I was going to sit this one out. Truly. I was perfectly contented live tweeting the verdict and the aftermath. Everybody has an opinion on the George Zimmerman trial, so why add yet another? I was going to let this one go, until yesterday, when the President weighed in on the matter...again.
Last I checked, the judiciary is independent from the White House. So why is Obama entering the foray? Because he is half black? Are the NAACP are calling in favours for campaign support? Are the Black Panthers, who were so effective in "campaigning" for Obama, coming home to roost?
What I find most odious, is not that Obama has chosen to weigh in on the verdict, but the manner in which he does. He racially personalizes Trayvon. With last year's pre-trial comment "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon", Obama attaches himself to the victim because of they are both black. Yesterday's comment, "Trayvon Martin could've been me 35 years ago" is yet another way the President is personally relating to the victim by race. It's like saying shooting Trayvon, is like shooting the President, because they are both black.
I've had the privilege of visiting the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and partaking in the Birmingham Civil Rights Tour. What a historically and culturally rich experience for this Canadian girl. I definitely walked away from that visit with a sense of gladness that America came through those times for the better.
However, when I hear of cases like Trayvon's being exploited because of race, I cringe. I would hope that racial discrimination is nearly non-existent. However with Democratic policies like affirmative action, and now with President commenting on a trial verdict because Trayvon Martin was black, it appears that this administration fans the fires of racial discrimination. How can the President on one hand decry racial discrimination when supporting affirmative action which discriminates against race among others things?
Sometimes I feel like I'm living in 1962 watching James Meredith at Ole Miss. I wonder how he feels about the current racial discrimination? He was pretty clear about it in an interview in 2002 when he said "Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights. It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind."
That pretty much sums it up.
Last I checked, the judiciary is independent from the White House. So why is Obama entering the foray? Because he is half black? Are the NAACP are calling in favours for campaign support? Are the Black Panthers, who were so effective in "campaigning" for Obama, coming home to roost?
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| Black Panthers outside a Philadelphia poling station in 2008 cnn.com |
"Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago." —President Obama
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 19, 2013
I've had the privilege of visiting the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute and partaking in the Birmingham Civil Rights Tour. What a historically and culturally rich experience for this Canadian girl. I definitely walked away from that visit with a sense of gladness that America came through those times for the better.
However, when I hear of cases like Trayvon's being exploited because of race, I cringe. I would hope that racial discrimination is nearly non-existent. However with Democratic policies like affirmative action, and now with President commenting on a trial verdict because Trayvon Martin was black, it appears that this administration fans the fires of racial discrimination. How can the President on one hand decry racial discrimination when supporting affirmative action which discriminates against race among others things?
Sometimes I feel like I'm living in 1962 watching James Meredith at Ole Miss. I wonder how he feels about the current racial discrimination? He was pretty clear about it in an interview in 2002 when he said "Nothing could be more insulting to me than the concept of civil rights. It means perpetual second-class citizenship for me and my kind."
That pretty much sums it up.