GMA and Trayvon Martin

Yesterday I watched a broadcast of Good Morning America with the lawyer of George Zimmerman and one of Zimmerman’s friends named Joe Oliver. In the interview Zimmerman’s friend insists that Zimmerman was not at all, in any way shape or form racist. The interview went on to talk about how there is evidence that supports Zimmerman’s self defense case. The comments under the video reminded me of the topic of colorblind racism and the four frames that are used to display it. There were comments that fit into the frames of naturalization, cultural racism and minimization. One person even went as far as saying that “black people made this whole thing up, just to get attention, because that’s what they do”, which made me think of the cultural racism frame and another comment suggested that “black people are blowing this whole thing out of proportion and using the race card to justify a thug being shot by an upstanding citizen,” which made me think of the minimization frame of colorblind racism. There were even racist comments by black users toward Zimmerman and the fact that the friend that was speaking out on his behalf was black. I was shocked by these comments and it made me realize that racism still exists in many forms and it helped me to better understand the concept of colorblind racism.