Quote:
Originally Posted by PM_Mama00
No it's the point where I say that I could care less what color or status or class someone is. If you look suspicious, I will be suspicious.
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The problem with this and its relevance to Zimmerman is that you're talking about your perspective and your reaction. It doesn't matter to you whether the person who looks suspicious is black or white or other, and race doesn't enter into your calculation of whether someone looks suspicious or not. Ditto status or class.
But the fact that these things wouldn't matter to you is irrelevant to the question of whether they mattered to Zimmerman. They might not have mattered to him or they might have -- we'll just have to wait and see. I don't know and I don't want to speculate one way or the other.
But in a hate crimes analysis, what will be determinative is not whether a reasonable person could have found Trayvon Martin's actions/presence to be suspicious without any reference to his race, but (as DrPhil said) whether Zimmerman targeted him on the basis of his race.