George Zimmerman: My Thoughts

Late Friday night, the jury announced the verdict in the highly publicized case of George Zimmerman. A jury of 6 women found him not guilty in the death of Trayvon Martin. From the moment the situation happened up until the last days of deliberation, the Zimmerman camp maintained that George acted in self-defense when he shot and killed the 17 year old following an altercation. Zimmerman was the neighborhood watch captain for his neighborhood and began following Trayvon when he thought he was up to no good. The liberal media which loves to incite anger and unrest has been making this case about race since day one. I, on the other hand, disagree.

Since I first posted my thoughts on the racial aspect of this case on Facebook following the verdict, I have apparently sparked some outrage and criticism from strangers and family alike. Those of you whom know me know that I am the proud nephew and cousin of several African Americans. However, you also know that since the day of my birth these family members have been just that, family members. I don't see them as any different than myself, I don't see them as anything but my family. Perhaps the reason that I hold these views is because I have grown up in a very tolerant state. As a matter of fact, I have grown up surrounded by diversity and my appreciation of that diversity has made me indifferent to race. In my eyes there are good people and there are bad people. There are not black people, or white people, or Asian people, and so on. To me, we are all equal and as such does our race matter? There is no denying that a culture of racial bias was fostered in the United States many years ago, and regrettably may still foster in the minds of some intolerant people. Despite this, I maintain that the Zimmerman case was never about race, but rather about an overzealous neighborhood watch, cop-wanna-be who put himself in a situation that scared him, and as a result caused him to overreact and take another person's life.

The media wants you to think that this is about race. They love to incite fear and anger among lowly citizens like myself. They love having the power to influence the national discussion, but better yet, they love to sensationalize. They love making stories about something that it isn't. I have yet to see any factual evidence other than a mere monologue by a highly under qualified reporter whose only intent is to increase viewership. I do not attempt to down play the racial bias that still exists in the minds of ignorant people, but I do wish to get to the heart of the Zimmerman case and leave race out of it! Zimmerman disregarded direct orders from a police dispatcher to stop following Trayvon, he did so because he was a wanna-be-cop. He wanted to feel like a hero and be important. Whether he needed to use deadly force or not, I couldn't tell you because like anyone reading this, I wasn't there that night.

As a result of the flagrantly clear violation of the public trust on the part of the media, there are race riots breaking out everywhere. This is what the media wants! They want the country to be unstable and in a place of outrage because they will have more news to cover. Here's my idea. Lets forget about the media's bologna attempt at making this about race. Lets stop calling Trayvon the "black kid", or the "African American". Lets call him what he was, a child, someone's son, someone's friend. I maintain that until we can stop identifying each other as black or Asian or white, we will continue to see prejudice and bias. I hope that this post has clarified for some of my critics my views. Since I think it warrants repeating, I do recognize that racial bias still exists in the minds of intolerant and ignorant people. I do also recognize that if we can start seeing each other as humans, and people, as I and my family and friends do, we can make serious strides in eliminating racism and achieving true equality, because until we are all "people"  and not Black or White or Asian or Hispanic
or Muslim, we are not truly equal.

For those who haven't seen it, here is the status that caused so much outrage:

"Seriously disgusted with the media and anyone who feels the need to identify persons in this case by race as if to inflate racial tensions. We are not white people, or black people, or colored people, or Asian people or Spanish people. We are one people. We are Americans. Until people recognize this, there is bound to be racial tension."