In his first public response to the Trayvon Martin shooting, President Obama famously said in March, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon."
CNN legal analyst Mark NeJame, after uncovering a picture of George Zimmerman's relatives during his investigation of this matter, told Piers Morgan Thursday, "If President Obama has indicated that his son would have looked like Trayvon Martin, then most respectfully, if you look at these pictures, his grandparents and great-grandparents would have looked a lot like George Zimmerman's grandparents and great-grandparents (video follows with transcript and commentary):
MARK NEJAME, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: When I first heard about this tragedy I jumped to the conclusion that I think many did that there was some racial aspect to this shooting, that Trayvon Martin was shot and killed by George Zimmerman in part based upon bigotry and racial profiling. And I just presumed that from all the press reports that came out and from what I heard.
Well, as I started getting into a role as an analyst and such, I started asking questions. I’ve been a defense lawyer for over 30 years, and I have come to realize that much of what you hear is simply not factual. So we’ve got the picture there, and you can see. I had a family member give it to a friend who gave it to me and we gave it to you earlier today. And as you see there, the man in the middle is apparently George Zimmerman's great-grandfather. The woman above him is in fact his grandmother who is half black, and the little child in the gentleman's lap is his mother.
So we see that he really has significant multiracial, multicultural roots, and as I’ve come to realize and find out through my investigation, he was raised in a multicultural, integrated family in large part by his grandmother who is half black.
And I’ve made the analogy, and it seems appropriate, that if President Obama has indicated that his son would have looked like Trayvon Martin, then most respectfully, if you look at these pictures, his grandparents and great-grandparents would have looked a lot like George Zimmerman's grandparents and great-grandparents.
So, it seems to me in light of this, other things that we have found out about him mentoring African-American children quietly with nobody knowing about it for a couple of years, driving Orlando, excuse me Sanford to Orlando regularly, and talking to people that know him, I have changed my position. People can come up with whatever conclusions they want, but from looking at the facts, looking at the evidence, I don’t think there’s a racial motive in this.
Now, we have NRA issues, we have stand your ground issues, we have all sorts of other significant issues – self-defense or not self-defense. We’ll get to those at a later time. But race, was that a factor in this shooting? From what I see, from what I have now learned, I don’t think so.
Needless to say, it's going to be fascinating to see how much coverage this picture gets in the coming days.
After all, virtually the entire media have depicted the Martin killing as being racially motivated.
Now that we actually have a picture of his great-grandparents and his grandmother, will the press be willing to share it with the public and discuss the ramifications as NeJame did with Morgan Thursday evening?
Stay tuned.
