Thread: President Obama: 'Trayvon Martin Could've Been Me 35 Years Ago'

National Journal
By Matt Berman, Brian Resnick, Matt Vasilogambros and Niraj Chokshi
Updated: July 19, 2013 | 2:18 p.m.
July 19, 2013 | 1:53 p.m.

President Obama made a surprise visit to the White House press room on Friday to speak about the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin case, making some of the most bold and open remarks about race of his presidency.

While the president began by commending the judge in the case as "professional" and the jurors as "properly instructed," he brought the case into the much broader context of race in America.

When Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said this could've been my son. Another way of saying that is, a Trayvon Martin could've been me 35 years ago. When you think about why, in the African American community at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened, I think it's important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away.

That history, he explained, is especially salient to black men. He said "There are very few African American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping at a department store. That includes me." The same goes for African American men who have heard "locks click on the doors of cars," or seen a "woman clutching her purse nervously" in an elevator.
And those feelings in daily life are a reflection of what the president acknowledged as "a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws" -- from the death penalty to drug laws. He continued (with our emphasis):

Folks understand the challenges that exist for African American boys. But they get frustrated that they feel that there's no context for them, that that context is being denied. And that all contributes to a sense that if a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario, that from top to bottom both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different.

The president's comments also looked at the real problems of "poverty and dysfunction" in African American communities, saying that they can "be traced to a very difficult history." As he said, young African American men are disproportionately "both the victims and perpetrators of violence" and that Trayvon was "statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else." But that's no excuse for unequal treatment:

The fact that a lot of African American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuses given 'well, there are these statistics out there that
show that African American males are more violent,' using that as an excuse to see sons treated different causes pain.

To combat these larger social issues, President Obama offered three broad suggestions:

1. Get the Justice Department involved with training local governments to reduce mistrust in the legal system. (It's worth remembering that this episode started over an outcry that Zimmerman wasn't arrested at all after the incident.)
2. Examine local laws -- such as "Stand Your Ground" -- and see if they "may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case rather than diffuse potential altercations."
3. Think about ways to bolster and reinforce African American boys so they do not get caught up in the legal system (as the statistics indicate they are more likely to be).

Despite such discriminatory experiences, African Americans perceive less discrimination today than ten or twenty years ago, according to the results of a Gallup survey released this morning. A shrinking share of blacks blame the black-white disparities in jobs, income and housing on discrimination.
In 1993, 44 percent said those disparities existed mostly from discrimination, while 37 percent say so today. Non-Hispanic whites exhibited a similar shift: 15 percent say discrimination is mostly to blame for the disparity, down from 21 percent two decades ago. Overall, one in five adults blames discrimination for the disparities.

Older blacks tend to perceive more discrimination than younger blacks, with 47 percent of those 55 and older saying discrimination is mostly to blame for those disparities compared to 30 percent of those aged 18 to 34.



Obama did offer some hope in his comments, citing the progress among the youngest generation—including his daughters and their views on race: "When I talk to Malia and Sasha, and I listen to their friends and I see them interact, they're better than we are," Obama said. "They're better than we were on these issues."

The president's comments were not only surprising because of their content, but also because the circumstances. The White House gave only seconds notice to reporters before the president entered the briefing room—a rarity with the press corps.

The comments were the most Obama has spoken on race in America as president, and the most in-depth and personal since his remarks in Philadelphia during the 2008 campaign. Those remarks were largely pegged off of the controversy surrounding Obama's relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

http://www.nationaljournal.com/white...s-ago-20130719

The comments were the most Obama has spoken on race in America as president, and the most in-depth and personal since his remarks in Philadelphia during the 2008 campaign. Those remarks were largely pegged off of the controversy surrounding Obama's relationship with Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Here's part of the transcript:

REPORTERS: Whoa!
Q: Hello.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: That’s so -- that’s so disappointing, man. Jay, is this kind of -- the kind of respect that you get? (Laughter.)
Q: Wake up!
Q: What brings you out here, Mr. --
PRESIDENT OBAMA: You know, on -- on -- on television it usually looks like you’re addressing a full room.
Q: (Laughs.) It’s just a mirage.
Q: There’s generally not --
PRESIDENT OBAMA: All right.
(Cross talk.)
Q: (Inaudible) -- got the Detroit story.
PRESIDENT OBAMA: I got you. All right. Sorry about that. Do you think anybody else is showing up? Good.
Well, I -- I wanted to come out here first of all to tell you that Jay is prepared for all your questions and is -- is very much looking forward to the session.

