One could say Don King has seen it all, been through it all as Mobb Deep once said. The famed boxing promoter has more than made his mark in history and lived through it just the same. A controversial figure, King has been accused of everything from having mob ties to financial infidelities. But, he’s also an outspoken political force that has never minced his words. His perspective is that of an 80-year-old that has toiled to the highest mountains of success yet still has passionate, pointy opinions about the murder of one 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.
“He (Trayvon) is the victim of 400 years of thinking that Black people don’t count. Even if, the guy walking down the street is being profiled, but whatever happened, the police would have arrested the guy. Even if it was self-defense, he would have been acquitted through the (legal) process. This guy ain’t been arrested yet. A man shot a man down in the is day and age – 2012 – killed the boy, and nobody has done nothing about it…not even a reprimand. And they are going to take his word at the scene and say it was self defense. What was Trayvon going to shoot him with? His whistle? He’s eyeballs? Reckless eyeballing? But, you can’t take that light when you say reckless eyeballing, because in the books it says reckless eyeballing – that’s when a black man looked at a white woman. It was interpreted as lewd or lustful. That’s reckless eyeballing, punishable by death. You can’t say what (Trayvon) was doing, but that’s that old, antiquated thinking and falsification of teaching of superiority and inferiority. Manhood is what the whole struggle is about. They could not treat a man like they treated (Trayvon). There is a victimization in associating us with negative conditions. Therefore, you don’t like the conditions, you don’t like the Black man. The color line, that is the problem…the institution called slavery. That was the method of keeping you from getting your rights and to be able to justify it legally and religiously. Revenge ain’t going to get it. Non-Violence is the way to go, (but) only if you are teaching. People are mentally enslaved and they are not looking for a parole.”
-As told to Chuck “Jigsaw” Creekmur
Digital bonus: Jasiri X’s “A Song For Trayvon,” recorded March 25, 2012 at a rally with Kevin Powell