CNN’s Anderson Cooper sat down with a panel of scholars and community leaders and spoke about race relations in America and how some feel that the outcome of the George Zimmerman verdict has made the discussion of race a hotbox topic. Rapper Nas even shared his views on the subject having traveled around the world and seeing how others view America. Nas appeared via satellite during Anderson Cooper’s round table discussion on CNN special, Race and Justice In America II.
In the survey, just 52 percent of Americans said they believed race relations in the U.S. were “very” or “fairly” good, the lowest mark in almost two decades. Back in October 1995 — the month O.J. Simpson was found not guilty of murder and President Bill Clinton delivered a big speech on race — 34 percent of Americans had positive feelings about race relations in the nation.
Attorney Mark Geragos didn’t bite his tongue when he stated on the show “there’s no way you can divorce race in the criminal justice system.” “I don’t care where you are, where you are trying a case, race is actually the central feature in the criminal justice system.
HHE’s Dennis Byron spoke with CNN’s legal analyst Sunny Hostin during the George Zimmerman trial and he asked her about the racial make-up of the jury and how that would impact on the trial.
At the time she stated that she didn’t believe that race would play a major factor with the jury however as she pointed out to Anderson Cooper, “I think where I missed that piece, especially when you listen to juror B37, sort of had these racial biasis and these notions sort of running in the backdrop of their minds.”
The 52 percent finding is a sharp drop from as recently as two years ago, when NBC found that seven in 10 Americans thought race relations were very or fairly good.
Zimmerman was found not guilty earlier this month of murdering Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teen whom he fatally shot in a Florida suburb. Zimmerman claimed he fired in self-defense.
The poll also showed a massive divide on the issue along racial lines. While 52 percent of whites and 60 percent of Hispanics said race relations in America were good, 58 percent of African-Americans said they were bad, including 33 percent who said they were “very bad.”
Nas said it best, “we as Americans are looking like barbarians to others around the world.” There has to be a better way.
Source: NBC/CNN
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