Letters: Racism gets attention


George Zimmerman

Joe Burbank, AP

Amid the dozens of murders by firearm every day in this country, the media and community leaders have singled out the Trayvon Martin case. Why is it receiving so much attention? Why are people holding signs and protesting in the streets over the loss of someone they have never met?

The reason is pure and simple — and racist. It is because of skin color. If Martin were Caucasian, his death would be a lost footnote among all the others. Any loss of a young life is a tragedy and should be mourned, but to calculate outrage based on skin color is the very essence of racism.

Martin Luther King dreamed of a world in which outward appearances would not be used to make such judgements. How shameful that his son dishonors this wish by associating with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who make careers out of judging by skin color, rather than the content of a man's character.

Ryan Phillips


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