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George Zimmerman, who called 911 prior to shooting young teen Trayvon Martin in a case that has become a national scandal, has been both accused of racism and exonerated of it by outside sources. But in recent days, both the accusation of racism and its defense have come to hinge on a tiny portion of the recorded 911 call, in which Zimmerman sounds like he utters the phrase “f–king coons” under his breath while following Martin. “Coon” is, of course, a racial slur for African Americans. The snippet of audio is so quick – 1.6 seconds – and Martin’s voice is so soft when he says it, that it’s easy to mistake for radio static.
Fortunately, CNN is on the case, and had their audio specialist isolate the 1.6 seconds involved, modify it so background noise was removed, and played it back. And while the CNN anchor involved declined to state definitively whether the slur was used, both the editor and the anchor said it sounded an awful lot like it was, especially when the word alone was isolated. Mediaite discovered the segment and linked it. You can watch and decide for yourself below:
Former NAACP leader C.L. Bryant is accusing Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton of “exploiting” the Trayvon Martin tragedy to “racially divide this country.”
“His family should be outraged at the fact that they’re using this child as the bait to inflame racial passions,” Rev. C.L. Bryant said in a Monday interview with The Daily Caller.
The conservative black pastor who was once the chapter president of the Garland, Texas NAACP called Jackson and Sharpton “race hustlers” and said they are “acting as though they are buzzards circling the carcass of this young boy.”
But Bryant, who explores the topic of black-on-black crime in his new film “Runaway Slave,” said people like Jackson and Sharpton are being misleading to suggest there is an epidemic of “white men killing black young men.”
“The epidemic is truly black on black crime,” Bryant said. “The greatest danger to the lives of young black men are young black men.”
Bryant said he wishes civil rights leaders were protesting those problems.
“Why not be angry about the wholesale murder that goes on in the streets of Newark and Chicago?” he asked. “Why isn’t somebody angry about that six-year-old girl who was killed on her steps last weekend in a cross fire when two gang members in Chicago start shooting at each other? Why is there no outrage about that?”
Bryant said he worries that “people like Sharpton and those on the left” will make Martin’s death a campaign issue in the presidential race.
He speculated that they will “turn this evolving tragedy of this young man into fodder to say… if you don’t re-elect Obama then you will have unbridled events or circumstances like this happening in the streets to young men wearing hoodies.” (RELATED: Herman Cain criticizes ‘swirling rhetoric’ after Martin shooting)
Originally posted by Rockpuck
reply to post by GenRadek
And? Doesn't change the fact that Martin punched Zimmerman and banged his head into the ground prior to being shot.
Originally posted by Rockpuck
reply to post by GenRadek
And? Doesn't change the fact that Martin punched Zimmerman and banged his head into the ground prior to being shot.
Originally posted by MentorsRiddle
Come on people. If you were just attacked, you'd probably be throwing out every racial slur in the book if you were scared and in shock enough.
Everyone on some level has some traces of race issues in their blood - we are not that far gone from a time when it was so mainstream.
Yes - there was probably racial profiling on Zimmerman's part.
But, he was clearly attacked and assulted - resulting in him defending himself.
Him saying coon, or any other biggot slang does not un-justify his actions or defend this dead child. If anything it only makes the situation worse.
There were problems on both sides of this story - from both individuals - not just one side.
If you were just attacked, you'd probably be throwing out every racial slur in the book if you were scared and in shock enough.
Originally posted by CoherentlyConfused
If you were just attacked, you'd probably be throwing out every racial slur in the book if you were scared and in shock enough.
Except he said it before any confrontation occurred.
But I hear it both ways. I hear "coon" and "punk". It's too hard to tell and I have a $200 set of noise-reduction headphones that I use for my job as a transcriptionist, which I have been doing for over a decade. If I had to testify as to what I heard, I could not say one way or the other.