the unspoken (unmentionable?) reality is that black on white crime is frequent enough that no one is surprised, or outraged, by even the most horrific crimes, even when they're clearly racially motivated, and in this case, perhaps impelled by the classroom. further, is it not at least possible that this reality informs the actions of whites when they encounter a young black man on a dark street? i'm not excusing what zimmerman did (nor the police) but merely suggesting that if we're going to place the martin case in some larger societal context, that we consider the uncomfortable truth that the frequent reality of black on white (or hispanic) crime may have informed zimmerman's decisions, with deadly result.
Frequent? Wanna change your wording there hoss? Are you saying that all white people should be on guard when alone with a black person?
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UNACCEPTABLE!!!! It's perfectly acceptable for blacks to complain about racial profiling, but somehow racist to point out that blacks are more likely to engage in criminal behavior than whites. This puts police agencies in a no win situation because they will inevitably be stopping and detaining (briefly) many innocent black people because they match a vague description of a perpetrator as a black male. Since most black crime is against other blacks, this means the police end up alienating the very community they are trying to protect.
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To fear a young black kid (or group of kids) that looked like Trayvon is something few rational people would do. However, fearing a group of black men that looked like gang members is something else entirely. As is fearing a group of men that look like Hell's Angel's, skin heads, or Latino gang members. And to the motivation behind this thread -- it is rare indeed when the killing of a black man gets this kind of coverage. Typically the coverage goes to missing white girls with blonde hair. In fact if Trayvon had been a scrubby looking kid with a juvenile record we wouldn't be hearing about it. The image of a handsome, intelligent kid is certainly part of the reason the media has gone 24/7 with this case.
According to a witness, and there's corroborating physical evidence, he delivered a beat down to zimmerman prior to the shooting. He must have been reasonably strong.
haha, right. Because you have never assumed without the facts. (media coverage is skewed because of race---and not the fact one is dead, and the other isn't. hmm.)
I have edited this post to remove the disparaging comments I made regarding basso and gwayneco's caucasian ethnicity.