So it appears that there are a lot of WoC that were pretty put off about your tweet comparing the victim blaming of Trayvon Martin to the victim blaming of rape victims. I must admit that I am pretty nervous to confront a prominent feminist that I look up to greatly, but I will also have to admit that the comparison somewhat disappointed me. I don't disagree with you entirely – there are definitely parallels, but white feminists comparing their struggles to PoCs has always seemed inappropriate.

I’m unsure why you believe that victim-blaming in sexual assault is a “white” feminist issue – women who aren’t white, cis, straight are disportionately victim-blamed, but that’s a point for another conversation.

By tweeting that discussing Trayvon Martin’s possible marijuana use was as relevant as discussing whether a rape victim ever had a beer, I wasn’t conflating rape with Martin’s murder – I was making an analogy about victim-blaming. It’s a similar analogy that was made by many, many others re: blaming Trayvon for wearing a hoodie.  

The point of the tweet was to point out the  shamelessness with which the media is attempting to blame Trayvon Martin. Creating an analogy to make that point doesn’t shift focus away from Martin, or “compare struggles” – it highlights the ridiculousness and unjustness of the situation. I hope that clarifies the tweet a bit for you. Thanks for taking the time to ask.