In a recent New York Times column, Rich Benjamin insightfully describes \u201cthe bunker mentality\u201d of America\u2019s gated communities as a significant part of the backdrop to the tragic and much-discussed killing of Trayvon Martin. Benjamin, who spent several years living in and interviewing the (predominantly white) residents of gated housing developments around the country, found among them a disproportionate fear of crime and a view of \u201coutsiders\u201d \u2013particularly the young, poor and non-white \u2014 as threats to safety. Benjamin sees these residents\u2019 exaggerated desire for security as being responsible for a vicious cycle of hostility in which like-minded residents \u201cseek shelter from outsiders and whose physical seclusion then worsens paranoid groupthink against outsiders.\u201d Without denying the role of racial stereotyping, he concludes that reducing this situation to a case of racism misses \u201ca more accurate and painful picture\u201d about America\u2019s violent fixation on security. In response to the slogan that \u201cwe are all Trayvon,\u201d Benjamin perceptively asks to what extent the United States is also \u201call George Zimmerman.\u201d<\/p>\n