Obama: "Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago"

[Jazzy]

In some of his most extensive comments on U.S. race relations since entering the White House, President Obama on Friday gave a very personal perspective of the shooting of 17-year-old African-American Trayvon Martin and the subsequent trial of George Zimmerman, offering an explanation for why the case has created so much anxiety within the African-American community.

"When Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said this could've been my son. Another way of saying that is, Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago," Mr. Obama said in an unexpected appearance in the White House briefing room, where reporters were gathered to question White House spokesman Jay Carney.

"When you think about why in the African-American community, at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened here, it's important to recognize the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and 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 at a department store, and that includes me," he said. He spoke about hearing the locks click on car doors while crossing the street -- something Mr. Obama said he experienced before he was senator -- or seeing a woman nervously clutch her purse while in an elevator with an African-American man.

"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. It's inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear."

Watch his full remarks in the video

Your thoughts on this?

 

[Fatal Dawn]

I'm not a super fan of his, but this was spot-on.

 

[Jazzy]

I, personally, was quite confused with his remarks. He turned this into a podium to speak about racial issues when there was no proof Zimmerman profiled Trayvon. In my opinion, he did this to appease the African-American voters. It was a political move. Pure and simple.

 

[Evil Eye]

He's your president, of course it's a political move. Everything the man does is a political move.
As I understand this, people turned that entire trial into a racial issue, so using it as a podium to talk about racial issues doesn't seem that strange. Regardless of what may or may not have actually happened.
Per the usual: the truth is irrelevant and Obama's motivations are irrelevant. Perception is everything and this is seen as some sort of racial divide. Speaking out against racism is not a bad thing.

 

[Fatal Dawn]

A political move?

The experiences he spoke about are extremely common among African-Americans. Among other things, look at the incarceration statistics among African-Americans. Less than an 1/8 of the U.S. general population comprises close to 1/2 of the U.S. prison population. I don't think it's as confusing as you make it seem.

 

[DrLeftover]

Once it was labeled a "Racial Incident" the facts of the case no longer mattered.

And they still do not matter.