a racial divide in the country is also crystallizing into a generational divide.

Newly-released U.S. Census data demonstrate a rapidly widening racial age gap. The median age for white Americans is 41, but is 32 for Blacks, 31.6 for Asians and 27 for Latinos. Across the country, 80 percent of senior citizens are White, while nearly half of the nation’s youth are of color. Such significant age disparities, some experts on race relations say, may be having far-reaching implications on resources invested in programs and areas benefiting younger generations.

“Where the old don’t see themselves reflected in the young, there’s less investment in the future,” says Dr. Manuel Pastor, a professor of geography and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California where he directs the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and co-directs the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration.

“Our racial divide has become a generational divide,” Pastor says. “There’s this image of an older generation drawing up the drawbridge just as the younger generation is coming of age in America.”

More importantly, data show that states with a larger gap between median ages of Whites and people of color tend to make fewer investments in social programs that once benefited older generations that were predominantly White, according to a new research project by PERE in conjunction with PolicyLink, a national research and advocacy organization based in Oakland, Calif.

Dr. Manuel Pastor is a professor of geography and American Studies & Ethnicity at the University of Southern California where he directs the Program for Environmental and Regional Equity (PERE) and co-directs the Center for the Study of Immigrant Integration.

"Wheelchair Diaries" Film Explores Accessibility in Europe

From the Chronicle of Higher Education:

‘Wheelchair Diaries’

A student with cerebral palsy, discouraged from study abroad,
makes a film about accessibility in Europe

When Reid Davenport (above left) learned at freshman orientation that 80 percent of students at George Washington University study overseas, he instantly decided that he would be among them. As his friends began making plans to go abroad in the spring of 2011, so, too, did he—to a program in Florence, Italy. But after he told officials there that he used a wheelchair, they discouraged him, he says. In the end, he didn't go.

As his friends traveled that next semester, Mr. Davenport, who has cerebral palsy, found himself thinking about accessibility in Europe for wheelchair users like him. He wondered: Was there a story to tell? That May he won a fellowship from the university: $5,000 to travel to Europe and document the challenges that wheelchair users there face.

For 20 days this past January, Mr. Davenport and Mark Abramson, a photographer and videographer, traveled through Ireland, Belgium, Italy, and France. Their footage ultimately became a documentary film, produced and directed by Mr. Davenport, titled Wheelchair Diaries: One Step Up. A rough cut of the film was released in April, and a final version will be finished this summer.

The trip involved plenty of headaches. In Dublin, the first stop, Mr. Davenport's wheelchair emerged on the luggage conveyor belt in two pieces. In Brussels, the wheelchair arrived altogether broken: Mr. Davenport walked around with great effort until he found a place to fix it.

Across four cities, Mr. Davenport interviewed more than a dozen wheelchair users about their experiences getting around. Among his "subjects": the leader of a disabled-advocacy group in Paris who became a paraplegic after a car accident about 20 years ago; a French law student with spinal muscular atrophy; a journalist in Brussels with cerebral palsy; and a man in Dublin with chronic progressive multiple sclerosis.

Mr. Davenport, 21, graduated from George Washington in May with a degree in journalism and mass communications. He recently sat down with The Chronicle to talk about his travels and the film. Here are his recollections, as told to Libby Sander.

LINK TO ARTICLE FOR FULL INTERVIEW!

MYCincinnati: Music for Youth in Cincinnati

From Eddy Kwon, RAPP XXVI Alum:

Good morning!

I’m writing to you from Fort Worth, Texas.

Wait.... Texas?

It’s a little hard for me to believe too.

But, here I am in the rehearsal wings of Bass Performance Hall, one of the most elaborately beautiful venues in the country... drinking tea, tapping away on my computer, and listening to the sound of 50 young musicians giggling as they practice the zombie choreography to Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” in the large rehearsal room next door.

Err... What?

I’m sorry, please let me give you a little more context.

