Trayvon Vs. The Jury

Posted by Joie Nearn in English 2 - Pahomov - A on

Joie Nearn

January 15, 2014

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The U.S court system has continued to get progressively biases toward certain cases. Being that in America there has been several cases that have displayed\ racial injustices such as Emmitt Till, Oscar Grant, Troy Davis and the most recent Trayvon Martin trail. The Trayvon Martin trial has enabled America to express their bias, towards discrimination.

Ironically the vast majority of the jurors that have taken part of the trail, were white americans. Meaning that they racially could not relate. According to a news article written by  Richard Gabriel one of the jurors stated “And it is a combination of skin color, idiom, nonverbal behavior, and personality that causes this cultural outgroup divide, not just her race.” These jurors wronged them the fact they could not relate with the witness Rachel Jeantel, which  based their verdict decision. Knowing that Zimmerman is much more similar, in race and background, the jurors disregarded everything that she testified. This allowed five out of six of the jurors to rule in favor of George Zimmerman.

Stereotypes have taken a major role in how the jurors and Americans function. Knowing the history of African Americans had their past with the law enabled the jurors of the trail to be more lenient towards Zimmerman. According to an article written by the Huffington Post “ The infamous Juror B-37 said that Zimmerman was not racially profiling young Trayvon, but was merely profiling him based on the fact that black men had been involved with burglaries in that neighborhood.” Knowing that Trayvon was African American made this juror believe that Zimmerman was automatically in correct for murdering him. Knowing that African Americans in the past have had serious issues with criminal behavior, made the jurors believe that Trayvon Martin’s death was vital.

Knowing that America became very involved, in this historic trail. Society began to believe that this outcome of this trail was because the jury was bias. There was only one juror of color on this trail. According to The Huffington Post “as the only juror of color states that George Zimmerman "got away with murder" and as the nation lurches through yet another tragic episode that forces us to deal with our racial legacy -- new ways of viewing race are surfacing.” Being that this juror was the only one of color she could relate in some way with Trayvon Martin which made her very remorseful for this young man's death.

The Implicit Association Test has been used to display your blind spots, in terms of our personal biases. Theses test are developed by Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts. These test are used to measure someone's automatic association between to objects. For example, in class we taken the Race IAT test, to measure Pleasant words and Unpleasant words with, African American Children and European American Children. While studying the results of this test it has been indicated that European Americans have a bias towards pleasant words and European American People. This demonstrates how the juror of this cases allowed bias to affect their decision against Trayvon.

In conclusion The  Trayvon Martin trail was one of the most controversial and disputed trails in the US history. The US court system is very unfair and bias.  The Trayvon Martin trial has enabled America to express their bias, towards discrimination. This has displayed that America needs to reavaluated their injustices.



  1. "Trayvon Martin Case (George Zimmerman)." Trayvon Martin. N.p., 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/trayvon_martin/>

  2. "Race, Bias and the Zimmerman Jury | Houston Style Magazine | Urban Weekly Newspaper Publication Website." Race, Bias and the Zimmerman Jury | Houston Style Magazine | Urban Weekly Newspaper Publication Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. <http://stylemagazine.com/news/2013/jul/16/race-bias-and-zimmerman-jury/?page=3>

  3. Paterson, Eva. "Trayvon Martin and Implicit Bias." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 05 Aug. 2013. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eva-paterson/trayvon-martin-and-implic_b_3692331.html>

  4. "Implicit Association Test." Implicit Association Test. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. <http://projectimplicit.net/nosek/iat/>








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