By now we all have heard the tragic story of Trayvon Martin, and if you haven’t it’s safe you are most likely living under a rock.
One of the most spoken facts about this case has been that when the young man was shot all he had on him was a bag of Skittles and a can of Arizona Ice Tea. So along with asking demonstrators to wear hoodies many protest organizers have encouraged participants to bring Skittles and cans of Arizona Ice Tea to the demonstrations.
Now at first I didn’t think much about this, but I then I began to think about how many protests were actually happening. One of the biggest marches, the Million Hoodie March, have thousands of participators right here in Philly. Along with the protest celebrities such as Spike Lee, encouraging his 246,000 + of followers to buy the product and mail them it to the Florida police station.
After much waiting, spokespeople for Skittles and Arizona Ice Tea have released statements.
Spokesperson for Skittles stated:
“We are deeply saddened by the news of Trayvon Martin’s death and express our sincere condolences to his family and friends, We also respect their privacy and feel it inappropriate to get involved or comment further as we would never wish for our actions to be perceived as an attempt of commercial gain following this tragedy.”
The spokeperson for Arizona Ice Tea released a similar statement saying:
“The company would like to express our sincere sympathies to Trayvon’s family and friends. At this time, we will make no further comment as we wish to respect the family’s privacy and grieving time and feel it is inappropriate to become involved in a private family matter”
Although both companies have made very respectable statements to the family they are still benefitting and the family is still suffering. Is it to crazy to ask for the company to make a small donation to the family. Because whether they want toor not they are making major extra profit off this case. Thousands and thousands of protestors around the country are buying these products in honor of this child and his family is seeing none of it. Interesting.
What are your thoughts on this ?
Author: Jessica Snyder
Photo Cred: Cordell Hayes
