... And Another Thing:

OK, I didn't go into the Race Thing when discussing Trayvon & George. So here goes.

Yes, Trayvon was probably "profiled" by George Zimmerman; it's likely that a similarly-attired, Skittles-carrying white kid would have passed by without notice. And that's a shame: it's just one more reason that the kid is dead.

Zimmerman, and you, can't help it: we "profile" every time we are out in public. Maybe it's girls: cute? ordinary? ugly? a "ten"? Or maybe it's people on LaSalle Street: Lawyer? Secretary? Messenger? Hustler?

These, and hundreds of others, are the categories into which we automatically sort people we encounter. It's based on our experience --some people are much better at it than others--; it saves time, just like when, in an unfamiliar store or other place, we look for the person we think can help us.

I am not saying that profiling by race or age or class or gender is okay; I'm just saying that we all do it, all the time. It can lead us to make mistakes. Some profiling is worse, by which I mean less helpful to us and more (potentially) unfair to the person being profiled. But every shampoo commercial in which the severe-looking woman suddenly removes her glasses and a few hairpins and, with a shake of the head, becomes someone else, is a tease based on our instinct to profile.

One reason skilled con men dress in suits and ties is that most people profile the suit-and-tie crowd as respectable (okay, maybe not exactly respectable: but, as Woody Guthrie sang, they may steal from you, but it will be with a fountain pen, not a pistol) and are willing to accept them --I almost wrote "at face value." And what does that phrase mean, except that we tend to judge by appearances? Had Trayvon Martin been wearing a suit and carrying a Bible, he could probably have knocked on dozens of doors without exciting alarm. No, it's not fair that a hoodie and jeans automatically produces a different reaction; but it's true. To take a more extreme example, it is perfectly possible that a steroid-enhanced biker with a head-scarf, bulging biceps in a cutoff leather vest, no shirt, boots, with a chain handing from his belt will elicit a sense of alarm, even if he's just a banker on his way to a costume party: the very point of his costume is to make us profile him, isn't it?

We should try to avoid profiling --sometimes. George Zimmerman apparently made a bad mistake, to the extent he was profiling Trayvon Martin, who evidently was a good kid. And I think we can say that people in positions of great power, such as cops and others authorized to walk around, armed, seeking out  potential trouble in order to prevent or defuse it, should be extra careful about how and when they profile. But no one would give a second thought to a cop who, seeing a ten year-old on a bike, would, whistling, turn away to go about his business.

So, we should deplore the situation, and the habit of profiling that led to the killing of Mr. Martin. But we will never be able to control that habit, as long as we are meat-eaters. It's too useful.