General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Background on Zimmerman [View all]patrice
(47,992 posts)Therefore, it's a mistake to characterize all cognitive states in zero-sum terms, "He was either racial profiling or he was not." Some cognitive states are zero-sum, but most such similar, and very common, cognitions are more likely hypothetical stereotyping, a brain function that has wide practical applicability, especially since time and circumstances USUALLY allow such hypotheses to be functionally validated or not and consequently modified if the generator is motivated to do so. Though Trayvon's death MAY have been due to racial profiling, it could very well also have been stereotyping of a different, more functional, order that did not have the time and opportunity to work itself out one way or the other, due to certain essence -tially related traits of the situation, of which the following and the gun are very relevant in what happened to Trayvon. These traits, following & the gun, are either intentionally related to the outcome or they are mistakes that prevented authentic testing of what Z thought.
It's difficult to talk about this kind of stuff without at least appearing to depend upon Plausible Deniability, but the only way we can guess as to the internal state of Z's mind is through outward manifestations and most of those are likely to just be probabilities too: how long did he wait, before he acted on what he thought he knew about Trayvon? What kind of language is relevant. When was the gun drawn? What did he do after the killing? Stuff like that, whatever it turns out to be, some of it could be higher probability support for racial profiling, some of it could be low probability or indeterminant.
What a horrible, horrible, sad, Sad, SAD situation . . . I fear how it can be manipulated from all sides and, thus, affect our futures, likely making such incidents more common, "accidentally on purpose" or not.