I'm no fan of CNN, but it did present a well-balanced group of people who speak to the Zimmerman trial from a number of reasonable angles.
Quote:
Away from the media maelstrom, America talks about the Zimmerman verdict
An invisible line in my interracial marriage
I was really struck, walking around that day feeling so white. Most of the time in my marriage and my family, I don't think about race. Usually, I don't think, "I'm a white woman married to a black man." But there's a certain point where we don't meet. His experience as a black man in American informs what he thinks about the Zimmerman verdict. He thinks it's an outrage, it's unjust, it's unfair. And the way he feels about this is tied to his experience as a black man that I will never know. He has been profiled, where I certainly have not. He has a much more visceral reaction to it. I'm not as impassioned about this as he is. He's very fired up over it. He very much talks to me like he's trying to convince me. My emotional reaction is, "Lock that guy up. He sounds crazy. He's clearly racially profiling." I want Zimmerman away as a parent, but at the same time, you're thinking about the facts of the case. And I think there's room for me as a mom saying I want this guy locked up and if I was on this jury and I believed there was reasonable doubt, wondering if I would be able to lock him up.
-- Amanda Freeman, a Connecticut blogger who wrote about her experiences after the verdict on TLC's parenting blog; Caucasian
Citizens now afraid to get involved
I talked to my daughter. I have a 13-year-old grandson. I said, "Don't let him wear his hoodie up." Don't give yourself that appearance that you're hiding your face for a reason. That may be a profiling factor but it's not racial profiling. Here in Florida, so many crimes are posted by the police department with videos of people with hoodies up, to hide their faces, whites, blacks, all races. Children just don't have the same respect. They are more aggressive. Younger people are more aggressive. I think drugs play a big part of it. And the economy has played a big part in it. There's more needy people, There's more crime. I had burglaries two doors down on either side of my former residence. I got to the point where I would patrol. Anytime I went out instead of just coming down the street, I would drive down the alley, too. It's a thankless job. You're considered a nosy neighbor. You don't get paid anything. Most of the neighbors don't want to get involved, and now, with the profiling issue, you're afraid if you make several phone calls like George Zimmerman did, and they happen to be of the same race, you're going to be considered a profiler. It just incites fear in the citizen who might have wanted to get involved before.
-- Sharon Lee, former neighborhood watch volunteer; Caucasian
'Surround myself by people who feel the same'
When the verdict was announced, my roommates and I cried a lot. It was as if Trayvon had died all over again. When I went to Facebook to vent my frustrations, I lost some friends. When asked by these people, "Are you really dropping a friendship because a difference of opinion?", I replied "When it's about someone getting away with the murder of an innocent kid, yes." One of these people was my stepbrother. The verdict has made me sad, angry, not able to sleep well. I only want surround myself by people who feel the same way.
-- Patrick Snipes, Atlanta; Race unknown
Watching the trial changed my mind
My nurse was the one who said, "Let's watch the trial." I was riveted. I started watching with the idea that perhaps George Zimmerman was racist and culpable for his actions. But we were swayed by the evidence. To me, the most damaging evidence was the forensics. The angle of the gunshot, the placement of the two people, along with the testimony of the neighbor who described Trayvon Martin as being on top "punching him MMA style." There's an internal hesitancy to discuss it. I've definitely brought it up to more Caucasian people. I don't think it was racially motivated at all. I don't think either one of them were wrong. I think it's made things worse. They took a case that was not a racially biased case and made it into one. It's made some people want to pull away from the discussion.
-- Dr. Jennifer Beil, Marksville, Louisiana; Caucasian
'I was pissed off at him and I still am'
I have a friend who lives in Denver and I live in Seattle. My friend, Roger, is of Caucasian descent, I am of African-American. When the trial was aired, I didn't realize his view was strong for Zimmerman until there was a tense moment between us both on Facebook. I actually had to stop our conversation because it was getting weird. We saw each other a few weeks ago at a tournament and didn't discuss it or bring it up. When the verdict came out, "Not Guilty," he posted. "They Got It Right." I was pissed off and still am. I just can't see how a young boy unarmed with iced tea and Skittles is dead by gun by a watchman who was told not to follow him. I still cannot understand that if we are calling this self-defense, then where was Trayvon's self-defense? I posted the other day, "How does Florida convict a black woman for 20 years for shooting her gun in the air because her boyfriend was beating her, but Zimmerman kills a black boy and he is set free?" Still no response from my friend.
