IN HIS remarks yesterday about the Trayvon Martin case, Obama spoke of the times he has been profiled as a black man. The New York Times reports:

But in the most expansive remarks he has made about race since becoming president, Mr. Obama offered three examples of the humiliations borne by young black men in America: being followed while shopping in a department store, hearing the click of car doors locking as they cross a street, or watching as women clutch their purses nervously when they step onto an elevator. The first two experiences, he said, had happened to him.

“Those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida,” Mr. Obama said. “And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.”

These incidents in which black men who have done nothing wrong are questioned or are under suspicion are, of course, fairly common and real. But imagine if they happened less. As Heather MacDonald has written, the granting of leeway to police in stopping suspected criminals has dramatically reduced crime in New York City, and since blacks are overwhelmingly responsible for that crime they are more likely to be stopped.

However, the incidents Obama mentioned are laughably minor compared to the humiliations of crime victims. He has never been detained by the police or even frisked. His experiences are trivial inconveniences. They are nothing compared to the hardships that are imposed on millions daily by the realities of black savagery. It would be nice if just one American political figure had the honesty and courage to say in response to Obama something like this:

I’m sorry that the president has had to be inconvenienced in this way even though he has never committed a crime. But I would like to share my experiences too. For much of my life I have had to restrict my movements as a result of black criminality. I have never really been a free man in my own city. I never see certain neighborhoods because of the possibility of being attacked. My daughters are especially limited in the places they can go. I know of an old man who was beaten to death, a cab driver who was shot and a woman who was brutally raped just blocks from my home. I’ve been mugged three times and each time the man was black. I spend lots of money on cab fares because it is too dangerous to walk home at night.

Obama complains about being stopped by security men in department stores. I assure him it is much worse to be stopped by a thug with a gun. But I am lucky. Many others have had their movements confined much more. Those are the tens of thousands of people who have been injured or killed by black criminals. I suggest that the president be considerate and understanding of others when they are trying to protect themselves and that he acknowledge that in order to be “a full part” of a free society one must condemn anti-social behavior. The necessary corollary of freedom is responsibility.

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