George Zimmerman: Guilty in the court of public opinion

Trayvon Martin

When I first heard about Trayvon Martin’s death, I was stunned. How could a kid walking to a convenience store for an iced tea and a bag of Skittles be killed? From the initial reports, Martin was killed by George Zimmerman, who appeared to be a loose cannon. Why would he murder a kid buying a snack? Was Trayvon Martin profiled because he was a black teenager? There were lots of questions that needed answering, including why George Zimmerman wasn’t charged and arrested for murdering Trayvon Martin. Of course, a funny thing happened on the way to answering those questions: The truth began to leak out.

According to early reports, it appeared that Martin was targeted by a racist white man. Well, George Zimmerman isn’t white. He’s hispanic, identifies himself as hispanic, and has almost the same skin color as Barack Obama, who said that Trayvon Martin resembles what his own son might have looked like. To this point, there’s also no evidence that Zimmerman has a history of racist behavior.
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Does anyone take Jesse Jackson seriously?

Jesse Jackson was recently honored by the Congressional Black Caucus for the 25th anniversary of his first Presidential campaign. As usual, he didn’t miss an opportunity to make himself look like a fool. During his speech, he had this to say about Rep. Artur Davis, who voted against the health care bill:

“We even have blacks voting against the healthcare bill,” Jackson said at a reception Wednesday night. “You can’t vote against healthcare and call yourself a black man.”

Let me get this straight. Is Jesse Jackson saying that race should determine how one votes? Is he also saying that that Mr. Davis is less of a “black man” because he opposed this legislation? I shouldn’t be surprised by this, since he seems to see race as the primary determinant of every outcome. To Jesse Jackson, there is no individual reasoning. Instead, we are all influenced by history and controlled by pigment. » read more