It's been a long time since I've seen anyone embrace the "only racism is acknowledging racism" argument as fully and lovingly as this.
Obama: "Trayvon Martin could have been me."
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It's been a long time since I've seen anyone embrace the "only racism is acknowledging racism" argument as fully and lovingly as this.
separation of powers, he influences the judge.
Tell me why did automatically imprint negative conotations with Martins behaviour, behaviour thats actually pretty common, walking slowly, on your phone, looking in the direction of houses? Sure there was past break ins, so he called the police initially. Why did he go beyond his authority when Trayvon actually hadn't broken any laws yet?
He was profiling even if he thought he was doing the right thing, there was break ins by black kids and he saw Trayvon at night acting what he felt was strange behaviour and he went to the next logical conclusion in his mind which was he stumbled upon a crime in the making. Automatically Trayvon was seen as a criminal.
In his mind, representing "all the people" means excluding the African-American community.
What a cunt.
The exact phrase he used was "He looks black."
Pseudo_Sam
Survives without air, food, or water
OK this makes literally no sense. You even admit he could have done the same thing to a white guy. The fact that human beings use their eyesight as a means of identification does not make everybody racists. No, he didn't use his nose to sniff TM, but that's completely irrelevant. That TM happened to be black does not make GZ a racist.
Anyone who says this has no clue what they're talking about.
Again, I can't sneak into Zimmerman's mind to tell you what he exactly he thought at that exact moment. Does a person need to be a member of the KKK to profile someone? No. So, again, what would have happened if Trayvon was white? Would we be having this discussion? Would someone have followed a white Trayvon?
Shrennin
Didn't get the memo regarding the 14th Amendment
He didn't recognize the guy, there was a string of crimes in the neighborhood, and he took it upon himself to investigate someone that he wasn't familiar with. There were more factors than just race in this entire situation and there is no evidence that Zimmerman followed him JUST because he was black. I can't say whether or not race was a part of it but this is definitely not an open-and-shut case about racial profiling and this just doesn't seem like the best case to pick for that battle.
right now a whole bunch of people are rallying over Trayvon's innocence. I guess you guys are right in that he isn't taking a side, I looked over this quickly.
What I suppose I mean is. I hope those set of proclaiming his innocence while being completely disconnected with the case, don't try to use his sentiments to push the outrage that exists against the trials verdict.
D
Deleted member 17706
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Wait... why would he answer "I think he's black." if he couldn't tell?
So he immediately connected "up to something" with "being black" despite lacking visual confirmation?
wtf are you talking about? Did you even read the speech he said? He did not comment on the judgement at all.
He actually said "He looks black"
Choke on the Magic
Banned
Agreed he can weigh in on whatever he wants. He's the president, but he's also a US citizen who can freely express his views like any of us. That being said, fuck yeah it's political, it gives more traction to his agenda on gun control. He's not wrong about examples of racism he's experienced though. The door locking situation happened with my wife and my neighbors (old) two days ago while taking my kids on a walk.
Duane Cunningham
Member
But race being a factor at all is highly likely and a bad thing for society. And it needs to be talked about.
There were several identifying factors other than the color of his skin that aroused George's suspicion. The fact that he was black seems to have had nothing to do with it based on the evidence.
Such as?
PhoenixDark
Banned
One of the funniest part of this entire story is the 180 that has been done among some conservatives on guns. Trayvon with a gun wasn't him expressing his second amendment rights, it was him being a thug.
If this was 2006 GAF I'd tell you to fuck off with the nonsense. But in 2013 GAF I will merely state you are willfully ignorant and if you'd like, I will help you understand basic issues through PMs.
anotherVegan
Member
Proud to have Barack as my President.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Separation of powers is just as its written. Powers are separated. The president has no power here, but he's not banned from having an opinion or speaking out about it. He's not even talking about the verdict being wrong. He's talking about the issues that exist that caused this whole thing to happen.
