Drug Allusions in the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown Narratives

Drugs have played an overwhelming role in villainizing minorities, despite the fact the fact usage of illegal substance is, statistically, evenly distributed between all ethnicities. In both entertainment and news media, the image of even the most casual Hispanic or African American drug user is presented as far more dangerous and violent than a Caucasian user of the same or even more volatile substances. The application of drugs as a vehicle for the villainization of a minority appears in both the Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown case.

Zimmerman’s call to 911 includes him observing that Trayvon “looks like he’s up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something” (Botehlo) and the article later makes a point of noting that medical examiners found traces of THC in the teenager’s system. In fact, Botelho’s CNN article makes four implications to Trayvon’s alleged marijuana usage, despite being less than two pages long. The injection of a drug narrative is even more forced in the case of Darren Brown. Officer Wilson’s description of the teenager is oddly specific in pointing out that Brown’s socks had “green marijuana leaves as patterns on them” (State of Missouri v. Darren Wilson 208). Although these allusions to marijuana are made, there was no indication that either Brown or Martin were heavy drug users or even that they were in a drug addled state at the time of their respective murders. With this in mind, the allusions seem to serve no other purpose than to contribute to the devaluation of the victims’ innocence. The implications act as tools to depict them not as teenagers who may or may not have at one time indulged in the type of harmless experimentation which has become a backbone of young adult aimed films the likes of SuperBad or Harold & Kumar, but as young thugs and budding junkies.