Second thing is I want to let you know that over the next couple of weeks there are going to obviously be a whole range of issues -- immigration, economics, et cetera -- we’ll try to arrange a fuller press conference to address your questions.
The reason I actually wanted to come out today is not to take questions, but to speak to an issue that obviously has gotten a lot of attention over the course of the last week, the issue of the Trayvon Martin ruling. I gave an -- a preliminary statement right after the ruling on Sunday, but watching the debate over the course of the last week I thought it might be useful for me to expand on my thoughts a little bit.
First of all, you know, I -- I want to make sure that, once again, I send my thoughts and prayers, as well as Michelle’s, to the family of Trayvon Martin, and to remark on the incredible grace and dignity with which they’ve dealt with the entire situation. I can only imagine what they’re going through, and it’s -- it’s remarkable how they’ve handled it.

The second thing I want to say is to reiterate what I said on Sunday, which is there are going to be a lot of arguments about the legal -- legal issues in the case. I’ll let all the legal analysts and talking heads address those issues.

The judge conducted the trial in a professional manner. The prosecution and the defense made their arguments. The juries were properly instructed that in a -- in a case such as this, reasonable doubt was relevant, and they rendered a verdict. And once the jury’s spoken, that’s how our system works.


But I did want to just talk a little bit about context and how people have responded to it and how people are feeling. You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African- American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African- American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that -- that doesn’t go away.

There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.

And there are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.

And you know, I don’t want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida. And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.


The African-American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws, everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws. And that ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case.


Now, this isn’t to say that the African-American community is naive about the fact that African-American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, that they are disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence. It’s not to make excuses for that fact, although black folks do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context.


We understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/...on_740123.html

Sheriff's Deputy Suspended, Given Sensitivity Training for Bringing Skittles, Iced Tea to Work

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by Breitbart News 19 Jul 2013, 10:17 AM PDT 392 post a comment
On Thursday, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department suspended Corporal Chris Wood for bringing a can of Arizona Ice Tea and a bag of Skittles to work at the Brevard County Jail on Saturday morning. He said that he was trying to send a message about the importance of keeping personal predilections about cases from affecting the work environment; instead, his superiors suspended him. This is Wood’s first disciplinary action in 10 years of working for the force.

“His delivery of that message was completely insensitive to not only the people in the room, and the things that were going on in our community, and our society, at that point, and that's what stimulated us looking at it,” said Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivy. Wood will be given a written reprimand, and he has already apologized to his squad. Ivey said that Wood would be sent to sensitivity training as well.

VIDEO: http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/vi...p&VID=24906658

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Governm...ended-Skittles

So Obama's response is to say that he was just like Trayvon Martin at 17 and could have attacked Zimmerman for trying to tail him while he smoked weed and cased out his next burglary target!

Then, instead of saying the focus needs to be on reducing the amount of crimes committed by blacks he says the goal becomes to keep them out of the legal system instead!

In short, Obama says "I am Trayvon Martin, black rage is justified, avenge me, we will stop the legal system from stopping you!"

W
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It becomes sadly apparent that Mr. Obama does not either represent of care about ALL of the people in this country and perhaps his prejudices impair his ability to be a real leader of this country.

Obama is horrible! That liar and hypocrite says he has experienced so much discrimination that he is now President of the most powerful nation on the Earth?!?! He comes out and instead of calming things down, he stirs the fire by claiming he is "Trayvon Martin" and that black rage is justified because white people recognize the high crime levels of black males and respond appropriately! And instead of telling people in the black community they need to work to lower the amount of criminal behavior in black communities he says the goal instead should be to keep black criminals out of the legal system! Translation "I am Trayvon, your rage is justified, avenge me, we will keep the police and courts off your backs!" Nice message the day before his buddy Al Sharpton attempts to incite black on white riots in more than 150 cities across America! Obama is behind all of this and he just gave The Trayvons the thumbs up today!

William Gheen