George Zimmerman Demands Apology from African-Americans

Read Time:4 Minute, 39 Second
George Zimmerman interview with Sean Hannity, from Fox News Insider.

Thursday evening, I saw a headline that stopped me dead in my tracks. It was something along the lines of “George Zimmerman wants an apology from African-Americans.” The headline implied that at some point during his recent statements, Zimmerman had demanded an apology from the entire African-American community. Outraged, I clicked the link.

Contained within the body of the article was a 9-minute video of George Zimmerman’s interview with Sean Hannity. I read the article first, and saw, again, statements from the author that outright said Zimmerman was asking for an apology from the entire African-American community. So, I watched the video. I waited, eyes glued to the screen, pen ready to write down this deeply offensive statement. It never came.

Sean Hannity asked Zimmerman about two specific things, and two specific people-Al Sharpton and Spike Lee. I don’t know what Al Sharpton allegedly did to George Zimmerman, but I do know what Spike Lee did. Mr. Lee, believing he had possession of George Zimmerman’s address, posted it on Twitter. It turned out to be the wrong address, but that’s neither here nor there. Mr. Lee thought it was Zimmerman’s address, and he Tweeted it to thousands of people.

Hannity set the question up perfectly. He asked Zimmerman what he wanted from Spike Lee and Al Sharpton, and other people who rushed to judgment. And George Zimmerman said he wanted an apology. Now, let’s look at this logically for a moment, and then I’ll share the portions of the interview that were actually very disturbing.

The headline of that article was wrong and misleading. George Zimmerman at no time said he wanted an apology from the entire African-American community. It never happened. What he said was that he wants an apology from Al Sharpton and Spike Lee. The article also states that Zimmerman “accused” the African-American community of rushing to judgment. Actually, Sean Hannity was the one accusing. At no time did Zimmerman make any statement like that, and even attributing such a statement to Hannity is a stretch. Hannity set it up and Zimmerman hit it out of the park, yes, but neither George Zimmerman or Sean Hannity ever suggested that the entire African-American community owes Zimmerman an apology.

The odd thing about that article, and how it relates to the video, is that the interview was bad enough. No one had to make up a sensational headline or mislead readers; Zimmerman’s statements were horrible all on their own. Hannity asked Zimmerman if Zimmerman could go back to that night, would he change anything. Zimmerman looked straight at Hannity and replied “No, sir.” Zimmerman then said one of the most offensive and cruel things I have ever heard: he told Sean Hannity that this was “God’s plan.” God’s plan. No, it was the NRA’s plan and ALEC’s plan and George Zimmerman’s plan. God had nothing to do with it.

Trayvon Martin’s parents released a statement after Zimmerman’s interview, saying they do not believe it was God’s plan that Trayvon was shot, and that Zimmerman must worship a different God than they do. I agree. If I had shot a 17-year old kid, and Sean Hannity asked me if I could go back and change anything, I would have screamed “Yes! I wish I’d never been there, I wish I’d never had a gun, I wish I wish I wish.” But George Zimmerman wouldn’t change a thing, because in his mind, it was “God’s plan” that he shoot an unarmed teenager to death.

The last statement that gave me pause came when Hannity asked Zimmerman when he realized that Trayvon Martin was dead. Zimmerman responded, and in the middle of his answer he said he knew he “had discharge my firearm.” What? Discharged your firearm? That’s what cops say, or members of the military, FBI agents, the Secret Service. Not some two-bit neighborhood watch captain. It’s what you say when you think you’re following the letter of the law and are going to get away with killing a 17-year old kid.

And why shouldn’t Zimmerman believe that? He was raised by a father, a judge, who taught him that he could get away with anything. Domestic violence, hitting a police officer and resisting arrest, all taken care of by Zimmerman’s father. Combine that with the bizarre racist overtones of Stand Your Ground laws, and George Zimmerman is under the impression that he did absolutely nothing wrong.

