Obama: ‘Trayvon Martin Could Have Been Me’

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obamaIn unscheduled and unusually personal remarks, President Barack Obama tried today to explain why African-Americans were upset about last week’s acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin while lowering expectations for federal charges in the case.

“Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” Obama told White House reporters in a surprise appearance at the daily briefing.

A Florida jury acquitted Zimmerman in Martin’s February 26, 2012, shooting death, inciting anger among many who considered the incident racially motivated murder.

Obama issued a written statement on Sunday, noting that the jury had spoken and urging calm and reflection.

Speaking Friday without a teleprompter, Obama noted a history of racial disparity in law as well as more nuanced social prejudice that contribute to “a lot of pain” in the African American community over the verdict.

“There are very few African-American men in this country who have not had the experience of being followed when they are shopping at a department store. That includes me,” the president said.

“There are probably very few African-American men who have not 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,” he continued.

“There are very few African-Americans who have not had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had the chance to get off. That happens often,” he said.

Saying he didn’t intend to exaggerate those experiences, Obama added that they “inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida.”

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

African-Americans feel the context of the Martin killing is little known or denied, “and that all contributes, 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 said.

At the same time, Obama responded to calls by civil rights groups for federal hate crimes charges to be filed against Zimmerman by saying the Florida legal process had reached a verdict.

“Once the jury’s spoken, that’s how our system works,” the president said, later adding that while Attorney General Eric Holder was looking further at the case, those calling for federal charges must “have some clear expectations here.”

In America, law enforcement and the criminal code are “traditionally done at the state and local levels, not at the federal level,” he said.

“Justice for Trayvon” vigils are scheduled for tomorrow outside federal buildings across the country by Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.

Sharpton called Obama’s remarks Friday “significant and much needed,” saying in a statement that the president “set a tone for both direct action and needed dialogue.”

Obama said demonstrations and other responses to the Zimmerman verdict must be non-violent or they will dishonor what happened to Martin and his family.

He outlined possible future steps, calling for the Justice Department, state governors and city mayors to work with law enforcement agencies “about training at the state and local levels in order to reduce the kind of mistrust in the system that sometimes currently exists.”

For example, he noted that racial profiling legislation he pushed as a state senator in Illinois helped police departments think about the issue and act more professionally, which helped build trust with communities they serve.

Obama also called for reconsideration of “stand your ground” self-defense laws in Florida and other states, that he said “may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case, rather than diffuse potential altercations.”

Sharpton and other civil rights leaders call for abolishing the “stand your ground” laws.

“If we’re sending a message as a society in our communities that someone who is armed potentially has the right to use those firearms, even if there’s a way for them to exit from a situation, is that really going to be contributing to the kind of peace and security and order that we’d like to see?” Obama asked.

To supporters of such laws, Obama said they should consider if the right to fight back with a gun would have applied to Martin.

“Do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman, who had followed him in a car, because he felt threatened?” the president said. “And if the answer to that question is at least ambiguous, then it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws.”

While rejecting any “grand new federal program,” Obama also called for providing more support for African-American boys and young mans who disproportionately end up in prison or homicide victims.

However, he rejected calls for him to launch a national conversation on race, saying “I haven’t seen that be particularly productive when, you know, politicians try to organize conversations.”

His comment could have been a slap at his own response to the 2009 arrest of African-American university professor Henry Louis Gates by a white police officer responding to a report of a possible burglary at his Boston-area home.

After coming under criticism for saying police acted stupidly, Obama later invited the Harvard professor and the arresting officer for a beer at the White House.

On Friday, Obama instead endorsed “soul-searching” discussions in homes, churches and workplaces where people might be more honest about whether they were “wringing as much bias” out of themselves as possible.

“As difficult and challenging as this whole episode has been for a lot of people, I don’t want us to lose sight that things are getting better,” the president concluded, making a reference to his daughters’ generation.

“It doesn’t mean we’re in a post-racial society. It doesn’t mean that racism is eliminated,” he said. “But, you know, when I talk to Malia and Sasha and I listen to their friends and I see them interact, they’re better than we are. They’re better than we were on these issues. And that’s true in every community that I’ve visited all across the country.”

Read more at CABLE NEWS NETWORK.

{Matzav.com Newscenter}


19 COMMENTS

  1. It’s telling that Obama takes his cue from his daughters. He previously said that he changed his position in support of same-gender marriages because of his daughters, and once again, his daughters are the real ones setting policy for the White House. Unlike most people, who listen to the wisdom of their elders, this narcissit in the White House takes the advice of children over adults. Obviously, Obama’s never grown up.

  2. So Obama is a=saying -given the opportunity he would have jumped on a Hispanic man and beat his head into the cement???

  3. Obama says Trayvon Martin could have been him. Is he admitting that he went around pounding white people’s heads into the ground? Would explain his attitude today.

  4. The reason ppl cluth their purses and cross the street and lock their doors is because these are the ppl who commit most of the robberies muggings and beatings hello you get what you deserve

  5. Yes that’s true!
    You also pick fights! Only you have the machine and the media watching your back; Trayvon did not! And you, like him, are usually wrong too! The shame is it was him – not you!

  6. Maybe we should pause to think why people click their car locks and women clutch their purses. They are probably not crazy.

  7. T. Martin was not a half-white kid from Hawaii/Indonesia who slid through life under Afirmative Action without actually doing any productive work, and is avoiding responsibility in his present sinecure.

  8. Trayvon Martin couldn’t have been him. Obama grew up living a privileged life and gliding through it on the magic carpet of affirmative action.

    And another point:
    If you are going to speak about the African-American community as monolithic, then you can’t turn around and complain when people of other ethnicities do the same – i.e., click their car locks and clutch their purses.

  9. Besides which –
    Obama knows very well that people don’t lock their cars and clutch their purses when they see black men in business suits with a attache cases – and that there’s very good reason for them to do so if they see a black man in beaten up jeans and a hoodie.

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