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George Zimmerman's Brother Takes Aim at the NAACP

In an opinion piece, Robert Zimmerman Jr. suggests that brother George is more racially compassionate than the NAACP.

In an opinion piece for right-leaning website The Daily Caller titled "What the NAACP Can Learn from George Zimmerman," Robert Zimmerman Jr. says that the nation's oldest civil rights group could learn a few things from his brother.

He begins by telling the tale of how George, accused of killing Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, once came to the defense of Sherman Ware, a homeless African-American man who'd been assaulted by Justin Collison, a "well-connected white man" who wasn't arrested at the scene despite video evidence of the attack.

Zimmerman says that George reached out to the local NAACP, which "rebuffed" him and didn't step in until the case received media attention and rallied on behalf of Ware until Collison turned himself in. He then continued to demand that the police be held accountable, according to family lore.

He also recounts a chat he had with Ben Jealous, the NAACP's national president, during which to Zimmerman's dismay, Jealous said that racial equality would not happen in their lifetimes.

Zimmerman points to what he believes is the irony that the NAACP would not fight for justice for Ware and is now "exploiting" the Trayvon Martin tragedy.

"Maybe Jealous’ insistence that there will never be racial equality has something to do with the fact that his organization thrives off racially divisive controversies," he writes. "After all, the NAACP had helped Ware, but only after his case had garnered significant media attention. Perhaps the NAACP can learn a few things from George. He acted when the NAACP wouldn’t."

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(Photo: Courtesy Piers Morgan Live via CNN)

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