Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Inconvenient narratives in the Martin case

Posted by William A. Jacobson
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 1:53pm

Via The Crawdad Hole, a very interesting chart of FBI crime statistics for 2009.

What it shows is that whites kill whites, and blacks kill blacks. And interestingly, “other” kills “other.”

It’s not the narrative heard much in the media, because it does not play into stereotypes as to violence.


They don’t have statistics on murders by political affiliation, but the media is on a never-ending search for Tea Party murderers.

How do we know George Zimmerman was not a Tea Party supporter? We would have heard about it instantaneously had it been the case. Same if he was a Republican.

And that is the narrative, Republican/Tea Party/Right-wing talk radio caused Zimmerman to stereotype Martin:



Turns out Zimmerman is a Democrat:

The individual at the center of the controversial Trayvon Martin shooting is a registered Democrat.

George Michael Zimmerman, born Oct. 5, 1983, Voter ID #107862946, registered as a Democrat in Seminole County, Fla., in August 2002, according to state voter registration documents.

It is unclear whether he voted for President Barack Obama in 2008.


He’s also listed on his voting record as “Hispanic” not “white Hispanic.”

BuzzFeed Politics is treating the revelation that Zimmerman was a registered Democrat with scorn, but I doubt they would have reacted that way if it turned out Zimmerman was a Tea Party supporter.

Be prepared for outrage! that someone mentioned that Zimmerman was who he was.

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