<p>“I’m just curious, as I try to wrap my head around peoples’ presumptions that the Sanford cops are racists. Are they just racist against Blacks?”</p>
<p>I just looked at what I could find about the previous activities/investigations of the Sanford Police Department, which led to the appointment of their new Police Chief. For all I know, they could carry prejudicial feelings about others. </p>
<p>But I want to be clear here: racism is not a simple matter of feelings of prejudice. It is a system (though often an unconscious one) of advantage/disadvantage based on race. </p>
<p>Racism is more than prejudice, and more than bigotry. People in groups defined any way one chooses can hold and even express hateful attitudes toward members of other groups. But the difference between prejudice and racism lies in the fact that in the latter, power to control institutional policies is bound up with prejudice to produce benefits for some, deficits for others. This power confers advantages whether or not those who receive the benefits had any part in creating or ensuring them. Racism is a system of advantage, not simply a set of personal attitudes. Differences in power and status between people of different color do not flow from personal animosity between them, and do not disappear even when personal animosity does. They are not a matter of individual feelings or private emotions, sympathy or the lack thereof. As a person with lighter skin-tones, I have substantial advantages. I didn’t ask for them, and they exist whether I hold prejudicial attitudes or not. It would take a monumental effort on my part to reject these advantages, especially as in the context of contemporary culture, most of the time I don’t even notice that I possess them!</p>
<p>Among them is to walk down the street wearing a hoodie, without even thinking about my safety.</p>
<p>First, the preponderance of released public information…especially within the last two days further undermines support for Zimmerman & his supporters’ accounts that he was attacked/Martin was up to no good. Police video taken 30 minutes after incident showing no injuries consistent to his being attacked according to their accounts, turning away of second ambulance for his supposed injuries(Ambulance for “non-shooter”), and now the Funeral home worker responsible for preparing Martin’s body saying his body showed no signs of his being in a scuffle/fight that he’d have to cover up for the sake of the family/friends…beyond gunshot wound(s). </p>
<p>As for Martin’s past transgressions…they first have no bearing on this incident…especially considering Zimmerman couldn’t have possibly known about those incidents when he chose to follow Martin despite being told he didn’t need to do that.</p>
<p>You’re also forgetting that considering Zimmerman wasn’t a uniformed law enforcement officer or wearing anything which could have IDed him as a neighborhood watchman…how was Martin supposed to know that he’s not being targeted for a mugging or even a racially motivated beating by a neighborhood thug/tough…especially on a dark February night? </p>
<p>Martin even communicated as much in his cell phone call to his girlfriend right before he was shot when he said he was being followed by someone as widely reported. </p>
<p>It’s not out of the realm of possibility considering if someone behaved toward me as Zimmerman did to Martin…I’d have regarded him as someone up to no good and possibly angling for a mugging. Common advice we all received as kids in my old NYC neighborhood was…if a strange person…especially a tall heavyset man is following you…you run or confront as the situation warrants. </p>
<p>Ironically…a few of the times when this was really tested was in rural Ohio during my undergrad years when some local White ne’er do wells were following me and/or friends in a car and yelling racist/sexist epithets. On some occasions we ran…other times we confronted by yelling back at the drivers or giving them a NYC style one-fingered salute. </p>
<p>On the other hand…Sanford PD’s handling of this case fell suspiciously into the same “protect the good old boy” pattern they demonstrated in past incidents such as the beating of the homeless man by the son of one of their Lieutenants in 2007.</p>
<p>cobrat,
You really weave a convoluted web of rationalization. What about Zimmerman’s having been treated by EMT’s? The police report documenting the injuries? What about the cop’s hand in the video, when he touches the back of Z’s jacket, then wipes it off on his pants? And when he takes a closer look at the back of Z’s head? What about the fact that the funeral director is not under oath? What does Z’s knowledge of Trayvon’s background have to do with whether Trayvon was high, planned to rob houses or initiated the aggression?</p>
