These boys were expressing rage because of the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow. They felt discriminated against. They felt oppressed by a racist bigoted society. They felt “dissed” which in ghetto culture is the worst thing you can do to someone. So, ghetto culture required a violent response from them, lest they appear weak.
Is it a racial hate crime? The media hyperventilated in the Trayvon Martin case because Trayvon was black and Zimmerman was not. Will they hyperventilate in this case that black youth killed a white girl, or will the race issue be considered irrelevant in this case???