Ken I don't believe anyone thinks Zimmerman is not at fault. It is just that fault lies in both parties. You can no more say Zimmerman instigated it than one can say Trayvon shouldn't have confronted. That's the point, had either one made an alternate choice the outcome would've been different.
Thankfully, as noted today, we are beginning to move from drawing lines in the sand and being defensive and starting to meet in the middle to assess and evaluate the situation. Hopefully, this will spur conversation to make less Trayvons and Zimmermans in the future.
Of course, by posting articles like that, we are making it a race issue. Which Martin/Zimmerman wasn't in the eyes of the jury that made the decision. So as long as we continue to base all opinions on race, we will never progress forward. And that is our own faults. Either pushing it or allowing it to be pushed.
If both men had been black?
If Martin had been white and Zimmerman black?
Does anyone SERIOUSLY think the outcome would have been the same?
Gloria, I think history has shown us that ones race as it goes to the propensity for crime is a factor in how the crime is perceived and how it is prosecuted. I think this case became the media sensation that it is because race was put to the forefront and the reason that happened is different depending on agenda's. Some of those political and some of those for media ratings.
I do agree that if this crime had involved individuals of the same race it would have not made headlines. I look at this particular situation as one where the guy who pulled the trigger was charged, prosecuted and found not guilty under the law as the laws are written and administered. I think the jury of six women, five White and one not did follow the law without prejudice. As the one juror who was interviewed said, they never talked about race during their deliberations and that they felt that Zimmerman thought that it was Trayvon's actions and not his race that made him suspect that night. It was testified to that he was out in the rain, cutting through back yards and stopping to look in windows. I think those actions could reasonably be viewed as suspicious in a community where there has been a rash of break ins without race being a factor. I think if my own son was there that night dressed in a hoodie, cutting through back yards and peering into windows his actions would have been viewed as suspicious. I also do not believe for a minute that the women of the jury did not weigh all of the evidence in order to come to a lawful verdict.
I think there are many cases that scream racism but this is not one of them. Even if Zimmerman himself is a bigot, I don't believe it was Trayvon's race that called attention to him. I think it was a variety of factors, perhaps including the hoodie. I have asked my youngest son to never put up his hoodie when in public because it hides ones face. I will admit that is a paranoia on my part but not because I think it would cause him to be profiled as a Black but because it could make him appear suspicious to some.
Zimmerman is a guy who was stupid enough to get out of his car a follow someone he found suspicious. It was shortsighted and ended up being tragic.