<p>I don’t know what happened. I can listen to the rumors and reports and try to make sense of it, but I don’t try to place blame or draw conclusions like you do. I hope you are not planning a career in the law.</p>
<p>“Bay, I’m saying that without even the cursory investigation, Sanford police took the word of a white man that he was acting in self defense when he shot a black kid. Even when they told the said white man to stop chasing the kid. Even when one of their own felt Zimmerman should have been arrested.”</p>
<p>Interesting. I thought he was hispanic, at least half hispanic, sure looks hispanic to me. So does it make the story better to consider him a white man? Fit the racist story line a little better?</p>
<p>“I’m just curious, as I try to wrap my head around peoples’ presumptions that the Sanford cops are racists. Are they just racist against Blacks? But not Hispanics or Jewish people? Is there a presumption out there that Zimmerman, being Jewish, is obviously racist against Blacks (isn’t that a common racist/anti-Simetic stereotype?)”</p>
<p>"“you wouldn’t have been safe in Zimmerman’s neighborhood.”</p>
<p>I would have been more than willing to take my chances. More than that, my parents wouldn’t have thought it necessary to warn me about what I wear. Remember: I have a coffee-colored daughter, who dates across the colorlines. She has stories…</p>
<p>One of the men my d. has dated (African-American, college graduate, and large) wears a suit and tie - ALL THE TIME. (And he doesn’t have a job, or live in a locale, to match that attire.) He has learned that it is reliably the only way he can be sure that he can command respect as a person, rather than as a large, Black man. He learned that from his family, and it seems to work (he says). </p>
<p>(I suspect that among his many, and conflicted, responses to this whole thing would be, “What did he think he was doing, being a Black man in a hoodie in that neighborhood?”)</p>
<p>I have a black friend whose well-to-do parents live in an affluent white area. He used to get pulled over by police when visiting his parents. Mostly to just, you know, check what he was doing there. Those police stops lessened when he got a BMW. Cops would mostly just glance at this black man driving through the affluent white area. Worked a bit like that suit, mini.</p>
<p>Have an African-American double-degree college classmate who recounted how he was frequently pulled over by cops for wearing suits and driving a BMW that was a HS graduation present from his well-off doctor parents throughout his college years because the cops couldn’t believe an African-American male could have such nice suits and drive a fancy BMW without assuming it came from some sort of criminal activity. He’s also the extremely low-key and polite…almost my polar opposites in those areas. </p>
<p>After he went off to Harvard for a bio Phd…visited him on their campus and witnessed him being stopped several times by HUPD for ID whereas I was never stopped once despite the fact HE was the Harvard Phd student and I was just a visitor.</p>
<p>He also always dresses in nice suits whereas my dressing style while visiting Harvard ranged from scruffy to '50s leather jacket clad hood. I’m Asian-American…draw your own conclusions…</p>
<p>Just saw this: Two separate experts have compared Zimmerman’s voice from the 911 call to the screams that could be heard on another 911 call and both concluded that the screams were not Zimmerman. Yet more holes in his story… </p>
<p>OK, so here are the facts confirmed by independent sources:
(1) Zimmerman identifies as “suspicious” a minor walking home in the rain with Skittles and a can of iced tea.
(2) Zimmerman reports this “suspicious” character to 911.
(3) 911 Operator admonishes Zimmerman against following the “suspicious” character.
(4) Zimmerman follows “suspicious” character anyway.
(5) Zimmerman shoots “suspicious” character in chest at short range.
(6) Deceased’s body shows no signs of a struggle.</p>
<p>My son is six feet tall, broad build, long hair, scraggly beard, wears a hoodie. He canvasses for a living, walking around strange neighborhoods every evening.</p>
<p>He’s never pulled over by the police. </p>
<p>But when an African-American attempts this job, he (or she) usually ends up quitting over the constant reporting by homeowners and harrassment by law enforcement.</p>
<p>All unidentified youth are not seen the same–some are deemed more “scary” than others.</p>
<p>My D’s boyfriend is over six feet tall, has long hair, scruffy beard and tattoos. He gets stopped often by police. But to be fair, he resembles what one might imagine a serial killer look like. Very scary looking. But it’s his choice to look like that. He could shave, cut his hair and dress differently.</p>