I don’t have anything new or insightful to say anything about the fucking heinous miscarriage of justice that happened yesterday. I signed the petitions and tracked the updates obsessively, briefly hoped that he might be saved, and felt no surprise when he wasn’t. I’m disgusted and speechless and I have no words.
All I have to say is this: I am not Troy Davis, and if you’re not a person of color, then neither are you. And if you’re not Troy Davis, but are wearing the t-shirt, or updating your Facebook status to say that you are, or WTFever–shut up. I understand that you want to show your support. Support is good. But white people are not Troy Davis; that’s the whole fucking point. And when you say “I am Troy Davis,” you are turning the focus away from Troy Davis, from people who are discriminated against every single day; you are turning the focus back to you.
I don’t feel eloquent today. I just feel angry.
So here are some links:
Students Against the Death Penalty
10 Things Anyone Can Do to Help Exonerate Innocent People and Prevent Wrongful Convictions
Amnesty International’s Not In My Name Pledge
“Few are guilty, but all are responsible”
“The struggle for justice doesn’t end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all those who will come after me.” — Troy Davis
Pepper & Paprika 
This execution was hideous. I felt so ashamed to have grown up in Georgia. And then I felt ashamed that this execution hit me harder than any other (because this is hardly the first execution carried out with questionable guilt, even if one were to accept the idea that execution of the guilty is morally okay, which I do not accept).
It’s an alien feeling, especially as a privileged (read: white) person, to experience such helplessness, isn’t it? You’re watching this happen and know that it is *so wrong*, and you’re smacked in the face with the reality that you, somehow, against all odds and all goodness and all facts, can do *nothing* to stop it.
Which is to not even *begin* to say anything about the helplessness his family must have felt/continue to feel. And which is also to say nothing of the helplessness you address in this post, that some people try to coattail-hitch onto.
Good observation concerning white folks (I’m one) using the “I Am Troy Davis” solidarity slogan. RIP Troy Davis, and all those murdered and brutalized daily by the policing institutions of the U.S.