Obama failed Ferguson. The prosecutor is pathetic. Between the split-screen, the protesters get it

[cali]

There we had Barack Obama, the first black president of the United States, finally admitting on one side of the television that structural racism is real. There we finally had him saying that when it comes to police terrorizing black folks, “communities of color aren’t just making these problems up”. But, in nearly the same breath on Monday night after the grand-jury decision in Ferguson, as the people were taking to the streets in cities across the nation, the president also said he doesn’t believe unequal enforcement of the law is “the norm. I don’t think that’s true for the majority of communities or the vast majority of law enforcement officials.”

It wasn’t just surreal, then, to witness Obama’s anti-Trayvon Martin moment at the very same time a split-screen on the other side of the TV showed police launching smoke bombs at protesters in Ferguson. It was heartbreaking. Because if that was reality rising up through the gap on Monday night, the reality is that legal discrimination is the norm – and our law enforcement officials refuse to acknowledge reality.

This is the gap in our collective split-screen: The Ferguson cops arrest black citizens three times more often than it does white people, but USA Today recently reported that “1,581 other police departments across the USA arrest black people at rates even more skewed than in Ferguson.” That’s right: the police department that won’t even see officer Darren Wilson stand trial – a cop, mind you, who complained that Michael Brown “looked like a demon” after he’d shot the unarmed black teenager – engages in less racial profiling than 1,581 other American police departments.

So it was nothing short of a gut punch to see our African American president on the wrong side of the gap between the fantasy of what the law does and the reality that people live. Obama, in that moment, gave credence to the fiction that if citizens just faithfully adhere to being “a nation built on the rule of law”, the result will be justice. Perhaps he will finally go to Ferguson tomorrow, but today, we are a nation looking upon a pile of ashes, death and broken dreams.

<snip>

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/25/obama-ferguson-prosecutor-politicians-protesters-get-it

before the howling of Obama bashing commences, I'm not saying I agree or disagree with this guy's take. I do think it's worthwhile read.

[JoePhilly]

1. What does this idiot want Obama to do?

[elleng]

13. Thanks.

[MattP]

2. Theres alot of blame before going at Obama

Not that he was a profile in courage but by not voting they got a bunch of racist assholes, as mayor, in government, and in the grand jury.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

12. Do you have the poll numbers for the 2014 elections that say they didn't vote? Please link them. nt

[belzabubba333]

15. really? you need polls?

[BeyondGeography]

3. Obama was Presidenting while black as black people were getting angry?

And tweeters have a better grip on reality than Obama?

There isn't a person in the country who "gets" racism better than Barack Obama right now. The man has won two national elections and is still treated like a party-crasher by the right and as clueless by the left.

Thanks for the wisdom-free column.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

4. It's "President Obama". Not "Obama". Please show some respect. nt

[cali]

6. I nearly always refer to him as President Obama and the lack does NOT denote an absense

of respect.

thanks, nanny.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

8. You're welcome, name-caller. nt

[Ykcutnek]

5. He said all the right things.

But no one cares about words.

This problem requires activism, not a President.

To put all the burden on one man to fix everything because he's the first black president is kind of racist.

[Dont call me Shirley]

7. The split screen was so disgraceful and disrespectful to Presient Obama

The msm would never have done that to an R president.

[leftynyc]

9. PRESIDENT Obama

was between a rock and a hard place. He's had to walk a very delicate line since he decided to run for President - could never show even a hint of anger for fear of being labeled the angry black man. But he's not President of just African Americans or just liberals. He supposed to be representing all of us while at the same time being a historical figure. I think the author of this piece is expecting Superman and not the human the President is.

[Blue_Tires]

11. I'm not going to get mad

Last edited Tue Nov 25, 2014, 04:39 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm not going to swear

I am inclined to ask the author what he personally did for the people of Ferguson and the Brown family, assuming he had any skin in the game...

But all I will say is I strongly believe this columnist's analysis of events is flawed, and with that I will leave this thread...

[grasswire]

14. I will listen to Obama talk about justice when...

....his justice department indicts Cheney, Bush, Wolfowitz, Rice, Rumsfeld.....

[Drunken Irishman]

16. Your hate of Obama is pathological.

Seriously. Get a fucking grip, cali. You're losing any credibility you ever had.