(Disclaimer! This is a very long and involved letter, so feel free to come back when you have time, space, and attention enough)

This week I have had the very, very great pleasure of being a guest teaching artist for Fort Worth’s youth music program, B Sharp, and the dancing kids I mentioned above are taking a well-deserved break from their full day of orchestra and small ensemble rehearsals to practice the group dance piece that will open their concert program. In a few days, I will travel four hours to Austin to work as a guest clinician at Austin Soundwaves. Both are free, daily orchestral programs that engage underserved and low-income communities in their respective cities. Both offer young people the opportunity to learn an orchestral instrument at a very high level, a chance to play every day in a committed orchestra, and the promise of a safe and supportive community of peers and adults. I’ve been, and will continue to be, working with the string orchestras, teaching small group lessons, and leading improvisation workshops for string players.

B Sharp and Austin Soundwaves are modeled after El Sistema, Venezuela’s phenomenally successful network of national youth orchestra programs that has fundamentally changed the daily realities of over 3 million young people over a span of 35 years. The Orchestra is at the core of El Sistema -- it is the model for family and for community. It is an organism with one purpose: to agree. This is the source of El Sistema’s power and lasting social imprint.

El Sistema has produced classical music superstars Gustavo Dudamel (Conductor of the L.A. Philharmonic) and Edicson Ruiz (youngest double bassist in the Berlin Philharmonic), as well as the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, a professional ensemble that tours more than any other orchestra in the world. El Sistema has been called the future of classical music by Sir Simon Rattle, and its founder, Jose Antonio Abreu, was the winner of the 2009 TED Prize.

But El Sistema does not just develop musical geniuses. Far more importantly, El Sistema trains young people to be collaborators, accountable leaders, and responsible citizens. These are the future teachers, inventors, entrepreneurs, activists, scholars, doctors, mothers, and fathers.

To the many of you who play an instrument, this should come as no surprise. Playing any instrument very well, especially a stringed instrument, is hard. It takes a lot of patience. It develops attention, memory, discipline, self-control, planning, multi-tasking -- all invaluable skills that allow us increased agency in our lives and careers. Not to mention it stimulates so many mysterious parts of the brain, with equally mysterious consequences we will likely never fully understand.

Why am I going on and on about El Sistema and doctors and skills and mysterious consequences?

Because I’ve observed the results of intensive instrumental study in myself, and in the students of my own orchestra in my current home of Cincinnati, Ohio.

What I’ve waited to mention to you so far (thank you for reading all of this...) is that I am the assistant director of an El Sistema-inspired program that launched in October of this past year. The program is called Music for Youth in Cincinnati -- or as it is affectionately called, MYCincinnati.

From October to June, we met every weekday for two hours after school in an elementary library. That’s 2 hours a day, 10 hours a week, 40 hours a month, of intense instrumental (violin, viola, and cello) and ensemble training.

Our 20 young musicians are between the ages of 7 and 12, and they come from several different schools in the Price Hill neighborhood of Cincinnati, a west side community that has suffered from -- among many issues -- high unemployment, a child poverty rate above the national average, and a declining population. Despite being a neighborhood that has been historically ignored by the city, there is warmth and a real sense of possibility here. MYCincinnati is part of the growing network of folks that are investing in the community by engaging and challenging its young people.

Oh yeah, and our program is FREE! Absolutely 100% free for our students and their families.

The idea of MYCincinnati and El Sistema is that through musical training of the highest quality (I hold my students to a very, very high level -- thanks to the many teachers who did the same for me) and the strong sense of friendship and family that playing in an orchestra can foster, each individual life is uplifted in very real ways, and in turn, so are the lives of their family members and their communities. We are in the business of empowerment.

A very …. idealistic idea, right?

RAPPing up 2012

From: Marjorie Bledsoe, Public Ally for RAPP 2011-2012

Working with RAPP and Public Allies this year has been amazing! I’ve learned so much that it’s hard to sum it all up. I have solidified my love of community, relationships, and Social Justice Education through my ten months of service. I didn’t realize how many groups of amazing influential people I belong to; the interconnectedness of these communities has never been more apparent. I guess I wasn’t paying close enough attention, or maybe I’m just now positioned to feel like I’m really part of it all.

