The President's Take on Race

Townhall.com ^ | July 23, 2013 | Cal Thomas

[Kaslin]

President Obama rarely misses an opportunity to insert himself into an issue. Last Friday, he appeared in the White House press room to comment on the George Zimmerman verdict. The president said he could have been Trayvon Martin. Not likely, given his private schooling and the way he was fast-tracked to success.

The president said the history of African-Americans partially explains the way many black people view the case. He spoke of blacks hearing car doors lock as they cross the street and of white women who clutch their purses tightly when a black person enters an elevator.

Then he touched on the real problem: "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."

Okay, but what about poor people in the same neighborhoods who don't engage in violent behavior? What values are they being taught? Don't they have the same history, but make different choices?

It is not news that much poverty in the African-American community stems from broken or never-started families; or that too many black men leave black women to raise children on their own; or that the way "gangsta culture" is portrayed in the media does not produce an image that is endearing to white employers; or that public schools in minority neighborhoods are failing to build the foundations necessary for a successful life; or that the abortion rate among black women is four times higher than non-Hispanic whites among 15-19 year-olds, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Abortion, which the president has done nothing to curtail, also devalues African-American lives.

The politics of race plays a role. When black people kill each other, or murder a white person, the president usually feels no need to comment (the recent murder of 15-year-old Hadiya Pendleton being a rare exception); Al Sharpton doesn't march, Jesse Jackson doesn't call for boycotts, or label Florida an "apartheid state," as he did following the Zimmerman verdict. Are black lives only worth mentioning when they are extinguished by non-blacks?

There are black people who are disgusted by the behavior, clothing, attitude and language of some young black men. On the Washington Post's website last week, beneath a transcript of the president's remarks last Friday, a reader posting under the name "Chaquita1" offered a personal story about recently being on a train and watching an African-American woman give the evil eye to a pair of young African-American males in "gangsta wear" making a commotion. They became belligerent, talking about "the fat lady glaring at them."

The woman arose, Chaquita1 wrote, "and said 'Trayvon Martin died for nothing. His death did not empower you, it should have been a wake-up call.' She then returned to her seat, looked straight at me and said, 'You have white trash. We have black trash.'"

Discussions like this should be included in any "conversation about race" the president says he wants, along with how such attitudes and behavior contribute to racial conflict.

[rktman]

Title should be “king hussein sets race relations back 100 years”. I’ve seen the shoulder chips shrink and now they’ve grown purty durn big again. The flotus has some of the biggest chips on her shoulders I’ve ever seen. Of course she and the king did grow up under dire circumstances and barely made it out the ghettos they grew up in. Didiots.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Our white-African-American pResident weighs in on a white-Hispanic defending himself, and he disapproves.

[DManA]

“When I look into Treyvon’s eyes, darling
I see the reflection of me
Look at me dancing around in there
I look marvelous
Absolutely marvelous” Barack “Nando” Obama

[jsanders2001]

And 0 loves to stir the racial tension pot with his minions and the approval of his Obamazombie army who love him like the mother of a serial killer who’s so certain he could never hurt anyone even though their pets never seem to live more than a few months

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Too much attention is being paid to the words of this clown. A President he has proven himself more inept than Buchanan.

[A_perfect_lady]

I just think it’s telling that Obama doesn’t relate to Zimmerman at all: a man who is apparently very helpful, very concerned, takes responsibility for his neighborhood (some might say too much, although I don’t), carries his own weapon instead of having armed guard while he tries to take everyone else’s... yeah, I guess he really wouldn’t have anything in common with Zimmerman, would he?

[MRadtke]

Barack Obama just has a chip on his shoulder because he is part black. He needs to grow up, put on the big-boy pants, quit pretending that everything is all about race, and look at individuals as they are based on their actions and character, not the color of their skin.

[onedoug]

Would that he had been Trayvon then.

[Kaslin]

That arrogant pos occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave grow up? In your dreams

[No_More_Harkin]

This president has damaged relations in this country and set us back 50 years. Instead of being a uniter, and talking of personal responsibility, he makes excuses for bad behavior, injecting himself in private situations, making matters worse. He could have been like MLK Jr., instead he’s taken the path of Sharpton and Jackson.
It is no wonder since his pastor radicalized him for 20 years.

[Kaslin]

Very well said

[The Great RJ]

Remember in 2008 when the Black race hustlers said Obama wasn't Black enough and wasn't part of "the struggle"? In many ways they were right. Obama grew up (presumably) in Hawaii where the population is largely racially mixed and a long way from being the Jim Crow south. He went to a private high school and attended prestigious colleges and learned to speak the King's English. His friends and associates were of different races.

Trayvon however was a product of the liberal Black plantation. He basically dropped out of school, likely was involved in petty thievery and gangs and spoke Ebonics so as to be all but unemployable. The only thing Trayvon had in common with a youthful Obama is dope smoking.

Obama using Trayvon to stoke racial animosity in pure Alinsky leftest politics. By keeping the nation divided he can pit one group against another to gain power. If he country erupts in widespread race riots, Obama can again use the crisis to seize even more power. This is typical of dictators. Remember how Hitler used the Reichstag fire as an excuse to end civil liberties?

[MestaMachine]

"The President's Take"

The title could have stopped right there. He doesn't see black or white. He sees green and a crescent moon.