Considering the President's Comments on Racial Profiling

[ProSense]

Considering the President's Comments on Racial Profiling

The impact of the highest official in the country directly feeling your pain, because it is his pain, is real. And it is happening now. And it is significant.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

My earlier criticisms notwithstanding, I think these comments (brought to you by my label-mate Garance Franke-Ruta) by Barack Obama, given his role as president of the United States of America, strike precisely the right note...As far as I know, these are Barack Obama's most extensive comments regarding the impact of racism since he became president.

I would like to highlight this:

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 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. 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 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.

I think this this is a very good primer on how it feels to be black and consider your relationship to law enforcement. Or people who think they are law enforcement.

I have had my criticisms of this president and how he talks about race. But given the mass freak-out that met him last year after making a modest point about Trayvon Martin, it must be said that it took political courage for him to double down on the point and then advance it.

No president has ever done this before. It does not matter that the competition is limited. The impact of the highest official in the country directly feeling your pain, because it is his pain, is real. And it is happening now. And it is significant.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/07/considering-the-presidents-comments-on-racial-profiling/277966/

Classy and intelligent commentary.

Trayvon’s Parents: Obama’s Remarks A ‘Beautiful Tribute’
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023300025

[uponit7771]

1. The amount of winger-ish Obama hate is thick enough to cut with a knife. His speech was right on

[JaneyVee]

2. K&R! Great article by a great writer.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. Very powerful.

[Cha]

4. mahalo for bringing us Ta-Nehisi Coates' commentary on

PBO's impromtu speech, PS.

Yes, he has had issues with Pres Obama but not this time. I'm glad he appreciated it.

It was a brilliant thoughtful talk about People's reaction since the verdict and how we as a nation can do more to positively impact the future of African American boys.. and honor Trayvon.

And if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws.

Number three -- and this is a long-term project: We need to spend some time in thinking about how do we bolster and reinforce our African-American boys? And this is something that Michelle and I talk a lot about. There are a lot of kids out there who need help who are getting a lot of negative reinforcement. And is there more that we can do to give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them?

Peaceful Protests Tomorrow.. Justice4Trayvon

[Igel]

7. That's the group that's the most problematic in schools.

You can watch their decline as they go through public schools.

It's been commented on frequently that part of what happens is home life. By the time the majority from any group is in 5th, 6th grade home life is trumping any early intervention. Kids from educated homes are doing better than you'd expect; kids from uneducated homes are doing worse than you'd expect.

But sometime around puberty there's what my psych books call a search for "identity," and things really go sidewise for certain groups. Every group has peer cultures and a general peer culture. Every group becomes aware of social expectations. Every group becomes aware of the traits and features that define their group, the common history and the stories.

Then things go catastrophically wrong for some groups.

Shared interpretations of history and common stories build solidarity. Opposing interpretations of history and stories in which the other is the historical enemy emphasize group boundaries.

Better the French and Germans looking and finding what they had in common and have in common than dwelling on the animosity that did exist and assuming that anything that can be interpreted as hostile must be taken as hostile.

[DallasNE]

5. Zimmerman's Brother & Defense Team Went Bat-S#it Crazy

In responding to the President's comments. I have never seen such sore winners. They are some of the most disgusting people to walk the face of the earth. They successfully bullied Judge Nelson. Are they thinking they can also bully the President of the United States. I have never seen such gall and arrogance.

[Major Hogwash]

6. Kick and recommended.

It was a great speech.
No doubt about it.

[Scurrilous]

8. K & R