My journey to working with Public Allies and RAPP started in 2009, when I joined RAPP XXV. Through RAPP I met someone who introduced me to the Northside Family Dinner community. I quickly became friends with the folks who host and attend Family Dinner, many of whom are Public Allies Alumni. As I went through RAPP, Family Dinner served as my support network; I would go straight from meetings to Dinner and debrief on what I’d learned. Concepts of privilege and oppression were new to me, and although I’d experienced these dynamics throughout my life, I’d never realized how valid my own experiences actually were. My Family Dinner community and RAPP legitimized so much of what I’d been told wasn’t real about my life experience. Major medical issues and divorce are only a couple of examples of what I was faced with during this time, and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to support me through such a difficult part of my life.

In 2010-2011 I took on a Peer Leader position with RAPP XXVI, became active in RAPPORT (RAPP’s alumni program), and joined the newly formed Social Justice League. I continued to build upon the foundation of awareness and appreciation for myself and others I gained in my RAPP XXV experience. I finally possessed the confidence to take what I’d learned of myself and my experiences out into the world. I did workshops and trainings with the Social Justice League, had difficult and emotional conversations with my family and friends, and I came out.

During this time I was encouraged to explore the Public Allies program by Rebecca Lehman and my friends who were Public Allies Alumni. These folks supported me through the application process which is daunting, especially for those who are financially limited. If not for their support I don’t know that I would have made it through the process or gotten the job, as I was initially rejected as an applicant. I’m so thankful for all of these people; I feel as though I am on a path that will only lead to bigger and better things as a result of participating in Public Allies.

My experience with Public Allies and RAPP had been so rich and rewarding that I don’t know that I can fully describe all that I’ve gained. I spent this time planning, facilitating, networking, and learning. I have learned and accomplished so much in the last ten months that it will probably take just as long to process it all. I would like to share the video made by Rebecca Lehman about the RAPP Reflections show that is part of the ReRoot exhibit at the Clifton Cultural Arts Center. I think the video highlights some of the key things that happened in my life and in the RAPP XXVII Tuesday and Wednesday groups. Enjoy!

Race war: A trick of political rhetoric

To take white supremacy out of racism is to willfully ignore that reality, writes John Stoehr. Last Modified: 13 Apr 2012 18:51 inShare3 Email Print Share Feedback

Trayvon Martin's family has appealed to public opinion for justice [EPA]

