President Barack Obama is known not to do well in reaching out to his opposition on the right, e.g. regarding health care, the debt ceiling or taxes but that's par for the course. Not everyone can work with Congress the way Johnson or Reagan did. When it comes to bridging this country's racial divide however, this was supposed to be Obama's special expertise and talent, being that he is biracial and has exposer to American, Far Eastern and African American cultures. President Obama spoke messages of unity in his key note address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention where he proclaimed that we are - "not a black America, not a white America but a United States of America". However in his governance (and even in his subsequent campaigning) he has revealed himself to be a racialist time and time again.
The latest time this occurred was regarding the George Zimmerman case, where Zimmerman, a Hispanic shot and killed a young African American, Trayvon Martin, in self defense - as deemed by a jury verdict. Obama, before the case was heard and even after the jury verdict, has interjected himself in the most personal of ways, saying first that Trayvon could have been his son, and a week after the non- guilty verdict, said that he himself could have been Trayvon 35 years ago.
What he meant by this was the profiling element of the case when Zimmerman called in to the police what he deemed as suspicious behavior on the part of Trayvon inside of a gated community. He reported that Trayvon was walking near and looking inside of houses and "looking about like he was on drugs or something". Certainly he was vindicated by the autopsy report which showed that Trayvon had marijuana (which can make one feel paranoid) in his system. Zimmerman's profiling of Trayvon could not be established as racial as determined by the FBI - which interviewed 40 witnesses, the prosecution team, the judge or the jurors yet Obama posits by implication that Trayvon Martin was racially profiled and the President on to speculate that the outcome of the case would have been different had Trayvon been white. Obama went on to 'educate' white America what it feels like
to be profiled as a black man, such as when security guards follow blacks around in department stores, women clutch their purses tighter in elevators or when people lock their car doors in the presence of a black man. Too bad Obama couldn't tell Jesse Jackson not to profile blacks when Jackson honestly admitted that when he's walking alone at night and there's a group of young men behind him that he prefer them to be white rather than black.
Obviously, second guessing the FBI report, the prosecution, the judge and the jury is baseless but because of the case being as emotionally charged as it is, is also dangerous. Already we have heard of multiple cases of people being attacked and 2 murders possibly, in revenge of the not-guilty verdict of Zimmerman.
Our president who self identifies as black but is actually half black and half white is judging Zimmerman who is half Hispanic (his mother being Peruvian) and half white, as profiling blacks because that's what whites "historically" have done. Does this mean that if Obama ever found a black man suspicious, that Zimmerman could accuse Obama of racial profiling? It makes just as much sense! Since when did Hispanics inherit the guilt of whites? Is Zimmerman's half minority status not as valid as Obama's half minority status? None of these DNA comparisons should matter anyway but who is Obama to judge Zimmerman as a racial profiler?
There was no evidence from the case that Zimmerman attacked Martin initially. All the evidence points to an attack of Zimmerman by Martin. If our President really feels that by virtue of being biracial that he can teach all Americans from his vantage point then why didn't he use the Trayvon Martin case as a teachable moment in this respect, i.e. that if a black man is unjustifiably profiled as being criminal he should not resort to violence as a response because that indeed would be criminal. He also could well have made the point that the police should not be viewed as an enemy to minority youth and if a black young person feels they are in danger they should not hesitate to call 911. No such call was made by Trayvon Martin nor did he ask his friend Rachel Jeantel, with whom he was on the phone, to make such a call before he felt compelled to attack Zimmerman.
No doubt there is a financial divide in this country between whites and blacks. In 2010 the poverty rate among whites was 10% whereas for African Americans it was 27%. Many reasons are cited for this. It
is said by some that there are disparities in the criminal justice system and housing opportunities. The criminal justice system is controlled by government and should be dealt with through those channels. Housing discrimination is already prohibited by federal law. We know that many black youth are caught
in failing public schools and that is why those on the right of the isle promote school vouchers, which incidentally, Barack Obama eliminated for Washington D.C. schools, once he got into office. Otherwise,
there is the disintegrating family structure in the black community since the 60's. In 2009 72% of black babies were born out of wedlock as opposed to 28% of white babies. Drugs, crime and gang wars is a big problem in lower class black neighborhoods. Barack Obama is certainly an admirable role model for the black community as well as for Americans in general, as a wonderful father and husband. Why doesn't he denounce the misogyny, anti social and violent lyrics that are pervasive in music for consumption to American youth and African American youth especially?
The focus should be on constructive solutions rather than the blame game of calling each other names. I have tried to promote the idea of character development classes for public schools for awhile now. At the very least there should be classes from very early on in the schooling process teaching the perils of teen age pregnancies and births out of wedlock. There should also be penalties for a male who impregnates a female and subsequently doesn't support the child financially. Anti-violence discussions should also be part of the curriculum from very early on. Crime such as car and home theft, muggings, rape and murder should be strictly dealt with and not allow a revolving criminal justice system whereby a criminal gets to reoffend over and over again. There should be very heavy penalties for those who participate in rioting.
Detroit, Michigan is declaring bankruptcy because it is $19 billion in debt which it can not pay or even borrow. There are different reasons to explain this but the riots of the sixties in Detroit is a major factor in that they had a devastating blow on the city's economy and the population experienced white flight as a result. Drugs are rampant and crime there is the worst in 40 years. Detroit, once a thriving metropolis, is the largest city in U.S. history to go bankrupt and is a case to which we should all pay heed and learn from.
Jesse Jackson is contemplating a boycott of Florida where the Zimmerman trial took place. Al Sharpton is leading rallies all over the country trying to shame anyone who is not black and pretending to offer something to black communities who are struggling but it is just empty rallying cries and rhetoric. The Justice Department can not bring a civil rights violations case against Zimmerman because there is nothing with which to substantiate such a charge. In Zimmerman's past we find that he mentored African American children, asked an African American young lady to his prom and went all out to spotlight the mistreatment of a police officer of a black homeless person. Changing "stand your ground" laws, (which does not require someone to flee a scene before resorting to self defense with deadly force) is a state legislative matter and nothing for the federal government to assert itself into nor did this Zimmerman case have anything to do with a "stand your ground" defense.
Barack Obama will be our president for the next 3 years and I think he should focus on national issues such as embassy security all over the world so that a Ben Ghazi shouldn't happen again. He should get timely reports from the IRS to see that they are not discriminating against particular type of non profits and he should monitor the Justice Dept more carefully and warn them against dangerous operations such as "Fast and Furious", which allowed the sale of 2,000 weapons to end up in the hands of drug cartels in Mexico. He should also want to discourage the Justice Dept from seizing records of reporters when the administration doesn't like what the reporters are writing about.
As far as the ginned up phony 'civil rights' movement of today it's just a relic of the angry and incendiary rhetoric from decades ago from such actors as The Black Panthers, The Nation of Islam who murdered Malcom X, and Louie Farrakhan who engendered much strife and hatred from blacks towards Jews. Barack Obama learned and sat for 20 years in the church of Rev Jeremiah Wright who called the U.S.A the "KKK of America". America has moved on from that point and we shouldn't have to recycle that old, tired and divisive rhetoric. Noted African American neurosurgeon Ben Carson declares that when he operates on the brain of an individual he can not tell whether the person has a white or black covering. I think Barack Obama and his "civil rights" compadres could learn from that. Mr. President, I enjoy when you sing like Al Green but not when you sound like Bobby Seale.
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