Obama: 'Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago'
President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance at the White House Friday to discuss African-Americans' reaction to last weekend's verdict in the George Zimmerman case, saying that "Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago."
"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 -- that doesn't go away," he said.
Obama addressed the issue personally as well, saying, “There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they are shopping at a department store. And that includes me.”
He recalled his own experiences before becoming a nationally-recognized politician, noting, “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. . . .
So President Obama mercilessly beat Neighborhood Watch guys 35 years ago?
This common angry door-locking complaint from black men has always amused and puzzled me. As a veteran runner and walker, particularly when I was younger, it was not unknown for a woman to activate the lock system of her car when I appeared. A typical example would take place at dusk, when we had reached an intersection at the same time. Maybe her car would be pulling out of a residential neighborhood onto a boulevard where I was passing or waiting for a break in the traffic. Often she would have a child on-board.
Having someone, even a complete stranger, think of you as a possible criminal is never pleasant, but I was never trembling with anger. These women were just effortlessly flipping a button and taking an intelligent safety measure. That I am white and reasonably presentable did not deter them from taking that action. White people are fully aware that there exist white criminals.
Yet apparently if I had been black and had experienced the same thing I would have become practically unhinged with anger at the injustice of it all. Even though, as, again, I have found, it happens to white men too. Add to that, anyone with an ounce of sense is aware of the grotesquely disproportionate incidence of black-on-white violent crime, particularly rape.
But here is the scariest part. It seems that all of the white doors being broken into or, if unlocked, being simply opened and walked through by black criminals to rob, beat, rape or murder white people do not in the least bother professional anti-racists like Al Sharpton and President Obama. No, what traumatizes them are whites simply trying to protect themselves by merely locking their own doors.
Why? Well, you see, this behavior is deeply racist and a grievous insult to every black men who might innocently stroll down the street doing good deeds and thinking of gumdrops and sugarplums. Because this evil white behavior hearkens back to slave ships, church bombings, 'Amos 'n Andy' and the Klan cross burnings!
Incredible.
Of course the larger message here is that multiracial societies are always, at best, simmering pressure cookers and simply do not work and never will.
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