A week after George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the fatal shooting of
black teenager Trayvon Martin, the backlash continues, with nationwide
protests and calls to boycott Florida. President Obama spoke some
undeniable truths when he noted that the African-American community’s
reaction must be seen in the context of a long, terrible history of
racism. But there is another context too: that of an ideology-based,
media-driven false narrative that has distorted a tragedy into a racist
outrage.
This narrative has transformed Zimmerman, a man of racially mixed heritage that included white, Hispanic and black roots (a grandmother who helped raise him had an Afro-Peruvian father), into an honorary white male steeped in white privilege. It has cast him as a virulent racist even though he once had a black business partner, mentored African-American kids, lived in a neighborhood about 20 percent black, and participated in complaints about a white police lieutenant’s son getting away with beating a homeless black man.
This narrative has transformed Zimmerman, a man of racially mixed heritage that included white, Hispanic and black roots (a grandmother who helped raise him had an Afro-Peruvian father), into an honorary white male steeped in white privilege. It has cast him as a virulent racist even though he once had a black business partner, mentored African-American kids, lived in a neighborhood about 20 percent black, and participated in complaints about a white police lieutenant’s son getting away with beating a homeless black man.
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