Obama: “Trayvon Martin could have been me”
President Barack Obama made his first public remarks about George Zimmerman’s acquittal on Friday. He mentioned the belief of many African-Americans that the outcomes and aftermath of Trayvon Martin’s death would have been different had he been white.
The president resorted to personal terms as he described his own experiences with racially based prejudice. “You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son, Obama said “Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.
Obama continued to comment on the many African-American men who have not experienced being followed in a department store, “ he himself had not had such an experience “ he also mentioned the effects of hearing car doors lock while an African-American walks across the street or watching a woman clutch her purse tighter as an African-American steps into an elevator.
“The African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history, judging “what happened one night in Florida through that lens, he said.
Obama was not hopeful that a Justice Department review of the case would lead to federal charges against Zimmerman. “It’s important for people to have some clear expectations here. Traditionally, these are issues of state and local government, the criminal code, and law enforcement is traditionally done at the state and local levels”not at the federal level,” he said.
The president also seemed to settle with the way the justice system works, explaining that those involved in the trial, the judge, the prosecution and defense, the juries, did what they were supposed to do. “They rendered a verdict,” Obama said. “And once the jury has spoken, that’s how our system works.”
Suggestions of a national conversation about race were also watered down, but the president encouraged churches, families, and communities to discuss the issues surrounding the case, and to do some “soul-searching.
The president called for a review of Florida’s “stand your ground statute as well. He suggested that it be rewritten in a way that enhances violence, not diminishes it. Obama posed the question, “If Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? And 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?
Obama suggested that if the answer to the question is ambiguous in the slightest, then those laws might need to be reconstructed.
The remarks shifted to the long term, where Obama suggested that we as a society need to think about how to properly bolster African-American boys in order to give them a sense that their country cares for them, but he also quipped, “I don’t want us to lose sight that things are getting better.
“It doesn’t mean we’re in a post-racial society. It doesn’t mean that racism is eliminated,” Obama said. “But 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.”
Obama, who released a short statement after the verdict was released on Saturday, watched as a national reaction unfolded, leading him to want to speak out publicly. The president called on family and friends as well as some top advisors on Thursday afternoon in preparation for a speech. The ultimatum resulted in making an unannounced visit to the briefing room.
