No Longer Judged By The Color Of Our Skin

It's 2012, and it seems like we are still being judged by the color of our skin, and now apparently what we wear. But at the same time, I wonder; have we as a Black community brought the violence and judgement we face on a daily basis upon ourselves and to our doorstep? Daily, we glorify, uplift and cater to negative stereotypes that are placed upon us; living up to the labels of hood chick, video vixen, dope boy, hustla, baby mama, baby daddy with pride like it's an honor!! When did it become cool to promote these type of "careers" over being a lawyer, teacher, doctor or simply being legally employed? We spend so much time degrading each other, tearing ourselves down, intentionally act ghetto, ignant and uneducated, yet we are the first ones to complain that the White man is holding us down. I am a strong believer that every action has a reaction whether negative or positive, so why are we honestly so surprised when we are judged by society as no good and worthless if that is how we act? In the event of the Trayvon Martin tragedy, I am truly saddened that an innocent life has been stolen from us so young, but why are we so angry? Every day, our society engages in and ignores Black on Black crime, yet because a life was taken by someone other than one of "us" there is now a cry of outrage and a demand for justice? Where was everyone when this same act was occurring in our streets, schools, backyards by our own kind? A life was stolen because someone chose to believe in the stereotypes that we ourselves embraced and promoted; so who is the true criminal...him or us? No, I don't believe that a hoodie killed Trayvon, far from it; but I honestly feel that he ultimately became a victim of racism combined with ignorance and a foolish belief in stereotypes. If we continue to act like the "niggers" we are perceived to be, how can we honestly expect to see a change in our communities and lives? Propagating stupidity is only hurting us, and jumping on the bandwagon when someone is killed isn't doing us any good; what are we doing to keep our people, especially our Black men alive?  Martin Luther King Jr. had a dream that we become successful Black men and women living good lives and leaving legacies of pride and honor...now all we seem to be leaving is body bags. Until we honestly and truly begin to eradicate the stereotypes placed on us, stop living in mental bondage, and start to carry ourselves with dignity and respect, we are only fooling ourselves if we think change is truly going to come. No, I am not justifying Zimmerman's actions in any way; he is wrong and must be held fully accountable, but I think we also need to take a good hard look at ourselves as a whole and work to eradicate the negative actions that are ultimately holding us back, killing our people and our futures. Change starts with us, and if we honestly want to be judged by the content of our character, then it's about damn time we give society something worthy of content to see and judge other than our skin...