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| President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks about the death of Trevyon Martin at the beginning of the daily White House briefing in the Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, July 19, 2013. |
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- In a rare and public reflection on race, President Barack Obama
called on the nation Friday to do some soul searching over the death of
Trayvon Martin and the acquittal of his shooter, saying the slain black
teenager "could have been me 35 years ago." Empathizing with the pain of
many black Americans, Obama said the case conjured up a hard history of
racial injustice "that doesn't go away."
Obama's
personal comments, in a surprise appearance in the White House press
room, marked his most extensive discussion of race as president. For
Obama, who has written about his own struggles with racial identity but
often has shied away from the subject in office, the speech signaled an
unusual embrace of his standing as the nation's first black president
and the longing of many African-Americans for him to give voice to their
experiences.
"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," Obama said during his
20-minute remarks.
A Florida jury last week
acquitted George Zimmerman of all charges in the March 2012 shooting of
Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old. The verdict was cheered by those who
agreed that Zimmerman was acting in self-defense, while others protested
the outcome, believing Zimmerman had targeted Martin because he was
black.
Despite his emotional comments on the
case, the president appeared to signal that the Justice Department was
unlikely to file federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman.
Traditionally, he said, "these are issues of state and local
government," and he warned that the public should have "clear
expectations."
Following the verdict, some
civil rights leaders called on Obama to lead a national conversation on
race. But the president has resisted. Before Friday, his only comment on
the verdict had been a written statement in which he called Martin's
death a tragedy and appealed for calm.
But
throughout the week, the president kept track of the national response
to the verdict, particularly by black Americans, and had discussions
with his family, aides said. He was ready to address the verdict earlier
this week during a round of interviews with Spanish language television
stations, but the matter never came up.
On
Thursday, he told his senior advisers that he felt the country needed to
hear from him - not in an interview or speech, just a frank discussion
of his views and experiences. He spoke from the podium in the White
House briefing room with no notes.
Even as the
president urged the public to accept the verdict - "once the jury's
spoken, that's how our system works" - he gave voice to the feelings
held by many angered by the jury's decisions.
There's
a sense, Obama said, "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."
The
president spoke emotionally about Martin's parents, Sybrina Fulton and
Tracy Martin, saying they had displayed incredible grace and dignity. He
never mentioned the feelings of Zimmerman, whose brother has said the
former defendant has faced numerous death threats.
Martin's
parents released a statement following the remarks, saying, "President
Obama sees himself in Trayvon and identifies with him. This is a
beautiful tribute to our boy."
Zimmerman's
brother, Robert, also welcomed the president's remarks, telling Fox News
that "the American people need to have some time to digest what really
happened and to do that soul searching the president spoke of."
Despite
that fact that Obama's race has been central to the narrative of his
political rise, he has rarely addressed the matter as a public figure.
He last spoke about race in a substantial way as a presidential
candidate in 2008 in addressing criticism over incendiary comments made
by his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
In
2009, Obama stumbled when commenting on the arrest of a black Harvard
professor in the professor's home, saying the police "acted stupidly."
The president was forced to retract his statement, then held an awkward
"beer summit" at the White House with the professor, Henry Louis Gates,
and the white arresting officer.
But on
Friday, Obama spoke poignantly about the distrust that shadows many
African-American men, saying that they can draw nervous stares on
elevators and hear car locks clicking when they walk down the street.
"There
are very few African-American men in this country who haven't had the
experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department
store," he said. "That includes me."
In a
departure from his typical caution on legal matters, the president also
waded into the thorny debates on racial profiling and Florida's "Stand
Your Ground" law, despite the fact that neither was formally raised
during Zimmerman's trial.
Obama said it would
be useful "to examine some state and local laws to see if they are
designed in such a way that they may encourage the kinds of
confrontation" that led to Martin's death. He questioned whether a law
that sends the message that someone who is armed "has the right to use
those firearms even if there is a way for them to exit from a situation"
really promotes peace and security.
And he
raised the provocative question of whether Martin himself, if he had
been armed and of age, "could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk"
and shot Zimmerman if he felt threatened when being followed.
Seeking
to inject a sense of hope into his otherwise somber remarks, the
president said race relations in the United States have improved with
each passing generation. He said his young daughters and their friends
are "better than we were."
"We're becoming a more perfect union," he said. "Not a perfect union, but a more perfect union."
