Ta-Nehisi Coates's
blog has had a series of great little posts about this incident. There is some interesting history of race relations in the area, so as always, these tensions run deep.
From my view, the act of shooting Martin was an example of Zimmerman's lack of respect for human life, not an example of his racism. However, the assumptions Zimmerman made regarding Martin
prior to engaging him in the confrontation were undeniably race-based.