And there are very few African-American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me, at least before I was a senator. There are very few African-Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.
Maybe if blacks weren't
many times more likely to steal and rob people they wouldn't be doing this? I am sorry innocent blacks have to pay for what their brothers do.
And you know, I don’t want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida. And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.
So they understand that many of their sons are violent? Somehow they're making excuses within their own minds for it.
I am just sorry you people can't realize within yourselfs that you have a problem within your own communities
The African-American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws, everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws. And that ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case.
It is also a fact that blacks cause these crimes many times more then other races? Is this not true.
Now, this isn’t to say that the African-American community is naive about the fact that African-American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, that they are disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence. It’s not to make excuses for that fact, although black folks do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context.
Always blaming the past for the actions of today. Your young men are violent against other blacks at a mind blowing rate...5 times more deadly then whites with 93% of that against other blacks. Don't you care about your own children?
We understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country, and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history.
Yep, Keep blaming the past for your problems. Why not work towards better?
And so the fact that sometimes that’s unacknowledged adds to the frustration. And the fact that a lot of African-American boys are painted with a broad brush and the excuse is given, well, there are these statistics out there that show that African-American boys are more violent -- using that as an excuse to then see sons treated differently causes pain.
When such a large portion of your population causes such crimes why shouldn't whites paint with that broad brush? Are you arguing those statistics??? I don't hate blacks but they seriously need to look in the mirror.
I think the African-American community is also not naive in understanding that statistically somebody like Trayvon Martin was probably statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else.
Don't attack someone. Maybe you're right as people don't trust you as a large percent of the violent crimes are cause by blacks. Zimmerman still had a right to self defense along with anyone else in that position.
So -- so folks understand the challenges that exist for African- American boys, but they get frustrated, I think, if they feel that there’s no context for it or -- and that context is being denied. And -- and that all contributes, I think, to a sense 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.
Trayvon would of had the same right to
self defense. Jezzz...Why can't you understand this?
Now, the question for me at least, and I think, for a lot of folks is, where do we take this? How do we learn some lessons from this and move in a positive direction? You know, I think it’s understandable that there have been demonstrations and vigils and protests, and some of that stuff is just going to have to work its way through as long as it remains nonviolent. If I see any violence, then I will remind folks that that dishonors what happened to Trayvon Martin and his family.
I wish people would think logically about this and work on ways to improve our nation. Blacks need to start taking responsibility for their own actions.
They need to get out of the past! They need to earn the trust of the white man
as good will is the only way to heal this mess. Violence and killing whites is a way to destroy and pull this nation apart as we shouldn't have to put up with that.