New Haven, CT - Last weekend, two white men went on a shooting rampage in Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing three African Americans and wounding two others. One of the men, Jake England, has suggested the slaughter was meant to avenge the death of his father at the hands of a black man who was not among the killed or wounded. Four days prior to this, one of my students, in a class presentation on American journalism that touched on the civil rights movement of the tumultuous 1960s, innocently used the phrase "race war". I say "innocently", because he didn't possess a full understanding of that phrase's racist pedigree. He merely tried to capture the tensions and frequent pangs of violence that sprang from that historic uprising. Black Americans mobilised in great numbers to demand that the United States live up to its values and grant the blessings of liberty, equality and justice to all, even Americans whose ancestors embodied the diametric opposite of freedom. What my student, a self-identified liberal, couldn't have known is that "race war" is a trick of political rhetoric that at the time was meant to mask the dynamics of racism - who was on the receiving end, who on the giving end. Political spin takes on the weight of history if it's repeated enough, and journalists are great at repeating political spin, especially when that spin helps satisfy an item on the checklist of journalistic writing: balance. Balance requires presenting both sides of the story as if they are equal even if they are unequal. Balance, at least in theory, gives the appearance of impartiality but in practice it can distort more than it reveals. I touched on this recently when I wrote about the media's use of the word "clash" to describe conflicts between law enforcement and protesters of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Last fall, cops in cities around the United States were dressed in body armour, face shields and helmets while wielding various and sundry forms on "non-lethal" weaponry like pepper spray, rubber bullets and sonic grenades. Protesters possessed nothing of the sort. "Clash" implied equal forces, but protesters were targets of police violence. "Clash" not only concealed this reality, but gave credence to the movement's opponents who claimed Occupy Wall Street was merely a carnival of thugs whose calls for justice were illegitimate. "Race war" similarly distorts reality when used to describe, say, conflict between black protesters and Alabama state troopers in 1965. Protesters marched from Selma to Montgomery during the peak of the civil rights movement and police deployed the "non-lethal" weaponry of the day: fire hoses, batons and dogs. "Race war" was often brandished as a threat to civil libertarians. Demands to end to apartheid laws in the South, they were told, would spark a race war. Translated: They'd unleash more white violence. Of course, that was half true. White violence had been part of the African-American experience since Europeans brought slaves to the colonies. The only thing new would be a resurgence of white violence. A threat certainly, but hardly a new one. Representing reality is problematic As I say, my student didn't know any better, but it was a happy accident that provided occasion to discuss how representing reality is problematic even when you mean well. This led us to a brief talk about "racism", a term that can also be redolent of false balance. It can obfuscate who's doing what to whom and its use can put ideological debates about race on the road to nowhere. Everyone agreed the shooting of Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager killed by a neighbourhood watch volunteer, was tragic, but liberals and conservatives disagreed on what caused it. On the left, racism was ultimately to blame. Why else would the shooter, George Zimmerman (who was recently arrested), spot Martin walking around a gated community, call the police, follow him and then later shoot him? On the right, race had nothing to do with it. This was a case of horrible judgment, bad policy and a tragic wrong that should be righted. These are two views of racism. In one, racism is a concrete social force that exerts power over individuals. In the other, racism is an abstract universal human failing like any other that can be overcome with the right attitude. While the liberal view is often exaggerated, the conservative view does not account for who is doing what to whom. In this case, a half-white man killing a black boy. The conservative view of "racism" is ambivalent, unmoored from history and freed of its long association with white violence. This has given rise to laughable locutions like "reverse racism" of which conservatives regularly accuse blacks whenever they rage against the racist machine, as Al Sharpton and others did in the wake of Martin's death and the fact that justice did not prevail. Yet when conservatives say race doesn't matter, what they are saying, hopefully without meaning to, is that white violence doesn't matter - and obviously white violence matters. In US history, blacks did not lynch whites with the blessing of the establishment, but whites did lynch blacks in the name of white supremacy. Conservatives rightly say blacks kill more blacks than whites kill blacks. But that's another one of those false equivalencies that hides what's really going on. Black violence, even on those very rare occasions when whites are its victims, is scary and unjust, but white violence, especially when the victims are black, echoes through the web of history and can terrorise African Americans into submission. That's been the historical purpose of white violence. If explicit laws and pernicious social norms didn't control you, then the threat of violence did. That's why racism is not about race so much as power - who has it, who doesn't, what's done with it and why. And power is often above the law. Zimmerman and the man who killed Jake England's dad are equally protected under a similar law that allows you to "Stand Your Ground" when facing life-threatening situations. Neither man was changed, because both claimed they acted in self-defence. But that's where the similarities end. Trayvon Martin's family has appealed to public opinion for justice. Jake England appealed to his gun. The present is a product of the past. To take white supremacy out of racism is to willfully ignore that reality. John Stoehr is the editor of the New Haven Advocate and a lecturer at Yale. Follow him on Twitter: @johnastoehr The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/04/201241264514867938.html Questions to Consider: 1) Do you believe that violence is treated differently around race? How or how not? 2) Do you think that the term 'race word' is appropriate? Why or why not? 3) What are common phrases that you feel are thrown around without full understanding of their background and significance? 4) How do you feel about impartiality in the media? Do you feel that at a certain point impartiality may lead to inaccuracy or bias?

ABC's Trayvon Martin Timeline

By ABC News

Mar 22, 2012 12:00pm

Trayvon Martin Case: Timeline of Events

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(Image Credit: ABC News; Orange County Jail)

The slaying of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a Florida high school student who was shot and killed by George Zimmerman, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain, has captured national attention.

