I will be the first to say that I didn’t follow the Martin/Zimmerman trial at all.
I heard about it when the shooting occurred and then, believe it or not, didn’t hear anything until Sat. night when Facebook exploded with comments.
So, I really don’t know that much about the particulars of the case. So, in reality, everything after this could be ignorance in a bottle.
That being said, I saw my friend Tjada’s comment and there was something that troubled me about it. (Truth be told, there were others along this line, but this one stood out…Also, Tjada and I go way back on discussing tough issues, so I know she can handle it
For the sake of argument, let’s just all agree for now that the Zimmerman verdict was a total miscarriage of justice.
Here’s where I am running into issues.
If the Zimmerman verdict was a miscarriage of justice and let’s say that race did play a factor, does that necessarily mean that all courts, police officers, and prosecutors are racially biased?
And, isn’t reaching that conclusion the very essence of the Zimmerman case, in some way? (or at least how I understand it).
From what I can gather Zimmerman saw a young black man and immediately drew a generalized conclusion “young black man in wrong neighborhood can only be up to no good” because of a stereotype he had formed.
So, is it equally dangerous to have an incident where one court case in one city in one state that involves the murder of a black man has a miscarriage of justice and then automatically assume that all court cases where a black man is the victim are, by definition, going to be equally unfair/corrupt, etc.?
I suppose I am thinking that the reaction to the court case is precisely because of the danger of stereotypes, yet a statement like ‘scared for all black boys’ implies a stereotype that there’s no real justice in the court system anywhere in America.
Or, maybe I am just missing something here on a deeper level? Definitely possible and won’t be the first time, so help me understand.
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