“You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here. I think it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.” ~President Barack Obama
Where to start? What does a responsible American of African descent do with this statement?
Listen carefully, first. Consider carefully the context in which those words were uttered, and measure your own. That is what any adult, in any time and place should do. Remember the immortal words of someone… If I recall correctly, it was a Republican once upon a time who said, “Better to be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”
The evidence is in…
Let’s start at the very beginning. “When Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son.” Yes, Mr. President, you did say that, and in response many of us thought… no, Mr. President, Trayvon could not have been your son. We know that a child born in a two parent household has little chance of getting shot after buying an iced tea and Skittles.
What else do we know?
We know that children will likely attain the same educational status as their fathers. Statistically, we know that. Travyon followed in his absent father’s footsteps like nearly every other kid in this country does. Just like your daughters will likely do the same as you and Michelle have done. Kids like Trayvon don’t have the odds in their favor. Kids like Trayvon have never experienced the life affirming richness of a two parent family.
Here is the real crime…kids like Trayvon are not exceptional, but they are extraordinary.
What’s extraordinary is that kids like Trayvon are slaughtered on our streets every single day, and the press and you, Mr. President, don’t give a damn! Just one more fatherless, rudderless child. It appears as if Trayvon knew his father probably more than most of those lifeless bodies that line the streets of Chicago, but once the Great Society entered, our society decayed.
Generational welfare and fatherless families. Behold the fruit of Democrat policy and Big Government.
You want so desperately to blame the white man, the white devil, the white Hispanic? OK, let’s identify ol’ whitie. Lyndon Baines Johnson. Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Woodrow Wilson…. Margaret Sanger. They are the white devils, the “creepy-ass cracka’s” who laid the groundwork for the demise of the black family.
And you play along.
You say, “And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.”
Exactly. It’s called racial cups of sorrow and it doesn’t go away because if it did, you could not have been re-elected. Jesse Jackson, Louis Farakhan, Elijah Cummings, Maxine Waters would be irrelevant. Al Sharpton couldn’t walk around with his new trophy on his arm, otherwise known as his stylist (The closest most young black men come to a stylist in Chicago these days is the mortician who makes them look good for their devastated mothers before going into the ground.).
Cup of sorrows > black rage > white guilt = Democrat vote.
If we ignored the rhetoric of defeat and division, if we poured out cups of sorrow, fatherhood might come back and you don’t want that.
Divide and conquer is key to your success… at your people’s expense. A house divided… yes, that same Republican said something about a house divided…
It cannot stand.
After listening to you carefully, after examining the content of your character in the context of our history… How can you stand? How can you stand in front of this nation and this generation, who are now, because of those great men like Dr. King who sought God’s grace for us all, blessed to live in the least racist society known to man, and lie to them?
You want this generation to know the truth about this country’s ugly past? Let’s start with the sordid present. The truth is black people have lost their solid moral footing. Black men have abandoned the home. Black men have been reduced to wards of the state. The chances of this generation of black youth ever being like the president are slim to none! The chances of this generation of black youth making it out of poverty is slim to none! The chances of this generation of black boys surviving to be men, without going to jail or getting killed are getting slimmer every day!
This is the hard reality of the young men who look like you, Mr. President. You won’t stand in front of the country and tell that truth…
Because you can’t.
So we won’t listen any more, Mr. President. We are busy pouring out cups of sorrow. We are busy keeping hope alive.
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