IN a rambling, convoluted and contradictory statement meant to address the “pain” felt by the “African American community,” Obama today blamed the Zimmerman verdict once again on racism, stating, “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.” He said whites — a word he never uses but that is implicit in his message — use the facts of black violence as an “excuse” to treat blacks differently. So much for the president’s respect for the verdict of a jury.

Was the president saying that 35 years ago, he was the sort of person who would have said these things to his friends and pummeled a man who stopped him so hard that he broke his nose and left gashes in his head? No, Obama doesn’t mean that. He was playing on widespread denial of the facts. Obama blamed whites for the high rates of black criminal convictions by referring to the “history of racial disparity in the application of our criminal laws.” He said:

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.

Notice the way he attributes something that he believes to “the African American community” so that he can comfortably make the outrageous assertion that our judicial system is corrupt and blacks are often unjustly convicted of crimes and unjustly executed. Imagine being told by your president that you and your people are being sent to jail and killed for no reason. His wording next is very clever as he seems to contradict himself and back away from this assertion but in the end he returns to his basic point that blacks are not responsible for their criminality:

Now, this isn’t to say that the African American community is naïve about the fact that African American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system; that they’re 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. They 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.

“It’s not to make excuses for that fact” — and then he goes on to make more excuses. At first backing away from his previous accusation, he then insists that black crime is caused by poverty and “a very violent past,” or presumably slavery. But how do we know which acts of violence are born out of a “very violent past” and which are not? If we can’t possibly trace this influence, isn’t he essentially absolving all black criminals of responsibility for their crimes? Also, since whites are often the victims of violence committed by black “folks,” are they not absolved of responsibility for crimes in the future?

Black men, he said, do not “feel that they’re a full part of this society.” Even with a black president and widespread discrimination in their favor, black men don’t feel a full part of society. Supposedly meant to lessen the “pain” felt as a result of the verdict, the president’s statement will obviously increase that “pain” because it is filled with justifications for anger and violence. The president does give whites a little pat on the back, however, by saying things have gotten better than they were.

Here are the president’s comments in full.

— Comments —

Adam writes:

Regarding Obama’s statement that “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,” I refer you and your readers to Heather Mac Donald’s 2008 article “Is the Criminal-Justice System Racist?”, in which she ably demolishes this phony notion point-by-point with devastating clarity.

Bill R. writes:

President Obama has weighed in on the Trayvon Martin case with another “heartfelt” personal connection: “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.” Indeed Mr. President. Well said. For someone who could write so patently racist a statement as you did in your memoir when you averred that “any distinction between good and bad whites held negligible meaning,” you had made an excellent start at becoming just another black thug like Trayvon Martin, albeit perhaps a tad bit more articulate. Fortunately for you, however, Mr. President, our terrible society, which did not allow you to feel fully a part of it, did not hold your very publicly if not proudly expressed racist observation against you (treating you differently than those lucky whites, like Paula Deen, who do get to be fully part of it), not only allowed you to continue to pursue your political career to ever-increasing applause and admiration after graduating from Harvard, but saw to it that the applause and admiration led all the way to the highest office in the land. And now that you’re there, enjoying your second term in it, I thank you once again, Mr. President, for your heartfelt words of healing and reconciliation, of respect for others and our system of due process, for facts and evidence, and faith in the integrity and good-will of jurors who must weigh them, and, finally, for your ceaseless endeavors to mend the cracks and fissures that divide us, particularly those nasty racial ones. Who but you, Mr. President, could have healed those wounds so well?

Laura writes:

A reader sends MacDonald’s piece at National Review today on the Zimmerman verdict. She writes:

The most poisonous untruth being peddled in the wake of the George Zimmerman acquittal is the claim that American justice is racist. The criminal law regularly announces that black Americans are “worth less than other Americans,” Cardozo Law School professor Ekow Yankah wrote on the New York Times opinion page this week. It wasn’t activists who “injected” race into the discussion, scoffed TheAmerican Prospect’s Jamelle Bouie on Monday, the “criminal-justice system” is “already” racial. An e-mail alert on Wednesday from the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School proclaimed: “An ugly truth rears its head again: Racial disparities are alive and well in our criminal-justice system.”

The idea that the criminal-justice system discriminates against blacks — and that this bias explains blacks’ disproportionate presence in custody — is a staple of civil-rights activism and of the academic Left. Every effort to prove it empirically, however, has come up short.

Spencer Warren writes:

It is amazing how Obama and Holder feel no compunction against alienating the white majority, no self-consciousness being the first black president and attorney general.

The paralysis of white guilt emboldens them. They refuse to acknowledge the reality of rampant black youth crime. No, blacks as always are simply victims of white bigotry. Decades out of date.

My father, a combat veteran of World War II, was mugged seven times, each time by a black.

Today’s statement is the new low: A black with a chip on his shoulder ceaselessly promoting racial division and coming close to inciting race riots, as well as excusing black crime. (Actually, his awful economic policy, which raises black youth unemployment, contributes to black crime.)

Savage calls Sharpton Obama’s Ernst Rohm.

Laura writes:

Obama incites violence by saying that blacks are justified in committing crime.

Bill R. responds:

Jay from Goshen writes:

Rambling, convoluted and utterly detestable remarks from Obama!

I can recall at least half dozen incidents in the last few years in NYC where black men have pushed into elevators and assaulted women (of all colors).

But I see something truly ominous in these remarks. I see them as a blatant attempt to intimidate future juries. The jury system is our last line of defense against tyranny. Obama is acting as a tyrant.

One last word. I did feel some human sympathy for Sybrina Fulton. No mother can be completely rational about her offspring, especially a petted younger son. But now I see that mater dolorosa Sybrina is a media creation as well.

This is the first I knew of the disorder and chaos in Trayvon’s life. I knew that the elder Martin and Ms. Fulton were divorced in 1999. I assumed that they did the usual shared custody thing with the kids. Not great but not bad, actually a bit better than most black kids, who are not born to parents who bothered to get married in the first place.

Jay adds:

I agree with everything that you and your commenters are saying about Obama’s remarks, but I mainly feel an overwhelming sense of weariness and futility. We are like-minded people venting on a website. He is President. And Eric Holder is AG.

Not only is Obama sending a message to future juries, he is sending a message to all black thugs everywhere: I’m on your side, not on the side of the innocent people whom you beat, rob, injure, maim, rape or kill.

 Laura writes:

I understand your weariness, but, please, we are not “venting.” We are not speaking for the sake of emotional release. We are declaring the truth and, in the end, our emotions are not motivating us. Our reason is. The truth is ultimately more powerful than error. We are in a war for our country and while we can grow tired, defeatism is not an option.

Jay writes:

Okay, I’m sorry for using the word venting, which has the connotation of mindless emotional ranting. We tell the truth. I’ve been heartened somewhat by reading comments on various news outlets which show disgust, good common sense, and outrage.

And then I say to myself, “So what? Look who is President, Attorney General. If that is not bad enough, look at the leadership of both parties. The media is another power base. And then of course a totally hostile federal judiciary.”

We really do need God to save us. All the truth telling in the world isn’t going to save us. We need action.

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