Heres the thing......most blacks think Zimmerman is a white guy thanks to the media.
That... and the name
Zimmermann... not exactly your average Latino or Hispanic surname...
Unlike "MARTIN"....that well known African sur-name.
Indeed.
Statistically, African-Americans are
FAR more likely to have Anglo-sounding or Euro-sounding surnames than any other
non-White racial or ethnic group.
This is, of course, attributable to their slave ancestry and the slave-culture stripping them of their own heritage and family names, centuries ago.
And, statistically speaking, slave-owners tended to be of English, Irish, Scottish and similar descent as early landowners in the American colonies and their early decades as States.
Although I'm sure there were a (statistically)
few German-sounding and French-sounding and Euro-Spanish-sounding and even Slavic-sounding surnames amongst slave-owners, it's a good bet that you'd be hard-pressed to find more than a handful of Zimmermann slave-owners scattered across the entire antebellum South.
But there is even
LESS of a chance that the surname
Zimmermann would conjure-up the image of a
Hispanic-American.
When trying to play a Race or Ethnicity guessing-game - without pictures - your average American (
yours truly, included) - Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Native, whatever - using only a surname as a clue...
Most folks, hearing 'Martin' or 'Zimmermann', would think "White" first.
Some folks, if not most, would think "Black" second.
Most folks, would not even think "Hispanic" on hearing 'Zimmermann'.
There are
ALWAYS exceptions and surprises, and, in truth,
RELYING upon surnames as a rock-solid indicator of Race or Ethnicity is a dead-end and a fool's game,
BECAUSE of those exceptions and surprises... intermarriages, adoptions, etc.
But one has to be a sufficiently 'aware' or 'deep' Thinker, for that to occur to one, and to make that operative in one's thinking, even as an Afterhought, never mind as a Preliminary Guess or Conclusion...
And, in the context above, we were
discussing the
Perceptions of the
Man-on-the-Street, in wrongly-guessing Race or Ethnicity, based upon surnames.
Both my original observation
AND my follow-up here are smack-dab on target, in dealing with stereotypical reaction, and have
zero basis in racial or ethnic bias or prejudice; these merely acknowledge the stereotypical conditions in which our culture operates.
"...Shut the **** up, you racist puke."
I have no idea what's got your panties in a bunch, or how I've wronged you in a previous life or something, to warrant that sort of treatment at your hands, but I reject the accusation, and am going to blow that off as a misguided juvenile rant.
I'll reluctantly join you in the Flame Zone if you insist, to *****-slap the hell outta you, but I'd rather not, if that can be avoided; otherwise, get off my back. I've done nothing to you, nor have I done or said anything to deserve your brickbats.