There’s a type of profiling in our society that people upset with the Zimmerman verdict are overlooking. Instead of profiling Trevon Martin as a BLACK person, could Zimmerman have reacted to his YOUTH? A kid, likely with a bit of a youthful, jaunty walk, coming down the street, face partially covered by a hoodie, carrying…something…. As they moved closer together, a KID probably failed to give an adult the desired response (translate that into “respect”). Words exchanged could not have been conversation, because kids and adults don’t speak the same slanguage, and adults, often uncomfortable with that, become defensive to keep themselves from becoming intimidated by a PUNK KID.
I don’t know. I think there was some pre-conceived notion on Zimmerman’s part. Otherwise he wouldn’t have left his car to confront Martin. I have reasonable doubt, though, that it was simply racial. Maybe partially racial, maybe not. But I’d bet that, in that Neighborhood Watchman’s mind, young people were the perpetrators of a recent rash of burglaries; therefore, he saw Martin as a suspect and a threat because he was a KID.