And I just blew my stack at an old friend about the Zimmerman case.

[LearningCurve]

37. Neither better or worse

It is less confusing, though. My environment may not be mirrored by others, but I spend a lot of time working in one of the blue-collar areas of the city. At various "Hoosier bars," in the neighborhood, the Zimmerman trial was shown on one of the televisions (sports on all the others). For those unfamiliar with the term, "Hoosier" here roughly translates to "lower income whites." At any rate, when Zimmerman was shown on television, exclamations of "Jorge!" would erupt. One of the "local comedian" regulars, would often make jokes to the effect of, "If Zimmerman gets the chair, he's gonna be a refried beaner."

To put this in context, I don't believe anyone there really cared about the outcome, beyond the entertainment value. In their mind, Zimmerman is latino. In their minds, what they were watching was brown on black crime. I suspect no one really cared about the verdict either way. As far as my experience with apolitical whites in my area goes, Zimmerman is a laughable figure (complete with Speedy Gonzalez voice) that belongs on Jerry Springer. No white person I know is looking at Zimmerman as a reflection in the mirror.

If Obama was referred to as white in this area, I think that most people would assume someone was making a joke or some sort of political statement. Half-white, they'd probably understand the reference to his mixed parentage. The same might be true of Zimmerman if he was called half-white as well. However, in my neck of the woods, just calling Obama or Zimmerman "white" is likely to result in confusion.