Deified Data
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Either I misunderstood Jarmel's post or you misunderstood mine. I'm not going to sit around and pretend that "whites have nothing meaningful to say about racism against blacks" is an acceptable position to take.
Obama: "Trayvon Martin could have been me."
- Thread starter The Librarian
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Either I misunderstood Jarmel's post or you misunderstood mine. I'm not going to sit around and pretend that "whites have nothing meaningful to say about racism against blacks" is an acceptable position to take.
I'm talking about when breaking news hits and he's out in front of a camera talking about it. Not whatever he said today.
The Cambridge police followed standard procedure in trying to identify the person, who all of a sudden got a hair up his ass to act indignant. Took a ridiculous "beer summit" to smooth that over.
By saying if he had a son, he'd look like trayvon, he chooses sides with knowing the facts of the case.
It is strange that a kid that gets shot in a fight gets more coverage than a baby who gets shot in the face.
D
Deleted member 47027
Unconfirmed Member
Wake up sheeple!
It's so bad, so bad
Hey now, he cleaned up the latino vote!
way more
Member
They were found guilty of murder but not given the death penalty and that's why it's a unbearable injustice? Yeah, that's sounds just like the Martin case.
President Obama is free to talk about whatever he wants, like all of us are.
As a black man, he has experienced this type of thing first hand. As a father, he can empathize with the Martin's that his biggest nightmare would be if something were to happen to his children.
I say let him speak out on this. He's a person of influence and authority, and I'd love to see Florida take a long, hard look at their laws. If the President's comments light a fire underneath them to do just than, then he can talk all he wants.
As a black man, he has experienced this type of thing first hand. As a father, he can empathize with the Martin's that his biggest nightmare would be if something were to happen to his children.
I say let him speak out on this. He's a person of influence and authority, and I'd love to see Florida take a long, hard look at their laws. If the President's comments light a fire underneath them to do just than, then he can talk all he wants.
Really? I think his history of calling in suspicious people to the police that happen to be black are indicative of his profiling tendencies. But again, he didn't tell the cops "There is a black man who must be committing a crime!" so I'm making an assumption on his past behavior and what he reported to the police plus society's tendencies to mistrust black men and assume guilt. It's very hard for me to accept that race played no part in his calling in Trayvon as someone suspicious versus some behavior. Why would he assume that Travyon was on drugs, anyway?
mckmas8808
Mckmaster uses MasterCard to buy Slave drives
He would have said something about this in his first term too!
Didn't Zimmerman vote for him in the last election? Or was that false? There was a lot of bs stuff floating around (like someone posted a picture of Martin that was supposed to be him older, but it was completely fake).
entremet
Member
thatsthejoke.gif.
Wake up sheeple!
It's so bad, so bad
Wait...is this fucking real?
You're in a thread about "whatever he said today." Inform yourself.
Take a long moment, and consider why the Zimmerman case might have attracted more attention.
D
Deleted member 47027
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Black Republican
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Does Gaf in general even care blacks are living in constant fear because of racial prejudice everyday or do we not matter? Nothing Obama said was controversial at all.
I think you need to stop looking at this as a war with sides. You can express empathy for the death of a young black boy without "taking sides".
The Technomancer
card-carrying scientician
I am honestly amazed at the controversy over these comments. They seem both appropriate and tempered to me.
I like the thinly veiled racism of "I was a minority in the town" like the shooting had anything to do with race and wasn't a straight up robbery with a kid who was fucking insane enough to shoot a baby when she didn't have money.
Devolution
Member
It's more along the lines of "the majority sure likes input rather than listening."
Well, at the end of the day no one can be in Zimmerman's head. It's totally possible he saw a black man walking down the street and immediately thought: Black person, he looks suspicious.
I just wonder why he didn't mention his race or age during the call initially, until the 911 dispatcher asked him. Or why his focus was on his behavior rather than those factors. But just because he focused more on his behavior, doesn't mean he didn't first didn't find suspicion in the first place because his skin color. Certainly.
It's Obama...
Wow.
D
Deleted member 17706
Unconfirmed Member
I imagine a lot of people simply can't comprehend it, so they choose to not believe it or just ignore it.
What good is any leader if he doesn't speak out on these kind of matters? His input as our nation's leader is important.
thatsthejoke.gif
I imagine he was smart enough to know that him screaming "There's a wild negro roaming the streets." would be a bad thing to have on tape.
No one ever said he was a dummy.
ViperVisor
Member
I think you misunderstood mine. Both sides do have something to say. However sometimes, such as in this thread for example, it seems like some Caucasians try to play the reverse blame game or tell the minorities to shut up and deal with it as there isn't racism in America anymore. It feels like when we're protesting about our treatment, other groups are protesting about us protesting.
I kind of doubt that Zimmerman expected this to go down the way that it did, to the point he would have to worry about 911 tapes.
Rastafarian42
Member
Said nothing but the truth here.
I googled it an the first result is a terribly bias conservative site.
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/02/06/Zimmerman-brother-voted-Obama
Regardless, it has video of Zimmerman's brother saying he was a registered democrat, did some family campaigning for Obama, and was glad to get a black man in office because the presidency had been a club of white men for so long.
Could be truthful, could be the brother making up shit. You don't have to read the bullshit of a site's article regardless. You decide.
