Posted on 03/24/2012 4:05:24 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
To hear some conservatives tell it, President Obama tore racial unity asunder with his Friday remarks about the tragic death of Trayvon Martin, while liberals have a predictably more favorable view. Perhaps a better barometer of the President’s success at conveying the proper sentiment is from a trusted, down-the-middle guy like National Journal‘s Major Garrett, who called the President’s remarks “One For The History Books.”
In his column, Garrett briefly assesses the President’s handling of the Trayvon Martin story, and places it within thorough context of the President’s oft-criticized approach to race. From National Journal:
“If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”
With that one sentence, President Obama on Friday placed himself in the middle of a raging national debate as a parent, a president, and an African-American speaking to and for the black “community.”
White House officials said that Obama was eager to discuss the killing of Trayvon Martin and has tracked carefully the twin components of the Florida crime: the shooting of the unarmed teen and allegedly slipshod police investigation and the broader sense of grievance African-Americans of all socio-economic backgrounds feel about the unspoken threat of violence posed to their children.
His decision to wrap his arms around Martin’s family and give voice to thousands who have taken up their cause may be a watershed moment in his presidency.
After tracing the bread crumbs from then-Senator Obama’s speech on race in response to the Jeremiah Wright controversy, to the troublesome Skip Gates ordeal, and criticisms that he has tried too hard to avoid “any real or imagined stereotype of an African-American president governing or speaking specifically on behalf of African-American interests,” Garrett concludes that, with his handling of the Trayvon Martin tragedy, “his manner, words, and tone may mark a turning point in his presidency when it comes to matters of race and justice and how he is perceived on these issues by African-Americans.”
It’s an excellent examination of the President’s handling of race, and while his conclusion is probably correct, the question that remains is whether he threaded that same needle for everyone else. With the exception of the most hardened Obama-haters, I think he may have.
Every decent American who has heard the Trayvon Martin story feels some sort of connection to the tragically slain teenager, and every one of us also possesses a varying degree of distance from him. President Obama’s brief remarks were perfectly attenuated to measure both distances, and to bridge them. When I first saw Trayvon’s school photo in a news report, I immediately felt the pain of his loss through the window of my own angel-faced teenager, but also the distance of the bitter gratitude that my white son will never face the same peril. My friend Goldie Taylor saw her own sons, for whom she has had this specific worry, from a distance many steps closer. President Obama has two daughters, and so felt the pain as a father, and as a black man who has faced the gaze of the George Zimmermans and Sanford police of the world, but doesn’t know the unique stresses of raising a young black man among people who consider him a suspect first. Here’s the President’s response again, so you can see the key points: (emphasis mine):
But obviously, this is a tragedy. I can only imagine what these parents are going through. And when I think about this boy, I think about my own kids. And I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative that we investigate every aspect of this, and that everybody pulls together — federal, state and local — to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened.
So I’m glad that not only is the Justice Department looking into it, I understand now that the governor of the state of Florida has formed a task force to investigate what’s taking place. I think all of us have to do some soul searching to figure out how does something like this happen. And that means that examine the laws and the context for what happened, as well as the specifics of the incident.
But my main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon. And I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are going to take this with the seriousness it deserves, and that we’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.
If there was any solace in the Trayvon Martin story, it was that, even after nearly two weeks on the national radar, we seemed to have avoided the polarization that often accompanies high-profile racial incidents. In my view, this is due more to the specific elements of Trayvon’s story than to whatever progress we might have made since, say, the Bernhard Goetz shootings, or the Rodney King verdict, or the O.J. Simpson trial.
Shortly after the President’s remarks, however, some conservatives pounced, and in supremely ugly fashion. The Daily Caller ran a story attempting to paint President Obama’s remarks as a direct response to pressure from the New Black Panthers, a despicable Scare Whitey smear that has been thrown at the wall for years.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who proposed drafting urban 9 year-olds into janitorial service, and who thinks “the black community” is “satisfied with Food Stamps,” had the stones to accuse President Obama of being divisive, and of “turning it into a racial issue,” as if it was Obama who trained generations of cops to view young black men as suspects. This is the current dodge among Southern Strategy dead-enders; racism isn’t racism, pointing out racism is racism.
Now, there are well-known conservatives who are pushing the notion that the real injustice here is that Trayvon Martin’s death and disposal by George Zimmerman and the Sanford police is overshadowing the story of Allen Coon, a 13 year-old white boy who received first-degree burns when, he says, he was doused with gasoline and set on fire by two black 16 year-olds, a story that is actually being investigated by police. If you’re thinking, “That’s not even close to the same thing,” it’s not supposed to be; the real message here is that the blacks are scary.
