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White Supremacy: The Key to 'Not Guilty'
White supremacy in America had much to do with the not-guilty verdict on charges of manslaughter and second-degree murder in the George Zimmerman trial, according to the Nation. Zimmerman, described by some as “white Hispanic,” operated under the logic of white supremacy — and so did the jury. In the last few days, Latinos in…
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Beyoncé Pauses for Trayvon Martin at Concert
Beyoncé called for a moment of silence for Trayvon Martin while performing in Nashville, Tenn., on Saturday during her Mrs. Carter tour, after a Florida jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the death of the unarmed 17-year-old teenager, the Washington Post reports. It was among a range of reactions by celebrities across the nation after an…
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Sybrina Fulton on Verdict: 'My Darkest Hour'
Trayvon Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, took to Twitter to express their profound grief after a jury acquitted George Zimmerman in the shooting death of their son, the Daily Mail reports. They were not present in the courtroom as the verdict was read. Trayvon Martin’s heartbroken mother has poured her heart out onto…
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Zimmerman Trial: State Lost From the Start
(The Root) — By the time George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin, the state of Florida had long since lost its case against him. Possibly several times over. Maybe it was June 28, the fourth day of testimony, when the prosecution made the risky decision to call to the stand the…
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Protesters March Over Zimmerman Verdict
Demonstrators gathered peacefully around the nation early Sunday to express disappointment over George Zimmerman’s acquittal in the death of the unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin nearly a year ago in Sanford, Fla., according to various media outlets. In Florida, there were pockets of small peaceful gatherings throughout the state. The Washington Post reports that marchers took…
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Why the Zimmerman Jury Failed Us
(The Root) — America is racist at its core. I used to doubt this simplistic claim. Today I cannot. The murder of Trayvon Martin demands total, simple, honesty. A jury in Florida failed us. We have not seen a moral failure this grave since a similarly all-white jury in Simi Valley, Calif., in 1992 acquitted…
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What If Trayvon Martin Had Been a Black Woman?
Contending that female victims are “so often omitted from the narratives of violence” in the African-American community, the Guardian‘s Jamila Aisha Brown suggests that if Trayvon Martin had been a young black woman, her name would be unknown. What if Trayvon Martin had been a black woman? CNN host Piers Morgan posed this hypothetical question to Marc Lamont Hill on Tuesday night:…
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Sadness Over Trayvon Martin's Death Still Lingers
During an interview last year, George Zimmerman told Sean Hannity that shooting Trayvon Martin was “God’s plan.” Having sat through his second-degree-murder trial in the presence of the dead teen’s parents, writes Charles Blow in the New York Times, perhaps Zimmerman would answer differently now. One thing still hanging in the air when the lawyers…
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Educating Black Boys Takes Everything We're Not Doing
Critical supports in childhood help mold young black boys into successful men, Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children’s Defense Fund, argues at the Huffington Post. She says families, schools, churches, communities and government agencies need to do more to help them achieve greater academic success. “You don’t have to be a Black male educator…

