Originally Posted by
getmoore
Absolutely race is a factor. One can disagree on to what degree that it's a factor- primary, secondary, etc.
It's easy to interject facts after the point. Did the station clerk know that he was ex-con? We know now from the information coming out after the fact. The shooter in the Florida case probably also assumed that the little black boy in his neighborhood at night was a 'thug.' It's not so much about the victim, but the assumptions made by the victimizer that spurred the violence. The boy had skittles and a iced tea and was considered a threat. Race may not have been the deciding factor in the Detroit slaying- as in I'm going to shoot him because he's black, but it more than likely played into the clerk's decision that it was an acceptable thing to do.
I would, however, love to hear how the clerk would have described the situation that led up to his decision to shoot a man in the back on his way out of the store.
As an aside, I really deplore the term 'race card.' I think it's thrown out to dismiss an argument that requires including a different perspective. It's quite condescending.