Trayvoning: white teens posing like Trayvon Martin’s dead body for laughs
- Began after MSNBC and HLN aired footage of the Trayvon Martin’s body during coverage of George Zimmerman’s murder trial
- Mostly teenagers are taking the sick pictures
By RYAN GORMAN
PUBLISHED: 22:33 EST, 13 July 2013 | UPDATED: 23:09 EST, 13 July 2013
Trends come and go on social media, here’s hoping this one goes quickly.
People have taken to posting pictures of themselves online imitating the picture of Trayvon Martin’s dead body aired on live TV Friday during coverage of George Zimmerman’s murder trial.
Done by teens, most of whom are white, Trayvoning involves people lying motionless on the ground with Skittles and an iced tea, often while wearing a hoodie.
Sick: Teens mocking Trayvon Martin’s death are calling the pictures ‘Trayvoning’
Trayvoning is the result of MSNBC and HLN mistakenly showing the picture during live coverage of George Zimmerman’s murder trial shortly before it was sent to the jury.
As with everything else, social media quickly put its own spin on news networks airing Martin’s body during trial coverage.
Awful: Teens began ‘Trayvoning’ after MSNBC and HLN showed the dead teen’s corpse on live TV Friday during coverage of the George Zimmerman trial
‘I don’t think it’s very appropriate to do,’ one woman told Fox 40.
‘It hurts me, and it’s not my son,’ James Shelby, president of the Greater Sacramento Urban League, told the station, adding ‘We need more conversations in homes about how we can all get along better. In turn, our kids are educated in things we shouldn’t do.’
Another person told that station ‘I think it’s very disrespectful to him and his family.’
Outrage: People are not laughing at ‘Trayvoning’ the way they did ‘Tebowing’ and other memes
Terrible: ‘Trayvoning’ is the latest disturbing trend to crop up on social media
Trayvoning is seen as humorous by some, but outrages others in a way similar memes such as ‘planking,’ ‘Tebowing,’ ‘Bradying’ and ‘Kaepernicking’ couldn’t.
George Zimmerman was found not guilty Saturday night in his murder trial, setting off even more outrage across social media, with many people calling him a ‘dead man walking’ and tweeting out his address.