The George Zimmerman Trial, One Year Later
George Zimmerman's trial for killing Trayvon Martin became a flashpoint for raucous, heated debates — conversations about racial profiling, gun laws, and the criminal justice system. Zimmerman's acquittal was seen by many as an outrage, but any outcome would have been unsatisfying for many people, since criminal trials are horrible proxies for the resolutions of big, thorny social issues.
This past Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of Zimmerman's acquittal, and we didn't think the occasion should go unremarked upon. The New York Daily News has an update on what's happened to the major players surrounding the case in the year since the trial. But what has happened to some of the other big issues raised by the trial?
On Latinos And Whiteness
During the trial, a lot of hay was made over Zimmerman's ethnicity — many folks argued that the confrontation wasn't one between a white guy and a black teenager because Zimmerman wasn't white, but Latino. In some circles, the idea that someone could be both Latino and white was treated as a media concoction meant to slide the Trayvon Martin shooting into a familiar black-white template for racial grievance.
Last month, Krissah Thompson and Lonnae Parker O'Neal of the Washington Post caught up with Jeantel and documented the efforts by several well-connected figures, including the radio host and mogul Tom Joyner, who intervened in Jeantel's life after seeing her on television during the trial. (They dubbed themselves, "the village," as in "it takes a village.") It's hard not to notice the cultural and socioeconomic gulfs between Jeantel and her self-appointed village, whose goals often seem at cross purposes.
With Joyner's money, the village went to work. Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall says she wept when she saw Jeantel on the stand, seeing her as proof of a failing school system. A Miami-Dade School Board member, Bendross-Mindingall threw herself into the cause, too. She arranged for Jeantel to be transferred to an alternative school, with smaller classes and intense staff involvement.
Jeantel's mother, Marie Eugene, who speaks Creole and little English, silently watched the hurricane of help come into her daughter's life. Few of Jeantel's mentors had ever spoken with Eugene directly. At times, Jeantel herself was hardly consulted. ...
Joyner won't say how much the foundation has contributed to Jeantel's care. "What matters is, did it work? The short answer to that is no," Joyner says. Rachel graduated "not being motivated to get ready for the world." Joyner wanted her college-ready — to get herself college ready. That's what the foundation was paying for. "The educational system failed her, but here was an opportunity to do more than the system was offering her," he says. "We took her to the water, and now the rest is up to her." The offer remains open.