Viewpoint: Amid Kony hysteria, what about Trayvon Martin?

Joseph Kony is now a household name. Just about every college student reposted the Invisible Children video last week and urged their friends to take 30 minutes to learn about the Ugandan warlord.

But while everyone enjoys spring break, another name is ignored, a name arguably more important than Joseph Kony. The name is Trayvon Martin.

Martin was a 17-year-old who was shot and killed last month by a neighborhood watch volunteer, George Zimmerman, according to police records.

The teen was walking back from the gas station holding Skittles and iced tea, talking on the phone with his girlfriend.

But as he walked through his father’s gated neighborhood, he realized Zimmerman, 28, was following him in a car.

Zimmerman called 911, reporting that Martin looked “suspicious.” An altercation allegedly ensued and Zimmerman shot the teen, claiming self-defense.

The unusual circumstances have produced many questions. Why would Zimmerman think Martin, a 17-year-old walking home, was “suspicious”? And why would Zimmerman need to “defend” himself from someone unarmed?

Many people would say the obvious answer is racial profiling.

Others, however say this answer is overdramatic, unnecessarily pulling race into Martin’s murder. But the entire situation was so outlandish; how could race not be at play?

When Martin’s body was bagged and taken to the morgue, he was unidentified and tagged as a John Doe. His father thought he had gone missing. Perhaps it took 24 hours for anyone to even consider that the black teen might have possibly lived in the community.

As more details of the case have emerged, the FBI and Department of Justice have become involved. But Zimmerman still walks free due to Florida’s lax self-defense legislature -- the "Stand Your Ground" law.

Like the #StopKony hashtag last week, why is #StopZimmerman not trending on Twitter? Why is my Facebook newsfeed not brimming with statuses about this awful tragedy? Why aren’t more people outraged?

Many felt empowered and motivated to care about children and an evil warlord hundreds of miles away, but when injustice happened in their backyard, they fell silent. Is it, perhaps, because Americans like to feel like they have it all figured out, that they are above conflict?

The fact of the matter is that race is still a deeply painful topic in America today. There have been strides, yes. But there is a long, long way to go. There is a long way to go when a man walks free after allegedly killing an unarmed 17-year-old in cold blood, claiming he looked “suspicious.”

Until I -- a white female -- am also labeled “suspicious” for walking down the street in a hoodie in broad daylight, racism is alive in America.

Martin was just a kid with a bag of candy chatting on his phone. Zimmerman was an ordinary citizen wielding a 9-millimeter handgun, delusions of police authority and deep-rooted racial profiling.

So if you care about Ugandan child soldiers and purchase TOMS shoes to help others have shoes and follow every other humanitarian fad, take a moment and learn about Trayvon Martin. Do something about it. Sign a petition on moveon.org, contact your representatives and most importantly—be uncomfortable.

Be uncomfortable, make your friends uncomfortable and acknowledge Martin’s murder for what it was -- racial profiling, even in 2012.

Emily Atteberry is a Spring 2012 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about her here.

This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.