Five myths about the killing of Trayvon Martin

From the Washington Post Opinion page, find out what you know and don't know about the case.

Yet, race did come into play that rainy night during a conversation between Martin and his friend Rachel Jeantel. The now-19-year-old, who was on the phone with Martin until moments before he was killed, testified last month that the 17-year-old described Zimmerman as a “creepy-a-- cracker.” She added that Martin said “[N-word] still following me” after he thought he had lost Zimmerman. While “cracker” is a disparaging term for whites, it doesn’t hold nearly the same offensive punch as the N-word. That Martin applied the latter to Zimmerman reveals that the racial epithet for African Americans now appears to have a universal application.

(Bold emphasis by me)