Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago: Obama

Washington: President Barack Obama called on Americans to do some soul searching over the death of black teenager Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his shooter, delivering an emotional public reflection on race that was rare for the country’s first black president. Empathising with the pain of many black Americans, Obama said the slain 17-year-old “could have been me 35 years ago.” He said the case conjured up a hard history of racial injustice “that doesn’t go away.” Although Obama has written about his own struggles with racial identity, the surprise speech marked his most extensive discussion of race as president and an unusual embrace of the longing of many African-Americans for him to give voice to their experiences. “I think it’s important to recognise that the African- American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away,” Obama said. In many ways, it was the frank talk on what it can be like to be black in America that many African-Americans had been waiting to hear from Obama. [caption id=“attachment_973089” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Barack Obama while he spoke of Trayvon Martin’s death. AP[/caption] “Black people and brown people everywhere feel like they’ve been heard,” said Angela Bazemore, 56, an administrative assistant who lives in New York City. A Florida jury last week acquitted George Zimmerman of all charges in the February 2012 shooting of Martin, who was an unarmed. The verdict was cheered by those who agreed that Zimmerman was acting in self-defense, while others protested the outcome, believing Zimmerman, who identifies himself as Hispanic, had targeted Martin because he was black. Martin was staying in the gated community where Zimmerman lived and had gone out on a rainy evening last year to buy snacks at a store. Zimmerman, who was armed with a handgun and was part of a neighborhood watch organization, spotted Martin and called authorities to report he thought the teenager was acting suspiciously. Against the advice of an emergency dispatcher, who said police were on their way, Zimmerman followed Martin and shot the teen when a scuffle or fight broke out. Despite his emotional comments on the case, Obama appeared to signal that the Justice Department was unlikely to file federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman. Traditionally, he said, “these are issues of state and local government,” and he warned that the public should have “clear expectations.” Even as the president urged the public to accept the verdict, he gave voice to the feelings held by many angered by the jury’s decisions. There’s a sense, Obama said, “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.” Obama spoke poignantly about the distrust that shadows many African-American men, saying that they can draw nervous stares on elevators and hear car locks clicking when they walk down the street. “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,” he said. “That includes me.” The president also waded into the thorny debates on racial profiling and Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, despite the fact that neither was formally raised during Zimmerman’s trial. The law, and similar ones in other states, gives people wide latitude to use deadly force if they fear death or bodily harm. Obama said it would be useful “to examine some state and local laws to see if they are designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of confrontation” that led to Martin’s death. And he raised the provocative question of whether Martin himself, if he had been armed and of age, “could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk” and shot Zimmerman if he felt threatened when being followed. While acknowledging racial disparities in how criminal laws are applied, the African-American community isn’t “naive about the fact African-American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, that they’re disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence,” he said. He said race relations are, however, getting better. “We’re becoming a more perfect union,” he said. “Not a perfect union, but a more perfect union.” The president spoke emotionally about Martin’s parents, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, saying they had displayed incredible grace and dignity. He never mentioned the feelings of Zimmerman, whose brother has said the former defendant has faced numerous death threats. Martin’s parents released a statement following the remarks, saying, “President Obama sees himself in Trayvon and identifies with him. This is a beautiful tribute to our boy.” Zimmerman’s brother, Robert, also welcomed the president’s remarks, telling Fox News that “the American people need to have some time to digest what really happened and to do that soul searching the president spoke of.” Zimmerman’s defense attorneys said they acknowledged and understood the racial context of which Obama spoke, but wanted to “challenge people to look closely and dispassionately at the facts.” Those who do so, they said, will see it was a clear case of self-defense and that Zimmerman is a “young man with a diverse ethnic and racial background who is not a racist.” Despite that fact that Obama’s race has been central to the narrative of his political rise, he has rarely addressed the matter as a public figure. He last spoke about race in a substantial way as a presidential candidate in 2008 in addressing criticism over incendiary comments made by his former pastor, Rev Jeremiah Wright. In 2009, Obama stumbled when commenting on the arrest of a black Harvard professor in the professor’s home, saying the police “acted stupidly.” The president was forced to retract his statement, then held an awkward “beer summit” at the White House with the professor and the white arresting officer. Associated Press