-- Howard Russell, Denver; African-American
Race relations have been set back
If the case didn't cause conversation between everyone in this country, I'd be shocked. The problem is too many people are joining the conversation, or having the conversation, without knowing a single fact about the case. It outrages me, especially since I was one of the insanely ignorant people that had George Zimmerman convicted as a murderer, just because I believed the tainted propaganda that the media shoved down our throats back in 2012. I had no intention of watching this trial. I happened to be on vacation during the trial, and my family was visiting from New Jersey, and they had been following the trial. So, with nothing but rainy days and not much else to do, I watched. I am really glad I did because it didn't take but one or two witnesses to see that an innocent man was being railroaded for the sake of politics.
What has this country come to? All you have to do is look out the reaction after the O.J. trial to this disgrace going on now to know that the racial divide in this country will never get any better until people are held accountable for their own actions. Did I agree with the O.J. verdict? Hell no, but there was a lot of shady things going on with that trial, so I can certainly see why the jury had to do what they did. And, well, O.J. is where he belongs after all, anyway. Karma. But us white people, we were mad for a few days. But then we got on with our lives, to the things that actually mattered. Hopefully the rest of the evidence that was destroyed and held back in the Zimmerman case will come to light someday soon, so that all of these idiots who painted Trayvon Martin as a saint, a martyr, can eat their words.
-- Kim Schulz, Florida; Caucasian
Zimmerman was wrong, but what about our neighbors?
[Boima Freeman posted to his Facebook page after the verdict, "If you want to protest the Zimmerman verdict, pull ur pants up, go to school, respect ur elders, stop killing each other."]
Some of my friends have called me and said, "How can you say that?" Friends of mine who always want to blame the white man. What's pissing me off is the fact that we don't get upset when our neighbor gets hurt, but we care when a celebrity gets hurt. We're doing it to ourselves. We're not treating every individual as Trayvon. What about that girl who performed in Obama's inauguration? Or the baby who was shot to death in Chicago while her dad changed her diaper? Who's marching for her? Or the next person who gets shot in that location? Why isn't Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson marching every day until the violence is resolved? It came up at a family reunion. The reunion dinner was Saturday night, the same night we got the verdict. There was a gentleman outside so upset he could cry. "How could they find him not guilty?" I simply explained to him that is the law. If this was our village in Africa, as soon as Zimmerman said he killed him, he would have been mobbed and beaten. That's why we live in America.
-- Boima Freeman, St. Paul, Minnesota; originally from Liberia; African-American
There are no heroes here
From what I understand, Trayvon Martin was a scumbag, not the sweet, innocent boy his family and friends have tried to make him out to be. He was a drug user who decided to dress like a criminal and sneak around in the middle of the night. As for George Zimmerman, he's just a giant MMA-wannabe, who probably beats his wife, that tried to be a hero and get recognition by shooting what he thought was a dangerous person. Trayvon's death was his own fault. He didn't stop to tell Zimmerman who he was and that he wasn't trying to do anything wrong. He tried to run away as if he was a criminal. I'm not saying that I agree with what Zimmerman did, he's not the good guy. I'm just saying that Trayvon wasn't the good guy, either. I agree with the verdict from the trial. Zimmerman didn't murder anyone, he just tried to do what he thought was right. That is what I tried to tell my friends, but they seem to be like everyone else in the nation. They think that since Zimmerman shot a black kid that he's racist. That's just not the case.
-- Mark Haldi; Race unknown
'It just makes me scared'
I'm an East Coast, left-of-center, 54-year-old white woman and I'm not talking. Unless you believe that Trayvon was an innocent child victimized by a vicious white murderer, you can't have a public conversation about this trial without being labeled a racist.
I won't even e-mail you from my real e-mail account. I'm in hiding. I'm not even as brave as Juror B37 who speaks in shadows. She and I watched every minute of that trial and came to the same conclusion. American jurisprudence worked during this trial. It may not in others, but in this one, it did. Saying this out loud does not make me a racist. It just makes me scared.
-- "Julie"; Caucasian
Away from the media maelstrom, America talks about Zimmerman verdict - CNN.com