President Obama said that if he had a son, his son would look like Trayvon. Presumably he was speaking generally, rather than literally. But even in a general context, he was not that far off the mark. While I couldn't quickly locate a photo of President Obama IN a hoodie, I did find one of him ON a hoodie, that I share here for fun. Of course the Nutjob Gingrich had to call the President's comment disgraceful, criticizing Obama because he didn't apparently make it sufficiently inclusive for the Nut that he meant ALL American kids and adults should be safe. The very dishonest Nutjob did that by omitting to reference Obama's full statement where he identifies the common concern of EVERY American, especially every parent. Clearly however, as a person of color who himself has on occasion experienced discrimination and suspicion because of being a black man, and a black teen, he can identify with the victim. Here is what the Nutjob Gingrich had to say, in a vain effort to appeal to his tiny slice of an already small, fearful white old people base. Clearly the President did not suggest it would be OK if a white teen or a teen of any other gender or ethnicity than Trayvon Martin had been shot. The Nutjob Gingrich is pandering, as the current crop of GOP Presidential candidates so consistently have done, to racial division and fear of racial preference that would not favor white dominance any longer. It is the pasty Nut Job playing the reverse race card. From the Huff Po:
What the president said, in a sense, is disgraceful. It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe, period. We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background.
Is the president suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot, that would be OK because it didn’t look like him. That’s just nonsense dividing this country up. It is a tragedy this young man was shot. It would have been a tragedy if he had been Puerto Rican or Cuban or if he had been white or if he had been Asian American of if he’d been a Native American. At some point, we ought to talk about being Americans. When things go wrong to an American, it is sad for all Americans. Trying to turn it into a racial issue is fundamentally wrong. I really find it appalling.
| President Obama now, left, Trayvon Martin right |
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| a young Obama, at a similar age to Trayvon Martin (thank goodness, he isn't wearing a hoodie, or he might not have lived to become the first black President of the United States -sarc.) |
