Sunday, July 7, 2013

The Worst Word In The World

"Creepy ass cracker". This phrase stuck with me from the moment I heard it. When Rachel Jeantel was cross examined on the witness stand during the George Zimmerman trial, she testified that she was on the phone with Trayvon Martin just before George Zimmerman killed him, and Trayvon described Zimmerman as a "creepy ass cracker".

When defense attorney Don West asked if Jeantel thought that using this particular verbiage was a racial slur, in his attempt to portray Trayvon as a racist. Her reply was, no. While I fully understand West's defense strategy. The word "cracker" has not had an impact on a whole race of people. The word cracker was used to reference the slave master who cracked the whip. It was not used to keep people from voting, or rip children out of their mothers arms, and it was certainly not used as an excuse to enslave a whole group of people.

Just saying, and or hearing the N-word  is an attempt to dehumanize African-Americans. It has always been a contemptuous tool used to "bring us down a notch". It is a painful, hideous word that represents the African-American nightmare, and no other word that has been invented compares to it.

With that being said I believe that their was way too much focus on the word "cracker", and no focus on the word "creepy" at all. 

Creepy: 

having or causing a creeping sensation of the skin, as from horror or fear: 

This begs the question. What is it about George Zimmerman that gave Trayvon Martin a sense of horror or fear that made his skin crawl? This is the question that really needs to be asked, and I hope that the prosecution sees fit to use this question as part of their strategy.

PR

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