Bobo's false narrative on Zimmerman

One of the least thoughtful columns written in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict was written by Larry Bobo, a professor of African-American Studies at Harvard. (By way of full disclosure, I took Bobo's deposition many years ago but I remember little about it and I'm sure he remembers even less. He was a minor witness in a desegregation case.) He uses the verdict to argue that America is irretrievably racist because ... well ... "because" is where the trouble starts.

He writes:

The most elemental facts of this case will never change. A teenager went out to buy Skittles and iced tea. At some point, he was confronted by a man with a gun who killed him. There is no universe I understand where this can be declared a noncriminal act. Not in a sane, just and racism-free universe.

Professor Bobo's understanding needs formation. A person might be found "not guilty" (not the same as a determination that his actions were "noncriminal") in a universe where we don't decide criminal cases based on a selective recital of the "most elemental facts." That universe - our universe - would insist on considering all of the relevant facts. In a sane, just and racism-free universe, we would understand that such a scenario could comprise a "noncriminal act" if the teenager attacked the man who reasonably used the gun in self defense. In our sane, just and racism-free universe, we would assess the evidence without trying to fit it into the prefabricated narrative of left wing academic.

In that universe, someone who is smart enough to have earned a Ph.D. could - even without a law degree - understand that we require guilt be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. If a jury does not have sufficient evidence to conclude who was the aggressor - if there is no way to choose between alternative hypotheses (i.e., did Zimmerman attack Martin or did Martin attack Zimmerman), then it must acquit.

I don't know exactly what happened that horrible evening. I am also pretty certain that Larry Bobo doesn't either. I do know that the jury's conclusion that the state did not prove it's case beyond a reasonable doubt can be explained on grounds other than racism.

Bobo's recitation of the "most elemental facts," by the way, is a typical trick of the post-modern academic. One raises a fact pattern or case (law professors are among the worst offenders) to a level of abstraction that allows one to assert connections and conclusions that would be unwarranted on a more "granular" (i.e., complete) view of the matter.

Cross posted at Purple Wisconsin