海角大神

Outwardly, Sanford, Fla., is 鈥渏ust an old Southern middle-class town,鈥� where races may be segregated socially and culturally, but where most folks feel part of the same community, says resident Susan Mooty.

That recent sense of community, shared by blacks as well as whites, was nevertheless hard-won, following, as it did, a racist history that famously included running Jackie Robinson out of town lest he play a spring training game with white players.

But the bullet that took the life of a black youth named Trayvon Martin on Feb. 26, 2012, shattered that recent comity. In its stead, a palpable racial tension arose that lingers on these brick-laid streets more than a year after civil rights groups and the New Black Panthers crowded the riverwalk to protest the Sanford Police Department鈥檚 original decision not to arrest Trayvon鈥檚 killer, a local neighborhood watch captain named George Zimmerman.

After nationwide protests, Mr. Zimmerman ultimately was charged with second-degree murder, and today his face is on every TV screen in town as TV stations run live feeds from his trial.

鈥淟ook at this street: Usually everybody is out and about, walking around,鈥� says Jimmy Franklin, an African-American former Marine, who lives in Sanford鈥檚 predominantly black Goldsboro neighborhood. 鈥淏ut everybody is inside, watching the trial on TV.鈥�

Scrutiny of the case, meanwhile, is serving to air Americans鈥� attitudes toward racial stereotyping and discrimination 鈥� the trial has already featured testimony that Trayvon told a friend on the phone that a 鈥渃reepy-ass cracker鈥� was following him 鈥� as well as notions about self-defense and gun-carry regulations.

The real legacy of the Zimmerman trial, however, some historians go so far as to suggest, is its capacity to deliver a verdict that could either relieve some of America鈥檚 pent up tension around race or serve as the fuse of a racial powder keg, the last straw in decades of poverty, frustration and a sense of injustice in America鈥檚 poorer black communities, including the small peeling bungalows of Goldsboro, where faded 鈥淛ustice for Trayvon鈥� posters still hang in windows.

鈥淭he George Zimmerman trial is powerful because it鈥檚 defining the moment we鈥檙e in,鈥� particularly with respect to racism and bigotry in the age of Obama, says George Ciccariello-Maher, a professor of history and politics at Drexel University, in Philadelphia. 鈥淲e see the same old dynamics emerging in a different guise, which is we have questions of hoodies, clothing, all these aesthetic issues that are ultimately about race. In that, the George Zimmerman trial can both explain what鈥檚 changed in [Sanford and around the country] but can also run the risk of obscuring 鈥� what鈥檚 really going on.鈥�

More immediately, it鈥檚 hard not to say that the trial is challenging Sanford鈥檚 painful and circuitous road away from its Jim Crow history. The Trayvon Martin case and ensuing Zimmerman trial have deeply upset this city of 53,000 people. 鈥淭his is a nightmare of community in terms of trying to come to terms with what鈥檚 happening,鈥� says Gary Mormino, author of 鈥淟and of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A social history of modern Florida.鈥�

To be sure, there鈥檚 a sense here that this case could be playing out in any town, anywhere in America, not just in Sanford. 鈥淓veryone is trying to blow [the race question] up bigger than it is,鈥� says Ms. Mooty, who is white.

In that way, painting the entire community of Sanford with a racist broad brush, as many feel that civil rights activists and the media have done, may be unfair.

鈥淥ne way people are looking at this trial is as a reminder of deep-seated cultural fears that go back hundreds of years, where we can have laws and Supreme Court decisions, but it鈥檚 hard to change people鈥檚 hearts, especially people who have been separated culturally and legally for so long,鈥� says Rebecca Watts, a professor at Stetson University in DeLand, Fla., and author of 鈥淐ontemporary Southern Identity: Community through Controversy.鈥� 鈥淎nd even though legal separation technically isn鈥檛 there, people still live largely separated lives racially in a lot of the country, and the South is included in that.鈥�

Yet Florida, and Sanford, just north of Orlando, have a unique racial history, in part because the state doesn鈥檛 have its own slave heritage since it was settled largely after the Civil War. Even today, there are as many Northern transplants as Southerners in most Florida cities (Sanford鈥檚 population has grown by 40 percent since 2000 alone), all of which hasn鈥檛 stopped the occasional race riots across the last 80 years in places like Tampa, Ocoee, and, most recently, Miami in 1980.