This entire situation is bad enough. A mother who will never again hold her child. A father who will never hear his son’s laugh. A man who believes it was “God’s plan,” and wouldn’t change anything about that night. We don’t need to sensationalize this, we don’t need to exacerbate the situation; all we have to do is pay attention. George Zimmerman made some incredibly telling statements during his interview with Sean Hannity, statements that do a much better job of showing the kind of person he truly is than any article or headline. It’s bad enough.

Thanks to CBS.com and New York Daily News for contributions to this article. I have chosen not to name the site where I found the video and article that inspired this piece.

Follow MadMike’sAmerica on Facebook and Twitter, and don’t forget to visit our HOME PAGE.

If you liked our story please share it at REDDIT.COM and PINTEREST as well as TUMBLR.

About Post Author

Erin Nanasi

Erin Nanasi is an avid underwater basket weaver, with a penchant for satire and the odd wombat reference.
Happy
Happy
0 %
Sad
Sad
0 %
Excited
Excited
0 %
Sleepy
Sleepy
0 %
Angry
Angry
0 %
Surprise
Surprise
0 %
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of

7 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Dr. Mark Bear
10 years ago

While I wholeheartedly agree with the content of your piece, my only issue is this: While Zimmerman may not have made the statement the writer of that article attributes to him, there has existed a mentality among Zimmerman supporters, that if the likes of Lee, Rev. Sharpton, or even our President refrained from commenting on this case, Zimmerman would not have even been arrested in the first place. That is, Zimmerman suffered at the hands of black commentators who had no business voicing an opinion. Moreover, many Zimmerman supporters, and liberals look to Rev. Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson, as those icons of civil rights advocacy.

Our President had every right to make the statement as follows: “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.” Well, yes! I should hope so! In other words, what issue could one possibly have with the President stating the obvious here? Is it not true that Trayvon Martin and our President share the same race? Put another way, what if former President Bush made a statement similar in nature to this, regarding a white person who dealt with the exact same fate? Would those Zimmerman supporters argue the same point regarding the former President’s statement? Doubtful!

In a similar vein, one aspect of the argument made by Zimmerman supporters is true, and that is this: Had Reverend Al Sharpton not advocated for the arrest of George Zimmerman, there most certainly would not have been a trial. But wait: Reverend Sharpton was not the ONLY individual advocating for Zimmerman’s arrest, and for those Zimmerman supporters – and there are many if you look in the venue of social media – to assert that only “Black” people wanted to see this man arrested, is in my opinion, engaging in the same hyperbole the author of the piece you site engages in.

In addition, I specifically recall Fox News anchors, and especially contributors arguing from the outset how Zimmerman was justified in his actions, some going so far as to engage in the same profiling which Zimmerman allegedly engaged in.

It was afterall, Geraldo Rivera who argued the following on May 12, 2012: “If a cop looks at three kids on the corner, and they’ve got those hoodies up — and this is where I got in trouble with the Trayvon Martin case — if they’ve got those hoodies up, and they’re hanging out on the corner, the cops look at them and say, ‘Hmm, hoodies. Who else wears hoodies? Everybody that ever stuck up a convenience store, D.B. Cooper, the guy that hijacked a plane, Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber…'”” Where was the outrage from Zimmerman supporters then? And, worse, can we not logically deduce that the very silence we experienced from such supporters actually agreed with Rivera?

And the commentary by Rivera continued as the trial proceeded to close, as he states: ” So it’s a dark night, a 6-foot-2-inch hoodie-wearing stranger is in the immediate housing complex. How would the ladies of that jury have reacted? I submit that if they were armed, they would have shot and killed Trayvon Martin a lot sooner than George Zimmerman did. This is self-defense.”

Adding insult to injury, Rivera still could not leave matters alone, could he? Shortly after the verdict was reached and handed down, he opined the following: “You dress like a thug; people are going to treat you like a thug.” Was this statement necessary? Doubtful! Was it incendiary? Absolutely!