Deified Data
Banned
I'm gonna go ahead and say that my post was the result of several possible misunderstandings. Here's the posts in question:
I interpreted this as "whites feign interest in racism to feel better about themselves", but it could also mean "some people react with hostility to mentions of racism because they like to pretend it doesn't exist"...Jarmel's post in particular led me to believe that he was agreeing with the former view, but I suppose there's no way for me to know unless they clarify.
In response to your point, Devo, I believe it's perfectly easy to share an opinion while still keeping an ear open for different perspectives. Honestly I doubt there's any disagreement there.
Aaah, gotcha, I definitely misunderstood. Thanks for clarifying.
soul creator
Member
Zimmerman: "he looks like he got some swag in his step."
Devolution
Member
For you maybe, but you know as well as I that the moment minorities of any capacity start talking about their treatment derails or disbelief happens.
Obama has no room to really talk about the oppression of black people, given his support and doubling down on the war on drugs, which has been responsible for more racial oppression than 10,000 George Zimmermans ever could..
He is a hypocrite who wants to make political points to satisfy his constituency without doing a damn thing to change the situation in a positive manner. As head of the executive branch he has the power to stop the pointless incarceration of young black men for things that shouldn't even be a crime, but instead he gets more aggressive in the drug war by trying to shut down medical marijuana programs too.
The hundreds of thousands of young black men locked up on drug offenses could have been Obama as well, if in the words of Penn Jillete, he were caught with weed and 'maybe a little blow'.
The George Zimmerman case is a convenient distraction while Obama continues much worse behavior..
He is a hypocrite who wants to make political points to satisfy his constituency without doing a damn thing to change the situation in a positive manner. As head of the executive branch he has the power to stop the pointless incarceration of young black men for things that shouldn't even be a crime, but instead he gets more aggressive in the drug war by trying to shut down medical marijuana programs too.
The hundreds of thousands of young black men locked up on drug offenses could have been Obama as well, if in the words of Penn Jillete, he were caught with weed and 'maybe a little blow'.
The George Zimmerman case is a convenient distraction while Obama continues much worse behavior..
Any state that fought for the confederacy should not have states rights.
That's a plan I can get down with.
The Librarian
Banned
I know about Obama's crackdown on marijuana, but the last major thing concerning the war on drugs I heard out of the administration was directing federal agencies to expand "community-based efforts prevent drug use before it begins, empower healthcare workers to intervene early at the first signs of a substance use disorder," and "expand access to treatment for those who need it."
I don't understand how Obama can get gun control through the House or Senate by pushing Trayvon Martin. House Republicans won't move on gun control because of TM, and neither will the Senate GOP. So in that area, that doesn't make any sense. Can you explain exactly how talking about Martin's death will make it easier to pass gun control legislation? I'd like to see your thoughts here. Also, I wasn't putting words into your mouth. Your statement implies that what he says wasn't legitimate simply because he hasn't done more or said more about the drug war.
Deified Data
Banned
This is true. We could all stand to be better listeners - that applies to just about every topic under the sun.
Dude Abides
Banned
Look at Zimmerman's calls:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...an-s-history-of-911-calls-a-complete-log.html
It starts off as just a twitchy weirdo calling about stupid shit.
Then it morphs into a need to call call, apparently, anytime Zimmerman sees a black male he doesn't recognize:
And then on 26 February 2012 he called about Martin.
It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to see a pattern develop.
http://www.hlntv.com/article/2013/0...yvon-martin-week-2-recap-highlights-testimony
Oh, I'd say he was smart enough to know what to say and what not to say.
And when to say it.
That shows the kind of foresight required to make such a judgement call.
JimtotheHum
Member
I completely disagree. He felt he needed to talk about it for the very reason stated in the thread headline. He is the first black president, I think it's important to weigh in on issues like this where race is part of the issue at hand.
Secondly, I really thought what he had to say was really important and thoughtful. Hopefully, people will listen to the speech and not dismiss it because they don't think he should be commenting on it.
To be honest, I've never looked into it, nor really heard anything about it. Only heard it once in passing. Although, considering a lot of the focus on this case is being made Zimmernan's character, I'm surprised there hasn't been more stuff dug up on him that would show his past behaviors regarding race.
Then again, anyone can be racist without having a history of being racist. Racial profiling is something I imagine, a lot of people do (although they shouldn't do). So I always figured that stuff was irrelevant regardless. Meaning, even if Zimmerman had this great past that showed he wasn't racist, doesn't mean he didn't racially profile.
Hey do you mind telling me what city you're a cop in?
If you agree with some of thinly veiled racism in that facebook post you so happily shared with us, then I want to avoid whatever city you work in like the plague.
Devolution
Member
Jesus. Black people why are you going places and visiting people.
There's no way Obama can end the war on drugs. Not in this political environment; the blowback would be horrific and make things even worse. GOP-led cities and states would do everything in their power just to spite the president, like they have for everything else. It's a matter of choosing your battles, and the US public just isn't there quite yet.
You mean, smart enough what to know and say after he met with his lawyers? Of course he's going to measure what he says when he's being tried. Are you really using THIS as proof that Zimmerman carefully measured his words before calling a 911 dispatcher, knowing that this might become a big case and the tape would be used against him as evidence?
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