Aside from the President’s 2008 campaign speech on race, needed after his controversial pastor Rev. Wright’s remarks came to light, President Obama has mostly strayed away from discussing race and racism in office. Part of that reluctance is due to the fact that since a lot of the opposition to him and his policies was due to his race, and he did not want to turn his administration into a black v. white debate. (And if you think some of the opposition to the President during his first term was not racially-based, then ask yourself why the Tea Party did not exist during President Bush’s term, since the very same spending, debt and deficits occurred on a much larger scale during Bush’s term, and ask yourself why did they need to make racial jokes, and ask yourself why they call him a nigg*r, and ask yourself why they call him a Muslim Socialist instead of just a socialist. If you deny that racism is at least part of the reason some people oppose the President, then you are a stone cold idiot who should be prevented from operating heavy machinery).
Anyway, the President is uniquely qualified and right to speak about racism that African Americans experience, because he is the first President to have experienced it. And he should speak. Because we all need to think about this central question: if Trayvon Martin was white, would George Zimmerman ever call 911? Would he ever had got out of the car?
I agree with Booman:
[T]he president’s remarks […] were more personal and heartfelt than anything I could possibly say. And his overall point and strategy followed exactly what I’ve been saying. We need to humanize black people for a lot of white people, and there isn’t a stronger way to do that than to have the president say that he could have been Trayvon 35 years ago. That’s he’s been followed in stores and heard car locks click as he walks by. And he didn’t point fingers and try to make people feel like they are bad people or racists. He tried to get them to listen. Writ large, that is the only way to move public opinion enough to change these crazy laws on self-defense, as well as to win support for other progressive policies.
Respectful dialogue, exposure, and education. As the president noted, the kids already get it. We should listen to them, too. As for the hyperventilating throngs of right-wing jackasses, just be happy they’re exposing themselves for posterity.