What White People Don't Understand About Rachel Jeantel

I do not know who Rachel Samara is and this is the first thing I have ever read that she has written, can't find out anything about her with a Web search, the Global Grind claims to present The World According to Hip-Pop.  I have pasted her entire article below her words will be in black, mine will be in red.  

What White People Don't Understand About Rachel Jeantel

Posted June 26, 2013 by Rachel Samara for Global Grind Staff

A predominantly white jury is not going to like Rachel Jeantel. Let's just be real here.

The 19-year-old Miami native is an easy target for obvious, yet shallow reasons. But let's not forget why she's actually on the stand in George Zimmerman's second degree murder trial. Rachel was the last person to speak to a living, breathing Trayvon Martin. The guilt, shame and sorrow she must feel is something most of us will never be able to comprehend. You could hear it in her voice, see it in her jittery body language. She is feeling the wrath of this highly publicized case.

Rachel was thrown head first into this murder story, unwillingly. And although she had repeatedly said she did not want to be a witness, did not even want to believe she was the last person Trayvon spoke to, Rachel took the stand for all the right reasons. She was asked to by the family of her deceased friend and feeling part of the burden for his death, she wanted to help.

This unwilling witness' affidavit is what the prosecutor based his probable cause on to obtain an arrest warrant for Zimmerman on.  She was more than willing to accuse as long as she did not have to face the one she was accusing.

Rachel was raw, emotional, aggressive and hostile, and she was unapologetically herself.

The raw part I will agree with, but for a few outburst she seemed much more reticent than aggressive to me.  It was her speaking so very low with her near baritone voice that made it so difficult for her to be understood.  Her most aggressive moment was at the end of her first day testimony and she discovered that she was going to have to return for at least two more hours of the defense's questioning.

And if the 5 white jurors (excluding the 1 Latina) are like most white people I know, they are unfortunately not going to like Rachel. They won't understand her, especially not her defensive nature, and this will unfortunately work against her. Even though it shouldn't.

And just why shouldn't her nature, defensive or otherwise, work for her or against us, it does for the rest of us.

I can imagine George Zimmerman's defense is just hoping some of those 5 white jurors have some prejudices (as most people do), or hell, are even racist, because if they are, their tactic to make Rachel out to be less intelligent, rather than less credible than she actually is, might actually work.

She sure did not come across as the sharpest tool in the shed, and just why should anyone find anybody credible had to admit on the stand to at least three lies that she has told in her sworn deposition.  Sever time on the stand she claimed to have written a letter to Trayvon mother but when she was asked to read it she could not read it!  Then, and only then, claimed that she had dictated it to a friend who had written it for her.

Less intelligent and more confused.

Less intelligent because of the "language barrier" and more confused because of the lawyers' failure to understand who Rachel is, where she comes from, what kind of life she lives.

Language barrier my goodness, what language barrier?  She admitted to having spoken English her whole life, went through 11 years of school speaking Fnglish, There was no language barrier, just an excuse.  There is absolutely no necessity for anyone to understand who someone is, where they come from, what kind of life they live to expect them to relate truthfully their testimony.  They just have to tell the truth regardless.

It seems the middle-aged white men on both sides of this case are totally unaware of what Rachel's life is like - a 19-year-old high school student of Haitian descent who knows nothing more than the few block radius she has grown up in. The cultural differences here are exponential.

And just what does this understanding or lack of it have with her ability to tell the truth?  I take it the poor girl never watches TV or goes to the movies for that is the only way she knows nothing about nothing but the few blocks radius she has grown up in.

"The cultural differences here are exponential."  Does this in any way change what is right and what is wrong?  

But if the lawyers, and especially the jurors, were really listening, they would see that although she comes off aggressive, Rachel was consistent. Yes, the defense proved she had lied in the past, but she didn't deny it. On the contrary. She was very honest about it, and even led us to sympathize with her reasoning for it - she did not want to see Trayvon's body, she did not want to face Trayvon's mother and she wanted to wipe her hands of the situation because of the emotion and trauma. She was the last person Trayvon spoke to and she wanted everyone to understand what that means. This is in no way easy for her.

Rachel was consistent, yes she was a consistent liar.  Lied to the mother, lied ton her  deposition to both sides, and lied on the stand.  At least the lying part seemed easy to her if nothing else.

Rachel is the prosecution's key witness, but I am going to call her the misunderstood witness. She holds vital information that both the defense and prosecution need, but these middle-aged white men questioning her do not get it. Sadly both the prosecution and the defense [but more so the defense] have an extreme disconnect from her reality, like I said. The constant text messaging between her and Trayvon is normal for two high school kids who may like each other, the nonchalant use of Racial slurs like "cracks" and "n*gga" are slang (as Rachel put it) and that doesn't mean it comes from a racist place.

Why are racial  slurs "cracka" and "n*gga" slang for them and not for Paula Deen who was fired Food network, and having her book publication cancelled by the Amazon inspite of the prizes being higher than any other book on line?  Paula's sin?  She used to use 'nigger' in her conversations back in her past when use of the word was common in her culture.

If this is Rachel reality, then reality needs to change, Rachel needs to be held to the same standard that Paula is being held to, or Paula held to the same standard as Rachel. I thought that the whole idea of a double standard was condemned by blacks and whites alike.  It seems that the attitude among some black ice, "I can offend you all the hell I want, but if you dare call me by a name I don't like you are a racist pig".

