The Trayvon Martin tragedy was a shocking reminder to every black person that he/she could easily be a victim of racial profiling, possibly with deadly consequences. The horrible incident could have happened to any black man or any black person’s son, brother, nephew, cousin, etc., however wealthy or well-accomplished they may be (see excerpt below from a column piece by the Washington Post’s Eugene Robinson).

Would (at least) a few affluent African Americans therefore feel strongly enough about racial profiling to help jump-start a potent anti-racial profiling movement or fund? (See previous blog posts: Trayvon Martin Tragedy Could Spur the Emergence of a “National Anti-Racial Profiling Fund”; A Potent Anti-Profiling Movement As the Silver Lining From the Trayvon Martin Tragedy.)

The driving motivation could primarily be self-interest rather than altruism or a desire to foster black/racial progress. Most affluent blacks have experienced some form of racial profiling and the Trayvon tragedy surely resonates with them—at the very least, they frequently suffer/endure racial indignities in their workplaces and in public or social settings, such as being watched closely or followed around in stores, or being automatically suspected of possible criminal behavior, simply because of skin color. Recall, for example, the racial indignities suffered by Oprah Winfrey, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Condoleezza Rice.

Thus, the social returns affluent or accomplished blacks would reap from investing in a fund that can galvanize African Americans to aggressively attack racial profiling and its root causes would be substantial.
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For more on this and related issues, see:

• Trayvon Martin Tragedy Could Spur the Emergence of a “National Anti-Racial Profiling Fund” 
• Financing Black Progress, Part 2: A Self-Reliance “Marshall Plan”: Creating a National Resource-Pooling Fund
  
• Wealthy/Well-Off/Accomplished African Americans Can Jump-Start Large-Scale Resource-Pooling Initiatives to Transform Distressed Communities Nationwide
• Black Philanthropy and the Creation of a Transformational National Resource-Pooling Fund

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Excerpt from: Eugene Robinson, Trayvon Martin and dangerous times for black men,  Washington Post,  March 22, 2012.

For every black man in America, from the millionaire in the corner office to the mechanic in the local garage, the Trayvon Martin tragedy is personal. It could have been me or one of my sons. It could have been any of us…

…Please tell me, what would be the innocent way to walk down the street with an iced tea and some Skittles? Hint: For black men, that’s a trick question.

Black America was never a monolith, but over the past five decades it has become much more diverse — economically, socially, culturally. If you stood on a street corner and chose five black men at random, you might meet a doctor who lives in the high-priced suburbs, an immigrant from Ethiopia who drives a cab, a young aspiring filmmaker with flowing dreadlocks, an unemployed dropout trying to hustle his next meal and a midlevel government worker struggling to put his kids through college.

Those men would have nothing in common, really, except one thing: For each of them, walking down the wrong street at the wrong time could be a fatal mistake.

See also the following on how the Trayvon tragedy resonated with other prominent black writers through their personal experiences and connections:

• Charles M. Blow, The Curious Case of Trayvon Martin, New York Times, March 16, 2012.
• Jonathan Capehart, Under ‘suspicion’: The killing of Trayvon Martin, Washington Post, March 18, 2012.
• Donna Britt, How I wept after attempts to dissociate from Trayvon Martin’s death, The Washington Post, March 22, 2012.
• Tracie Powell, How Pulitzer-winning writer moved Trayvon Martin story from margins to mainstream, Poynter.org. April 9, 2012. Features Trymaine Lee of the Huffington Post.