People who are half Hispanic, half jewish cannot be racists?
Amongst Jews and Hispanics are some of the worst racists.
Standing my ground on Hispanics as racists
I got it. George Zimmerman is Hispanic. His mother is Hispanic.
This description is offered as if to say, “See, he can't be a racist.”
Well, no. But first let's talk about the relevancy of race generally here.
Before Neighborhood Watch volunteer Zimmerman shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in “self-defense” in Florida — perhaps while “standing his ground” — he told a 911 dispatcher that the teenager was acting suspiciously.
This teenager was “armed” only with candy and iced tea. He was walking in a neighborhood where he had lawful reason to be. But he was also a young black man wearing a hoodie.
We are counseled that there should be no rush to judgment here. OK, not even to ask whether there was a rush to judgment by Zimmerman? And if so, why?
Some of my correspondents tell me — often — that minorities play the race card to feign victimhood.
Martin isn't faking.
Please, let's not pretend that the unwarranted attention drawn — unto injury or death — when walking or driving while black doesn't happen. Also not uncommon: the malefactor not held accountable.
Which takes us to another issue here — the stand-your-ground law.
A recent story by San Antonio Express-News reporter Craig Kapitan gave chapter and verse on the similarities between Florida's law and Texas'.
Here's another. Both laws are flawed. Both remove the duty to retreat, even outside the home.
This makes no sense. Nothing defuses a confrontation more than one of the combatants vamoosing — if able. In Texas, our law pretty much instructs folks to stick around and gives license to use deadly force in defense.
To me, that says, “carry a gun.” NRA rejoice.
A Florida grand jury, the state and the Justice Department are investigating the Martin case. But this came only after national outrage erupted. As occurs here, it might have all ended with that police decision not to arrest, though prosecutions also occur.
Now consider what happens automatically when police shoot people.
The police conduct “parallel” internal investigations. The review goes to the district attorney, where the shooting is investigated again, and chances are high of further grand jury review.
I get it. Police act under color of authority. Public confidence is the issue, thoroughness therefore is the imperative.
But public confidence is also the issue, and the same kind of thoroughness should be the rule in stand-your-ground cases — particularly if the only other witness is unavailable to dispute the claim of self-defense. He's dead.
And, by the way, the New Black Panther Party's $10,000 “bounty” for a citizen's arrest of Zimmerman is an invitation to the kind of vigilantism that Zimmerman may have engaged in.
Back to Zimmerman's ethnicity. Not racist because he's Hispanic?
Yes, Hispanics can be racist, though common cause is more likely than not to promote empathy.
But the issue here is why the teenager was targeted. Zimmerman saw a young man “up to no good.” Why?
If the answer is, “Because he was black,” it doesn't matter whether the person thinking this is Hispanic or, as the Census puts it, non-Hispanic white.
Failing to consider race as a factor in this shooting is tantamount to naïveté. And using blots now surfacing on Martin's record — that Zimmerman knew nothing about — as cover for what occurred, speaks to something else entirely.
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