That's really what it comes down to. All the "race played a part!" supporters generally have the argument "well it could have been" in that part. It becomes a very large gray area between two people that don't seem to be good individuals and people asserting their opinions on how things worked as fact when honestly we don't know. We should treat the case with care and not lean too far one way or another ideally. Obama did well in his statement to give that sort of feel. He made no broad statements or accusations, he just explained people's views and generally played the mentor for both sides without taking a side in the case. He just treated the case with care. It's a very poor argument to compare Zimmerman's self-defense to any hypothetical defense by Trayvon because they weren't in the same sort of situation but regardless, he played this smart.
Shrennin
Didn't get the memo regarding the 14th Amendment
What if there was, say, a gang, mostly white, known to wear certain type of apparel and Zimmerman followed that guy under the same assumption? Would we be having this conversation? Is the case that strong in terms of racial profiling? Like I said, his prior history shows that he would have acted in the same way despite the person's race.
Choke on the Magic
Banned
Yeah this totally makes up for all the other shit.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
Why did he think he was black?
Lacking the ability to visually confirm due to poor lighting and weather conditions, what prompted him to think that the 'suspect' was black?
Obama is a man with dark skin born from a woman with white skin and a man with dark skin.
He's a black man.
Conciliator
Banned
I honestly can't really take Obama seriously on anything after a couple years of NSA and drone warfare bullshit; that said at least on paper this stuff is agreeable, and, as always with him, eloquent.
After reading the 911 transcripts again, Zimmerman focuses a lot more on the guy acting strangely. He doesn't mention he is black initially. Just that "there is a man walking around staring at houses, and acting like he is on drugs". He emphasizes his behavior. It's not until the dispatcher asks for the color of the skin, that he says "I think he's black". And he only confirms he is black when supposedly Martin starts to walk towards him and he can see him more clearly. He speaks more about the hoodie, and him walking around and staring at houses.
Not seeing a lot of evidence that suggests he was intentionally following him because he was black? Does anyone have anything else? Not doubting, just asking.
Not seeing a lot of evidence that suggests he was intentionally following him because he was black? Does anyone have anything else? Not doubting, just asking.
I don't know, listen to the 911 call.
Black Republican
Member
NRA didnt even mention if Trayvon had a gun he woulda been alive did they?
As if every president doesn't do shit that someone doesn't like.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
You don't know... Yet you're willing to state things as fact like you know something.
What is this...
"He looks like he's up to no good"? What does that even mean? Why was that assumption even made in the first place? What made Trayvon look suspicious? That he was "looking at houses"? I don't really buy that any white kid who is "looking at houses" could be considered suspicious or that any white kid holding a can of Ice Tea would be assumed to be holding something dangerous.
...why are people choosing to ignore that Zimmerman also had a history of calling the police on "suspicious" black people in his neighborhood?
This wasn't a one-off; this was part of a larger pattern of behavior for Zimmerman.
...do I even want to ask for an explanation here?
This wasn't a one-off; this was part of a larger pattern of behavior for Zimmerman.
...do I even want to ask for an explanation here?
You're either agreeing with me, and taking the point too far. Or you're being sarcastic because you've completely missed the point. Which is it?
Holy shit at all the drive-by posts "Obama is dumb", "he should've stayed out of this", "separation of powers", and none of them with an explanation of sort. The people who talk about separation of powers are beyond clueless, at least read your own link before posting it because you look dumb.
Obama didn't say anything wrong, and he rises social and legal issues that need to be addressed, and the people themselves need to be part of this discussion, the more people talk about these issues the better it is.
Obama didn't say anything wrong, and he rises social and legal issues that need to be addressed, and the people themselves need to be part of this discussion, the more people talk about these issues the better it is.
If you're going to account suicide, make it more entertaining than this.
Tesseract
Banned
why don't you buy it?
This is neoGAF.gif
Dude is the secret CEO of American War, Inc. This other thing is just his day job. Probably more like a vacation. (They have a very hostile board of directors).
Stay junioring.
Benghazi still a big deal to you huh?
The post above said the initial claims pointed towards behavior. Race was only mentioned when asked and he says "I think he's black" in an unsure tone. That could be that be taken as he was assuming his race because of his actions or with the hoodie on he couldn't really tell and was more concerned with his actions.
Like I said above, it's a very large gray area. Race cannot be confirmed as a major player but people will play it up anyway.
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