Antioch University Los Angeles Remembers Trayvon Martin

Staff, faculty, and students alike donned hooded sweatshirts at to show their support for Trayvon Martin and to start a dialogue about race.

About 60 people gathered on campus for yesterday's community meeting, said Antioch University Los Angeles spokeswoman Karen Hamilton.

Despite the fact the school is on spring break, Provost Luis Pegraja said it was important to hold such a discussion now in light of Martin’s murder.

“It’s a timely issue, so we needed to address it right away,” Pegraja said.

Martin, who lived in Sanford, Florida, made national news after he was killed by a neighborhood watch volunteer. Martin, a black teenager, was wearing a hooded sweatshirt when he was shot to death by George Zimmerman, 28, who claims he acted in self-defense.

Martin, 17, was carrying a bag of Skittles and an iced tea at the time. Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, has not been arrested for the shooting, fueling a recent wave of protests across the nation.

Yolanda Dees, a first-year student in the master’s program in clinical psychology at Antioch University Los Angeles, was glad the campus held a meeting. As a mother of young sons, she is familiar with what she said is “the good, the bad, and the ugly” that black men have endured. She hopes to see changes in the future.

“We’re so afraid to step out of our box and learn about someone else’s culture,” Dees said. “Zimmerman feared Trayvon because he was a black male. Until you learn someone else’s world, we’re going to continue to have blinders on.”

Pegraja agreed. Wearing a hooded sweatshirt with his dress pants, Pegraja said he was glad everyone came together to share their opinions and speak from the heart.

“It felt good to have people show the solidarity, but it’s sad and poignant that it took the tragedy of this young man to bring the conversation forward,” Pegraja said.

While Martin was the impetus for yesterday’s meeting, Pegraja said the faculty doesn’t want it to end there. Antioch plans to facilitate future discussions about race.

"Racism is rooted in ignorance and fear, and we need to counter that by helping educate people," he said. “Racism in our society has become more internalized and driven underground, so it’s harder to identify, but it’s there. It never left.”

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