Unless I missed something, this wave of ugliness from some (only some) conservatives began when President Obama commented on the story, as if they were waiting to pounce. The hope is obviously to create another Skip Gates scenario, which the cowardly mainstream press allowed to become a huge political negative for the President.
But I think Major Garrett is right, I think this time will be different. In the Skip Gates case, many people identified with the white cop because they saw Skip Gates as being uppity and ungrateful to a man who was just trying to protect him. Whether you think Gates was wise to mouth off to Sgt. Crowley for barking orders at him in his own home, the President was right, it was stupid for the police to arrest him.
Normal people identify with Trayvon Martin in this case, and with the President’s sentiments. All the Obama-deranged likes of Newt Gingrich will succeed at here is alienating the middle, and probably a good chunk of their own side. He’s right about one thing, this country is sick of being divided, and might be ready to take another baby-step toward fixing those divisions, rather than pretending they don’t exist.
“photo of a 17 year old”
They were posted here earlier. Look for an earlier thread. There have been about a hundred.
He looked like punk (in that sense he does look like he could be Soetero’s kid) trying to look tough and hard. He’s over 6 feet tall, I’m not sure about his weight: I’ve heard everything from 140 to 220.
I suspect he thought Zimmerman was “dissing” him or dogging him—you know how that works: if you ask a kid to get the hell off your car/lawn, you’re dissing him—and they tangled, with the kid pressing the matter and and he got shot.
So it’s quite possibly self-defense despite all the foil-strips the press and Democrats are dropping.
You are too stupid to understand that his Dad is going to “claim” whatever “ethnicity” he thinks will benefit his son in the current situation. Ethnicity is a social construct anyway, and he is apparently mostly white, whatever his Dan wants to claim in the current circumstances. The controvery started when certain freepers were bound and determined that they weren’t going to let Zimmerman be described by the media or anyone else as “white”.
Not withstanding Dr. King’s dream, we have a president who judges men by the color of their skin.
When is someone going to break this guy down to Private?
That is the impression that I got, meaning in terms of design.
No one called supporting Zimmerman and none of his guest said word one in his defense or even possible defense.
I’m pretty sure there’s got to be more than just a few FReepers that can smell this BS factory.
But if Hannity is going to put a man’s life endanger by entertaining this nonsense, he can do it without me listening.
All of those photos have been scrubbed from FR.
I smell fear around here.
What makes me angry is the out and out unproven opinions that are being labeled as fact. There is no truth anymore only agenda.
I can’t find them either. Down the memory hole, on FR?! Why?
Latino and Hispanic are not races.
Don’t know.
But every last one of them is gone.
But I got ‘em on my hard drive. No fear of reality here.
It took a while but I found one:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2863233/posts
post #30
Didn’t mean to imply that they were races. Most of the Latino and Hispanics around my neck of the woods don’t consider themselves to be Caucasian.
“When is someone going to break this guy down to Private.”
......and change his last name to Parts.
To think he used to work for FOX.
Yup, nice work, They missed that one :D
I’ve got a series of 4 pics and a comparison pic of him at a younger age in his football uniform, and it is very plain to the eye that it is him based upon his chin, lips, faint moustache, nose and eyebrows. I’ve also got pics of him flashing gang signs with his pants around his knees with boxers on, and another pic of him thuggin’ with gang wording all of which was taken from his facebook page.
Have a pic of him up close modeling his new gold grill with his lower front teeth capped and his two upper eye teeth capped. This picture in particular shows the transition as he ages from his football uniform pic, to the one with gold teeth, to the one that you found.
Also read a thread this morning shwoing that the pic of him in his white colored hoodie was doctored to make him look whiter..that from the miami herald.
This is clearly a case of media manipulated mind control, and it is being aided by Obama...and Sean hannity...and Glenn Beck...and every other race pimp charlatan under the sun.
I don’t even know what to think of my country any more, but none of my thoughts are positive at this time :(
Incidentally, the thread from this morning that contained a link to the miami herald showing the doctored hoodie pic is now gone from FR....
#s 25 and 29 in this thread above:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2863446/posts
seem surprised that Trayvon Martin didn’t actually look like
he belonged on Sesame Street but more like a gangsta rapper.
If some here are being fooled by the MSM, I’m not surprised the general public is getting suckered as well.
Whether he was or not, he looks like a thug. I read somewhere he was sent to stay with relatives because of disciplinary problems. Why would a high school kid go stay with relatives in March, during the school year?
Good thing you saved post #30: it’s gone now!
I wonder if it’s genuine.
Wow! They do not want reality around this place at all.
Utterly amazing, and not in a good way.
Saved that other pic of Zimmerman before media and after media.
Got to get it quick before it vanishes without a trace, I mean, wouldn’t want people to know what’s going on here or anything...
It is just phenomenal what is being done here with manipulation of images
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