COLORS

I just read a news story by Reuters, a prominent international new agency.  The subject of the story was the much discussed shooting that happened in Florida over a month ago.  What struck me were the descriptions of the two people.  Shot and killed was Trayvon Martin.  He was described as "a black Florida teenager".  The shooter, George Zimmerman, was described as "a white Hispanic".  For the record, Zimmerman is also a Floridian but is eight years past his teens.

Trayvon Martin looks to be a black man.  I've seen his father's picture and he appears to be black.  I've not seen a picture of his mother.

George Zimmerman sure looks Hispanic to me. I've not seen pictures of either but I guess we can infer that his father was white and his mother Hispanic.

What I'm not sure of, is why we have to designate both parents.  Was it necessary to separate Zimmerman from Hispanic Hispanics?   or white whites for that matter?   With this logic, wasn't Martin a black black Florida teenager?  How did we get to this point?  With this kind of standard in journalism, it's going to be uncomfortable for them to describe Tiger Woods or Barack Hussein Obama II.

:-[