Petitions calling for justice for Martin have exploded, amid allegations of racism and calls for more scrutiny into how local police handled the investigation. George Zimmerman has yet to be charged in the case.

Below is a timeline of events:

Feb. 26: Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old Florida high school student, is found shot and killed, in Sanford, Fla., a community north of Orlando.

Several eyewitnesses report to police that they heard a scuffle, then a cry for help, and then a gunshot.

According to the Sanford police report, George Zimmerman, 28, a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain, is found armed with a handgun, standing over Martin. He has a bloody nose and a wound in the back of his head.

Martin is unresponsive and pronounced dead at the scene. He has no weapons on him, only a pack of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea.

Zimmerman tells police he killed Martin in self defense. Taking him at his word, police do not arrest him, nor administer a drug or alcohol test. They also did not run a background check.

March 9: Trayvon Martin’s family demands that police release the 911 tapes or make an arrest nearly one month after Martin was killed. Police declined to comment at the time, but told ABC News the tapes would be released the following week.

March 12: ABC News uncovers questionable police conduct in the investigation of the fatal shooting of Martin, including the alleged “correction” of at least one eyewitness’ account.

Sanford Police Chief Billy Lee said there is no evidence to dispute Zimmerman’s assertion that he shot Martin out of self-defense.

March 16: Police recordings made the night Zimmerman allegedly shot and killed Martin sent the boy’s mother screaming from the room and prompted his father to declare, “He killed my son,” a family representative tells ABC News.

ABC News affiliate WFTV publishes excerpts from the 911 calls.

One of several petitions for Zimmerman’s arrest has garnered more than 250,000 signatures on a change.org site, and at one point signatures were pouring in at the rate of 10,000 an hour, according to the website.

March 18: Martin’s family asks Attorney General Eric Holder and the FBI to get involved in the investigation of their son’s death.

March 19: A 16-year-old girl tells Benjamin Crump, the Martin family’s attorney, about the last moments of Martin’s life, ABC News is there exclusively. Martin was on the phone with her when George Zimmerman began following him. She recounted that she told Martin to run, then she heard some pushing, then the line went dead.

The U.S. Justice Department announces it has launched an investigation into Martin’s slaying.

ABC News also learns that Zimmerman violated major principles of the Neighborhood Watch manual, which states, “it should be emphasized to members that they do not possess police powers, and they shall not carry weapons or pursue vehicles.”

The state attorney in Seminole County, Fla., announces that a grand jury will review the evidence of the case on April 10.

March 20: Sanford police department admits to ABC News that investigators missed a possible racist remark by the shooter as he spoke to police dispatchers moments before the killing.

March 21: During a heated meeting over Trayvon Martin’s death, Sanford city commissioners conducted a vote of “no confidence” against embattled Police Chief Billy Lee. Three of five commissioners voted against the chief.

The city manager now decided whether or not to let Lee go.

Martin’s parents join hundreds of protesters in New York City for the “Million Hoodie March,” demanding justice for the slain 17-year-old.

A single online petition calling for Travyvon’s killer’s arrest has nearly 900,000 signatures and is now the fastest growing petition in internet history, according to Change.org. Tweets from celebrities, such as Justin Bieber and Spike Lee, helped fuel wide interest in the case.

The public relations person for Benjamin Crump, the attorney representing the Martin family, tells ABC News they received 418 media calls in one day.

March 22: City Manager Norton Bonaparte tells ABC News he’ll defer a decision on the chief’s fate until a thorough investigation is completed. Bonaparte acknowledges that the race issue continues to dominate local discourse.

Martin’s family meets officials from the Department of Justice.

Thousands are expected to attend a rally in Sanford, organized by the Reverend Al Sharpton, to demand Zimmerman’s arrest.

Tea-time questions with Scott:

If Trayvon had been white, do you feel there would have been the same amount of outrage?

Do you feel the shooter being non-white makes a difference?

Do you feel social media has played a large part in shaping the public's reaction? How so?

What do you think can be done by law enforcement, the community, and others to prevent future incidents like this one?