President Obama today, July 19, 2013, made an extended statement about the killing of Trayvon Martin and the trial that followed which resulted in the acquittal of the killer, George Zimmerman. Here, according to the New York Times, is what the President said:
“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.”
“There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me."
“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.”
“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. And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.”
“I think it would be useful for us to examine some state and local laws to see if it — if they are designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations and tragedies that we saw in the Florida case, rather than defuse potential altercations.”
“Am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can; am I judging people, as much as I can, based on not the color of their skin but the content of their character? That would, I think, be an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy.”
“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.”
“That all contributes, I think, to a sense that if a white male teen was involved in the same kind of scenario, that, from top to bottom, both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different,”
The Times reported that the President praised the judge in the case and said,
“Once the jury’s spoken, that’s how our system works.”
“For those who resist that idea that we should think about something like these Stand Your Ground laws, I just ask people to consider 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?”
The Times reported that the president said he was not advocating “some brand new federal program.”
But he said Americans should try to figure out new ways to
“bolster and reinforce our African-American boys.”
He said that he and the first lady, Michelle Obama, talk often about the black youth who need positive reinforcement.
“There are a lot of kids out there who need help who are getting a lot of negative reinforcement,” he said. “And is there more that we can do to give them the sense that their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them?”
The White House has issued a video of the President's remarks:
(Disassociated Press) Speaking from his back bathroom through a tin can, Delegate Patrick McDonough announced he will never go outside his home again. Ever.
"The prob," McDonough said, "is DNA." Mr. McDonough went on:
"Back in the day, everything was Black and White. Not any more.
"A while back I complained about 'Black youths' doing this or that and one of my very strongest supporters out here in White Haven pointed out that there were probably some Hispanic kids messing around, too.
"I never even thought of that! Everyone knows that Hispanics are non-White. Everyone I know, anyway. But does that make them Black?
"Someone told me that the head of the Harvard Black Studies program is half-White. Does that mean Dr. Gates ought to be able to walk around free as a bird down at the Inner Harbor?
"I mean, he used to be a Black youth . . .
"It's just all gotten too confusing.
"I blame President Obama and his White mother.
"Is the President Black or not?
"Morgan Freeman says the man is White.
"Well, if he's White, then all the hubba hubba about his birth certificate does not make any sense. Does it?
"Romney's daddy was born in Mexico, for crying out loud. Is Mitt a Mex?
"This is all just to confusing.
"Take Italians. Are they White or not? I mean, you got lots of White-looking Italians such as Britney Spears, Jennifer Aniston, Taylor Swift, Paris Hilton, Bruce Springsteen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Bon Jovi, all teh Fondas - Bridget, Jane, Henry; then you got your Frank Sinatra, your Sean Penn, your Madonna, your Lady Gaga.
"But what if it turns out they are Black? Black like Obama?
"Am I supposed to say Bruce Springsteen and Leo DiCaprio should stay away from the Inner Harbor?
"I thought I would be OK just pointing the finger at Black Baltimore and the Inner Harbor. But if Italians are Black and Obama is White and Baltimore starts welcoming Hispanics . . .
"You tell me: where is it safe to be a nativist bigot these days?
"I can't deal with this. I can't walk out my door now, worrying about who's what, and who or what I might run into.
"I wish we could go back to the good old days where if someone looked Black, you could just not let'm in.
"As soon as we stopped doing that, everything got all complicated on me.
"Maybe I better just sit here and shut up."
Maybe so . . .
Background:
McDonough says mayor creating 'super magnet' for illegal immigration
Pat McDonough ratchets up 'mobs of black youth' talk, criticism of mayor on WCBM weekend show
Morgan Freeman: Obama Not 'First Black President'
"There is no African American we have ever tested who is 100 percent black. None," Gates said.
From THINK PROGRESS - ECONOMIC SABOTAGE EXPLAINED
Today’s monthly employment report brought the disappointing news that the economy created 84,000 private sector jobs in June, with the unemployment rate remaining at 8.2 percent. Let’s take a closer at how we got here and why we’re not moving forward more quickly.
As the election nears, we’re reminded of when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) outlined the GOP’s number one goal:
The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.
Not creating an economy that works for everyone. Not putting Americans back to work. The GOP’s top — and almost singular — goal is to defeat the president, even if that meant more and longer suffering for millions of Americans in the process.
And true to form, House Republicans aren’t responding to today’s jobs news by announcing plans to pass to jobs legislation. Instead, they’re planning on just wasting more time next week on yet another vote to repeal Obamacare. This obsession with taking away health care from millions of Americans has not ever and will not now create one job. By contrast, the health care sector’s 13,000 new jobs was one of the bright spots in this month’s jobs report.
And it’s not just that Republicans and their failed policies wrecked the economy and now they’re just trying to wait out the clock until November. ThinkProgress’ Jeff Spross outlines five ways the GOP has sabotaged job growth:
1. Filibustering the American Jobs Act. Last October, Senate Republicans killeda jobs billproposed by President Obama that would have pumped $447 billion into the economy. Multiple economic analysts predicted the bill would add around two million jobs and hailed it as defense against a double-dip recession. The Congressional Budget Office also scored it as a net deficit reducer over ten years, and the American public supported the bill.
2. Stonewalling monetary stimulus. The Federal Reserve can do enormous good for a depressed economy through more aggressive monetary stimulus, and by tolerating a temporarily higher level of inflation. But with everything from Ron Paul’s anti-inflationary crusade to Rick Perry threatening to lynch Chairman Ben Bernanke, Republicans have browbeaten the Fed into not going down this path. Most damagingly, the GOP repeatedly held up President Obama’s nominations to the Federal Reserve Board during the critical months of the recession, leaving the board without the institutional clout it needed to help the economy.
3. Threatening a debt default. Even though the country didn’t actually hit its debt ceiling last summer, the Republican threat to default on the United States’ outstanding obligations was sufficient to spook financial markets anddo real damage to the economy.
4. Cutting discretionary spending in the debt ceiling deal. The deal the GOP extracted as the price for avoiding default imposed around $900 billion in cuts over ten years. It included $30.5 billion in discretionary cuts in 2012 alone, costing the country 0.3 percent in economic growth and 323,000 jobs, according to estimates from the Economic Policy Institute. Starting in 2013, the deal will trigger another $1.2 trillion in cuts over ten years.
5. Cutting discretionary spending in the budget deal. While not as cataclysmic as the debt ceiling brinksmanship, Republicans also threatened a shutdown of the government in early 2011 if cuts were not made to that year’s budget. The deal they struck with the White House cut $38 billion from food stamps, health, education, law enforcement, and low-income programs among others, whilesparing defense almost entirely.
And when it comes to Mitt Romney, economists agree that his plans will actually make things worse and could cause another recession.
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