The President on the Zimmerman trial.

[arnisador]

I thought Pres. Obama did an excellent job of explaining what causes such a divergent set of views on the George Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin incident and in particular the lens through which African-Americans are apt to see it. He acknowledges the reality of the increased rate of criminal behavior among African-American teens and the fact of African-American on African-American violence while setting the actual shooting and trial in its cultural context as seen through the eyes of those on the receiving end of racial discrimination of all forms. I encourage you to read the whole transcript.

Transcript: Obama’s Remarks on Trayvon Martin Case, Race in America

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[...]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.

 

[Big Don]

Good god, you like what he said? That lowers my opinion of you.

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.

Has nothing to do with black people committing more crimes whatsoever... right...

 

[billc]

Another look at his comments...

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/07/1...e-zimmerman-case-are-a-failure-of-leadership/

Barack Obama had a choice, and today, he cast his lot with Jackson, Sharpton, and Holder.
In one remark, he injected race and himself directly back into the story.

“Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.”
Obama grew up in privileged circumstances in Hawaii, after his own father abandoned him.
In another statement, he clearly sided with Martin’s family and against Zimmerman’s.
“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.”
Sympathy for Martin’s family is warranted, surely. But the Zimmerman family is facing death threats in the verdict’s wake, including a bounty put on George’s head by the New Black Panthers. Obama has nothing to say about that.
Obama went on to accept and then reject the jury’s verdict. He seemed to accept it when he said “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.”

No fair-minded person will reject the fact that blacks have faced extraordinary mistreatment and racism through American history, from slavery to Jim Crow to backward attitudes that continue to persist. But race played no role in this specific case, according to the prosecution’s case, according to the jury that reached the verdict, and according to Trayvon Martin’s own mother. The president owes the American people a basic, factual accounting, not a third autobiography. By insisting on injecting himself and race into the case, Obama risks inflaming passions when he could have quieted them.

Charles Krauthammer also brings up in this video, the fact that obama reinjected race into a case that wasn't about race...

http://townhall.com/tipsheet/greghe...ghteningthe-trial-was-not-about-race-n1645098

And an actual case where the races were reversed...and the outcome was the same...

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/07/19/Obama-if-Trayvon-white

“I think, 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,” Obama stated.
Obama provided no evidence for that contention. Such evidence would not include the case of Roderick Scott, a black man acquitted for the killing of white 17-year-old Christopher Cervini. Scott shot Cervini after confronting him and two others robbing a car; Cervini apparently charged Scott, who shot him. Scott was acquitted. Cervini’s aunt said, “How can this happen to a beautiful, sweet child like that? All he wanted to do was go home. And then for them to say, he was saying, ‘Please don’t kill me. I’m just a kid,’ and he just kept on shooting him.” No word from President Obama on the injustices of Scott’s case.

 

[arnisador]

Good god, you like what he said? That lowers my opinion of you.

That's puerile.

 

[arnisador]

Charles Krauthammer also brings up in this video, the fact that obama reinjected race into a case that wasn't about race...

I understood him to be saying that how TM viewed his situation that night, and how African-Americans view an incident like this, is indeed affected by the experience of the descendants of African slaves in this country. Their view is certainly a product in part of race relations in this country and the legacy of racial discrimination.

He also said that as pres. one thing he could do was to try try to encourage a national discussion on this and that that was his goal with his remarks. Bully pulpit and all that.