My 20 something, tiny, blue eyed, blonde daughter taught in the South Bronx

[Honeycombe8]

31. You're making generalizations not based on facts.

Last edited Sun Mar 25, 2012, 09:32 AM - Edit history (1)

I appreciate that you and your daughter have walked in different neighborhoods safely, without guns. There are minorities here in my neighborhood in Dallas...they live, work, and go to school here in complete safety, even though there are many gun owners around.

What happened to Trayvon Martin was one incident caused by one weird guy with a problem. I don't even think it was necessarily a racial thing, although it might have been. I've heard bigoted white people say the word "black" many times, and that's not the tone used by Zimmerman, when he reported in the 911 call that Martin was a "black male" and described his clothing. He said he was a black male after the policeman specifically asked the race of the guy, for purposes of identifying him when they located him.

Let's not blame ALL white people for the actions of one, and let's not group ALL black teens into one group because one has burglarized you in the past.

I have had incidents of attempted break-ins before. Both were by black males. I haven't extrapolated those incidents into blaming ALL black males for those incidents. My sister's house was robbed of what little she had once, by a black male. I don't think I've blamed all black males for that, either. Her neighborhood had gradually become more black than white over the years. Does it mean she was no longer welcome in her neighborhood? Does it mean she was targeted because she was white? After all, she was poor and had little to take. Or was it just because some bad guy broke in and took her stuff?

Generalizing and blaming entire groups of people for the actions of a few is the essence of bigotry. It's wrong, regardless of which race does it, for whatever reason. Blacks live and work among whites freely and happily across America. Don't blame millions of others for the actions of one.

Besides, let's not forget that Zimmerman was latino.