EDITORIAL - Trayvon Martin and race in America

KINGSTON, Jamaica - In a perverse sort of way, the not guilty verdict against George Zimmerman in the Trayvon Martin murder case in Florida was good for America. The evidence lies in the scores of demonstrations last Saturday across the United States (US) against the outcome of the case, but more important, in the debate it has spurred about race in America. Indeed, one of the paradoxes of America's election of Barack Obama, twice, as its president was the silence, or perhaps awkwardness, it imposed on the discourse on how race is lived in the US.