Trayvon Martin

Reading the article about Trayvon Martin, there were lots of thoughts running through my head. The first thing that came to my mind was how well the article was in fact written. There was no bias at all and it was clear that the author was looking at both sides. The author took a lot of time looking into the background of both Trayvon and George. The author did this in a way where he introduced Trayvon and spoke about how he was just a normal teenage kid. The author states, “ Sleeping in Miami Dolphins bed sheets, he was all teenage boy, and more.” Then he goes on to say later,” Trayvon was a teenager, not an angel. In his last year at his high school in north Miami-Dade County, he had received three suspensions- one for tardiness, for graffiti and, most recently, for having a baggie with a trace of marijuana in his backpack.” The author does the same with George Zimmerman about how he likes to protect the community but has gotten in trouble for violent behaviors in the past. I really liked how the author set up this article.

The two main controversies I took from this article was the obvious one; should George Zimmerman guilty for killing Trayvon Martin. The other was did race play a factor in Travon’s death? The media buzz for this case would not even be as close to what it would be if Trayvon was not black. That is one of the saddest parts of the story for me. If it was white person who killed a white person or a black person who killed a black person, there still might be a story but not to this extent. Obviously it is a tragedy when I teenager is killed like this but this story is sadly all about race. I also believe race had something to do with Zimmerman taking action into his own hands. When he called the cops, he stated, “ The guy seemed to be up to no good; like he was on drugs or something; in a gray hoodie. He looks black.” I think that Zimmerman used stereotypes to judge Trayvon because he was black. Once he saw that and realized he had a hoodie on, he made the assumption that he was on drugs and could be up to no good. The article states that Zimmerman also could have potentially said a racial slur that the dispatcher picked up. A big reason why I think Zimmerman should be guilty is because he disobeyed the dispatcher when they told him not to follow Trayvon but he did it anyway. The rest of the story has so many grey areas I don’t know what to believe but this should have never escaladed to a death. Whether Trayvon started it or Zimmerman started it, this could have been settled earlier. If Zimmerman was responsible enough as a neighborhood watch guard, he wouldn’t of let this happened. Clearly he let his emotions get the best of him, which led to the shooting. Zimmerman should have repercussions for his actions. This situation didn’t have to go to a point where “self defense” was needed.