Dear Sticky Wicket,
Was the Trayvon Martin case about race or is it merely about murder? Did race play a role in it?
- Perplexed in Philadelphia, Mississippi
Dear Perplexed:
The jury made its decision: George Zimmerman was found not guilty for the murder of Trayvon Martin.
Ever since the story broke about the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year old black teen, by George Zimmerman in Sanford Florida on February 26 2012, questions began to surface whether or not it was a matter of race.
Even though Zimmerman is bi-racial, his father is white and his mother Hispanic, he is somewhat considered to be white by some who feel he targeted the teen because of his race. That’s even after Martin’s parents themselves felt it wasn’t an issue of race but of perception.
Martin, a black teen in a hoodie walking through a gated community of mostly white residents, looked suspicious to Zimmerman. Zimmerman followed Martin, which resulted in the fatal altercation.
That’s part of why Chad Dion Lassiter feels the Trayvon Martin case was a racial issue. Lassiter, a professor of race relations at Westchester University and an expert on race relations for the National Association of Social Workers, calls it first and foremost an American tragedy. But he says it saddens him that black skin, Skittles, iced tea and a hoodie deemed him as "other" and therefore a threat to the gated community where the teen lived with his father.
"He was deemed a threat to the community because of white supremacy, (Zimmerman) took it upon himself to decide who was worthy or who is unworthy to be in this community," Lassiter says.
Zimmerman saying the fatal shooting of Martin was an act of self-defense was merely a convenient truth he adds.
"George Zimmerman racially profiled Trayvon Martin. This person doesn’t belong here and I’m going to address it. The dead person is being accused of being the aggressor," Lassiter said.