And then, of course, we have the Mark O’Mara commenting in the defense’s press conference the following: “If George Zimmerman was black, ‘he would have never been charged with a crime.'” Really? Do the statistics of our nation lie? It is nearly a well-known fact that our justice system is tilted against those of color. Making matters worse, is Mr. O’Mara, as an officer of the court, surely must know this, and yet, he chose to make this statement.

Make no mistake: Stereotypes and naive realism have been engaged in since the inception of this story. Naive realism simply means attributing to an individual, either real of fictional, attributes of a group.

Rivera certainly employed this stereotype by implying only suspicious people, or worse, “thugs,” wear hoodies and therefore should be placed under finer scrutiny. While Sharpton may have inflamed the issue, at least his commentary was premised on factual material, aside from any comments made about the facts of the case. However, supporters perhaps from either side of the debate were not so enlightened, and moreover, the comments coming from the very supporters of Zimmerman seem to reinforce the very outrage many folks have regarding the entire issue; including me, a white male.

Perhaps my sharing a personal experience regarding the outcome of the trial will assist here. During a telephone conversation today, my wife was asked directly by a relative how she felt about the outcome of the trial. My wife responded that “she was highly disappointed,” only for that relative to share how “satisfied” she was with the outcome, due to “those” people always getting away with stuff like this. And yet, this assertion is not in any way premised on reality, for if it were, our prisons would see a more even handed distribution of those imprisoned.

At best, the author of the piece you site has engaged in hyperbole, and at worst, he or she lacks journalistic integrity, something that is highly dangerous, especially considering these specific matters. Make no mistake: All media influences. The question that must be asked is this: Are those consuming that medium, sufficiently guided to question, as you did, the very material and information being thrust at them, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, whether on cable news, or on the internet.

Critical thinking is an essential tool needed to navigate the murky waters of media, and yet it seems our citizens only seek that information which confirms their belief, conviction, worldview, or ideology. This is what we social psychologists refer to as “confirmation bias,” due to these same citizens ignoring “other relevant data or information” which has the potential to change that belief, conviction, worldview, or ideology. It appears to me this is precisely what happened with the author of the article you site in this piece. Many thanks for sharing!

Reply to  Dr. Mark Bear
10 years ago

Dr. Bear I would like to turn your observations into an article if you don’t mind. You make some excellent points and I would like to make it available to a wider audience. Thanks.

Dr. Mark Bear
Reply to  Professor Mike
10 years ago

Good morning Michael,

I am deeply flattered due to your wanting to use several of my observations in an article, however I am a political writer and analyst, and was planning on publishing something similar and sending to my publisher within the night. Please advise, if you can, as to whether you already had taken the article to print. Many thanks for your kind and gracious words, and I sincerely look forward to your response.

Finally, I made several grammatical errors in the above response, which I plan on correcting. I can only attribute these errors to the time of day I posted this. Many thanks again!

~Doc

Joshua
10 years ago

Spike Lee does owe an apology I think to the family whose address he exposed who had nothing to do with this case, but he exposed them to danger. I have no idea why Zimmerman would think he’s owed an apology from Al Sharpton. No one owes an apology to George Zimmerman. He owes an apology to the entire country.

Anonymous
11 years ago

Erin, do you have a source for your comment about his father teaching him he could get away with anything? I had not heard that before and just wondered where you got that information from.

11 years ago

Excellent – which is exactly why I keep preaching, “Look below the headlines.” I read that article with its (deliberately?) misleading headline and opted not to share it. For the left to engage in this kind of crap is just as wrong as what Fox News does – something I’ve also been yelling about.

Reply to  Leslie Parsley
11 years ago

I’ve been yelling about the same thing Leslie then I stopped watching the news, excepting the Nightly News, altogether.

Previous post The Old Man’s Message
Next post The Circle of Madness is Closing
7
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x