While Sanford鈥檚 history museum doesn鈥檛 gloss over the city鈥檚 racist past, featuring a display documenting Robinson鈥檚 mistreatment, it does give more prominent treatment to documenting the area鈥檚 Swedish immigrants, who quickly rose to become civic stalwarts while founding the community of New Uppsala.

Arguing that racist attitudes persist, many locals say, is as ridiculous as arguing that the city鈥檚 namesake, Henry Sanford, is still relevant to the discussion because of his plan to return US blacks to the Congo, which he called 鈥淸t]he ground to draw the gathering electricity from the black cloud spreading over the Southern states.鈥�

But after Trayvon鈥檚 killing last year, Sanford City Manager Norton Bonaparte, who is black, acknowledged the feeling among many residents that, had the situation been reversed and Zimmerman was black, he would have ended up in jail. Police said they were forced to let Zimmerman go when they couldn鈥檛 disprove his self-defense claim.

In subsequent NAACP hearings, one speaker, Hannibal Duncan, noted the pervasiveness of that feeling in black America, as reported by Reuters: 鈥淵ou can go from town to town, city to city, and you could pack churches like this with African-Americans, explaining that this is just a part of their everyday life.鈥�

Moreover, while Florida was in part settled by whites who drove mule teams down from Georgia, modern Florida is polyglot, as evidenced by Zimmerman鈥檚 German last name but Hispanic heritage, and testimony from Rachel Jeantel, who is of Creole descent. Teasing out purely racial stereotyping, experts say, becomes complicated, if not impossible, in such a melting pot state.

鈥淭he South is not a simple place anymore, and this is a trial defined by complexity,鈥� says Mr. Mormino, who鈥檚 also a professor at the University of South Florida, in St. Petersburg.

Trayvon Martin鈥檚 utterance of 鈥渃reepy-ass cracker鈥� and Zimmerman鈥檚 seething 鈥淭hese assholes always get away鈥� comment on a 911 tape, suggest that racial acrimony persists.

But if violence sprung from racialized fears and dislike between Zimmerman and Martin, could it happen to a whole community?

That question epitomizes the distinct pins and needles feeling in Sanford today, where visitors now ask if this little riverside city is 鈥渟afe鈥� to visit, where police acknowledge they鈥檝e become 鈥渢he most hated police force in America,鈥� and where carpenter Jim Groves suggests that people are 鈥減acking鈥� for a not-guilty verdict 鈥� and not 鈥減acking鈥� as in taking a trip either, but packing as in 鈥減acking heat.鈥�

The Zimmerman trial concluded its first week of testimony on Friday. A jury of five white women and one Hispanic woman 鈥� five of them mothers 鈥� are hearing a case that comes down to a few murky moments when a black teenager and a part-Hispanic man wrestled and fought on the ground at the Retreat at Twin Lakes, arguably Sanford鈥檚 nicest neighborhood, before a gun went off and the unarmed Trayvon Martin, with $40 and a bag of Skittles in his pocket, died.

While the trial itself seems to illustrate America鈥檚 stubborn racial divides, some US political experts say its outcome could equally illuminate a different post-2008 clash in America. On one side is the old civil rights guard claiming that institutional bigotry still persists. On the other are more conservative Americans emboldened by the election of a black president to frame the Zimmerman trial as a test not of racial attitudes, but of constitutional guarantees of one鈥檚 right to protect one鈥檚 home and property.

鈥淭his is a moment of sort of creeping dissatisfaction and frustration where people are realizing that very little has changed under a black president, and there鈥檚 nothing that contributes more to unrest than dashed expectations 鈥� the idea that things were going to change and the sudden realization that they haven鈥檛,鈥� says Mr. Ciccariello-Maher at Drexel University.