Trayvon was just 17, his life consisted of text messaging, high school, PS3, girls and not much else. He had a lot of growing up to do, a lot of experiences to take in, so much more to learn, but sadly, he will never get a chance to do any of those things.

If he had been left to grow up the way he was going, expelled from school because of marihuana, in possession of stolen property (which the police had filed away as found property), fighting for fun he would have been either in prison or dead in short order.  It has emerged that Trayvon Martin had been suspended from high school three times for possessing drugs and a marijuana pipe, for truancy, and for graffiti.  During the most recent incident, he was caught with a bag full of women's jewelry and a "burglary tool."  In the police report this was hidden under a found property report.

 

Rachel on the other hand will get to, but with her immaturity displayed on the stand for the whole world to see, she quickly became a joke. Maybe we were picturing Trayvon's alleged girlfriend to be a bit different, but nevertheless, Rachel still is the last person, aside from George Zimmerman, that Trayvon had any contact with while he was alive on this earth. Rachel's mumbling, hostility and that reference to the show First 48, among other things, threw us for a loophole, but let's remember, she is just a teen. This is what she knows. This is far from a Lifetime movie, this is her life. In the flesh, but still on our TVs.

I thought that she did not know anything outside her few blocks radius she has grown up in?  Now this is one thing that I agree with Rachel pn, the cops sure as hell should have called the last person he was talking to when he died to find out what whomever it was knew about the death.

I cried when she described the feeling of realizing she was the last person Trayvon spoke to, cringed at her blatant honesty, laughed when she spoke back to the attorneys and even had to turn my volume down throughout different phases of her testimony because of sheer discomfort.

She cried, I took it as an act put on because Trayvon did not like her as much as she would have liked.  The truth is we just cannot know what made her so uncomforable, we can just know how she behaved.

Rachel was authentic, nervous and extremely herself. She did, after all, hear her friend, a minor, get killed in cold blood. And her involvement, from what we can tell, became dragged out beyond anything she ever wanted.

I will agree that she was nervous, but as far as being herself I would have to know her outside the courtroom to appertain that.

Her hostility is making more sense now.  

Maybe to the writer, but not to me.

Rachel's collision with Zimmerman's attorney Don West was uncomfortable to watch. They didn't get each other. I even thought at one point they were going to call in some type of translator. Yes, she mumbled, but the amount of times she was asked to repeat herself, speak up and slow down proved that they were indeed speaking different languages. But let's be honest. Rachel Jeantel's attitude is exactly what I would expect from someone from the hood who has no media training and who is fully entrenched in a hostile environment.

It was not his job to get to know her, his job was to get her to tell the truth, and in doing so helped his client out immensely.

There's nothing wrong with it.

I care not a whit for her attitude one way or the other as long as she tells the truth.

A few different times while watching this trial I've gotten caught up in the entertainment of it all, like a movie I don't want to miss the ending to. But this isn't a movie, and although Don West did kick off his opening argument with a "Knock-Knock" joke, it's not meant to be entertainment. And definitely not funny.

No, it was not meant to be funny, it was to clear the mind of the jurors as he started his opening.  A cognate resets if you will.

This is truly a life and death situation. Rachel was on the phone with Trayvon moments before he got murdered while walking home from a 7-11, back to "his Daddy's house," as Rachel so eloquently put it. Aside from George Zimmerman, Rachel was Trayvon's last communication on this earth.

Murder is the unlawful taking of a life, and that is still to be determined.  Trayvon could have easy been looking for something to steal, his background which the defense will not be able to put into evidence, shows that he has the propenstenicy to do.

This is real. Let's not forget that.

I reckon that I have justified Rachel Samara opinion that I, as a white guy, cannot understand Rachel Jeantel in her mind, but the truth is it is not incumbent upon me to understand her any more that it is upon her to understand me, I will assure you of one thing, and that is I am much more capable of understand her than she is of understanding me.  Besides that, I understand the difference between lying and telling the truth.

Can Rachel help prove that Trayvon was attacked by George Zimmerman? What are your thoughts? Tweet with me. @RachelSamara

My thoughts are that this writer, and many other black believe that if Zimmerman is aquited it will not be that Zimmerman was acting in self defense, rather that the five white women, and the Hispanic cannot see the world correctly because they are not black, and only blacks should sit in judgment of blacks.  No, not all blacks see the world this way but Consider these tweets:

If Zimmerman win, I’m gonna go kill a white a kid by mistake

— ……. (@BE4L_Pervis) June 27, 2013

If #Zimmerman get off ima shoot the first #hispanic/white i see

— Vonni Versace (@Dat_Nigga_Vonni) June 27, 2013

fuuuuuuuck Don West. fuck George Zimmerman . I’ll kill both them niggas.

— LOE Lys . (@HotTopicLys) June 27, 2013

I’ll kill him. “@_lolaluuv: George Zimmerman goin walk.”

— Lindsey Franco  (@GLAMLindsey) June 27, 2013

These threats come just a day after the prosecutions key witness, Trayvon’s girlfriend Rachel Jeantel, was forced to admit she could not read a letter she supposedly wrote and that she lied about writing it as well as other lies, under oath and not, were exposed.

This Zimmerman shit so AGGY just lock his ass up cause if they don’t imma kill a white person and they better let me go

— FREE BROGOD CAM ❤ (@carlise_) June 27, 2013

If they don’t kill Zimmerman Ima kill me a cracka

— ザック·スレーターエクストラオーディナリ (@ZackSlaterExe) June 26, 2013

Read the rest over at Twitchy.

 For Rachel Jeantel article go here: