Rachel Jeantel has been called some awful things the past couple days including "illiterate" and the "black version of Honey Boo-Boo." The 19-Year-Old Miami native, former friend of Trayvon Martin and star witness in the George Zimmerman trial was the last person to talk to Trayvon before he died. She described for the court Trayvon's last moments on the phone with her as he was chased down, shot and murdered by George Zimmerman.
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Trayvon Martin was a 17-year-old African American who was shot and killed by 28-Year-Old George Zimmerman, a multi-racial Hispanic American the night of February 26, 2012. Zimmerman was appointed neighborhood watch for the gated community in which he was living and where the shooting took place. When Trayvon Martin was shot, he was unarmed and because of the racial elements to this case, it has become a story with national interest.
Don West, Zimmerman's defense attorney, questioned Trayvon's friend Rachel Jeantel in a tense manner on Wednesday and Thursday as he repeatedly questioned her integrity, asked her if she understood the questions and accused her of "lying" on several occasions. His seemed to be working very hard to paint her as a woman who wasn't smart enough to remember the details of the night Trayvon was killed rather than attempting to poke holes in her story. He even forced her to admit that she could not read cursive writing during the trial and insultingly asked her if she understood English.
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"Are you claiming in any way that you don't understand English?" asked Don West of Rachel Jeantel.
"I don't understand you; I do understand English," said Jeantel.
"When someone speaks to you in English, do you believe you have any difficulty understanding it because it wasn't your first language?" asked West.
"I understand English really well," said Jeantel.
John McWhorter, an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University who has a PhD in linguistics, explained in a Time Magazine article that Rachel Jeantel 's English is perfect, it's just that it's black English, so Don West -- being white -- doesn't understand her. And unfortunately for her and Trayvon Martin, five of the six (one is Latina) jurors are also white.
In response to her criticizers, McWhorter wrote the following.
"If you think Black English is primitive, here's a test -- is it 'I ain't be listening that much' or 'I don't be listening that much'? It's don't, and Jeantel and millions of other black people nationwide could tell immediately that using 'ain't' in that sentence is 'off.'"
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Here's a sampling of the hateful tweets that have been posted on Twitter regarding Rachel Jeantel.
#zimmerman #trayvon guess why all the black animals think Rachel Jeantel is a Rhodes scholar with veracity who offered credible testimony.- Gen. Robert E Lee (@Suthen_boy) June 27, 2013
Rachel Jeantel hurt more black folks today than 1,000,000 Paula Deens singing 10 lil niggas.- Not Neshoba County (@NeshobaCountyMS) June 27, 2013
This Rachel Jeantel witness is dumber than a box of rocks. Zimmerman might get off.- Dominick Summers (@Summ1_Special) June 27, 2013
@AnthonyCumia this girl Rachel Jeantel looks like precious. Right? Where was her KFC?- Mike Lewis (@bucknasty540) June 27, 2013
HLN, please stop having Frank Taaffe on all the shows. He is annoying. Not a good spokesperson for George Zimmerman.- Levi Page (@Levi_Page) June 27, 2013
Racial justice activists have come to the defense of Rachel Jeantel, pointing out that she is not stupid, and in fact, speaks Spanish and Creole in addition to English. In addition Many people in the media are saying that despite her eye rolls, sighs and frustrated responses during her testimony, she was just being "unapologetically herself" -- and that's commendable, considering the amount of grilling she had been taking from Don West.
Lets remember whos on trial here. Hint: its not the young woman who has to deal with her childhood friends brutal murder. #LoveForRachel- ErisApparent (@ErisApparent) June 28, 2013
Rachel Jeantel is not a joke. Shes a 19 year-old girl who needs our support. #LoveForRachel- Morphus Bfly (@morphusbfly) June 28, 2013
Proud of you for getting through all of that #LoveForRachel #JusticeForTravonMartin- Justine Lines (@ozmaofoz) June 28, 2013
Even though it was clear that Rachel Jeantel did not want to be in that courtroom neither Wednesday or Thursday, her story remained consistent. The defense did prove that she lied in the past, but she didn't deny it, and in fact, she was honest about her past lies and why made them. She said she did not want to go to Trayvon's memorial service because she did not want to see his body. She cried as she explained to the court the moment she realized she was the last person to have spoken to Trayvon and began to understand the weight of that.
Rachel Jeantel explains why she lied under oath about going to to Trayvon Martin's memorial service
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