The Trayvon Trial

Tanoomba_sl said:

Yes, I get it, there had been several break-ins in the neighborhood, I GET IT. When Zimmerman saw a young man peering into the window of an empty house, that's extremely fucking suspicious behavior and more than worthy of being reported on. The fact that Zimmerman was able to later identify this guy after he was caught by police shows that yes, Zimmerman is actually trying to do his part to stop crime in his neighborhood. But there's a difference between being in someone's back yard peering through their windows and walking on public property after legally purchasing snacks (in the rain). Yes, the guy they caught, and the other guys previously seen in someone's yard, were black. But guess what? 20% of that neighborhood, or one in 5 people, are black. Deciding someone is suspicious because they are black and it's raining is profiling.

And no, don't tell me thatI'vebeen convinced by a flawed news story. You don't know where I heard about this case from. There's plenty of reason to suspect race was a factor without that story. Don't tell me what my definition of racism is either. I'm not talking about white power. I'm talking about a guy who had seen black people causing trouble, so he took it upon himself to eye black people more suspiciously. There's a word for that. it's called profiling, and anyone can do it. Even Hispanic Jews!

Click to expand...

You're basically at this point trying to split every hair possible to justify your position that Zimmerman MUST BE racist.

You should really just realize you've been emotionally manipulated by the US media and recognize that the best way to stop letting them do that to you is to stop listening to them because not a one, not CNN, NBC, Fox, etc are worth a good goddamn. It doesn't matter where you SPECIFICALLY heard the lie. You didn't have to have heard the lie exactly broadcast on Today. The point is that once a meme enters the collective consciousness, it impacts are far broader than simply on those who initially heard said meme. Zimmerman being a racist who profiled Martin is a MEME predicated on false evidence broadcast by NBC on the Today show. But the impact of that lie has spread through social media to become a broad based factual inaccuracy in people's comprehension of this story. I don't know how better to explain this to you. Its a phenomena of large groups and the spreading of information in a high technology society.

The Today show implies Zimmerman is racist with a badly edited audio, others pick up and echo those sentiments, soon the original source fades into the background, and the retraction is never broadly accepted or even recognized, and so the lie becomes the norm, even the operating "truth," the standard from which you are making a vast array of conclusions and arguments that are, once the source of the lie is exposed, proven invalid. Every conclusion you make predicated on this falsehood is thus invalid. Such as "There's plenty of reason to suspect race was a factor without that story." Actually, no, there's not. That's the point I"m trying to make to you. Without that story, there is exactly ZERO reason or evidence to support said conclusion. Said conclusion is predicated ENTIRELY on this falsehood that Zimmerman referred to Martin as black without being asked by the 911 operator. That's the point. Without that, there is literally NO REASON to reach the conclusion you've reached outside of personal biases against Zimmerman, almost all entirely predicated and created by...the same media that created the lie about Zimmerman in the first place.

There is nothing unusual about someone seeing someone suspicious walking down the street and calling the police. We have a schizophrenic neighbor who lives with his brother across the street. He walks down the street in the neighborhood and looks suspicious, he cackles and shakes and stops and talks to everyone he sees and waves. He's entirely harmless, and completely passive in every way, and fully medicated as far as I'm aware his brother ensures he is medicated on time. He has the police called on him regularly. He's white. He had a big scruffy beard and dresses like a hobo. Its not racist to call the police on him, and he lives in the neighborhood. People who haven't seen him before are freaked out.

Context is key here, and in the context of the break ins, there is no JUSTIFICATION on your part in assuming Zimmerman's profiling was race based or racist. Again. The only reason you're still asserting it is because you've bought a lie, hook line and sinker and are having trouble admitting it to yourself and others. Don't double down here, you're proven completely wrong. There is literally NOT A SINGLE REASON to suspect race was a factor in this story. None. Because the only evidence to support such a conclusion has been proven invalid and in some cases outright fraudulent.

I'm not telling you what your definition of racism is, your definition of racism is irrelevant to this conversation. We have academic definitions of racism which work perfectly well for this case: Racism is prejudice + power/privilege. When someone argues Zimmerman was profiling and killed Martin, what they are stating is that Zimmerman's prejudice against blacks plus his position of power as a white person in our society led him to kill Martin because he felt the system would allow him to get away with it. Hence the outcry for Zimmerman to be arrested and tried in the first place. Hence this entire show trial farce where even the prosecution knows their case is weak at best and their best witness is a completely unreliable and possibly perjured 19 year old with the mental capacity of a 8 year old. This isn't up for debate. This is the crux of the argument and its been blown entirely out of the water.

NBC did fire the producer that did the editing on the tape.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/...er-119881.html