Racists need him to be white so they can target Trayvon, his family and Black people. It wouldn’t work as well if they looked at him as a Latino.

The defense needs portray him as  white because he needed the jury to identify and empathize with Zimmerman as opposed to a Black victim and family. He also needed to make the case that Zimmerman was afraid of Trayvon so he followed him because of a home break-in by two other black men in hoodies, and the defense needed to have the jury with no Black people on it, equate Trayvon with the two Black robbers.

I also think that some of the people who are upset with the verdict need portray Zimmerman as white because it reinforces the idea of the white antagonist. I’ve read so many comments about  Zimmerman, a “white” man killing a Black man. It’s not just that. It’s about Trayvon being profiled by someone who was not Black because he was a young Black man with a hoodie who must have been up to no good. Zimmerman not being white does not make Trayvon’s death or the verdict any less heinous.