When I moved to Chicago, I came into contact with Latinos from a number of different countries, but I think the folks from Mexico were the nicest. I don't know why that would be, but they were especially kind, good-natured, honest, and friendly people. I can very easily imagine that fellow helping you out with a ride.
It surprised me too. I have no idea what it's like now. As part of my work there in the late '70s, I was working with a young engineer from Venezuala (originally from Nicaragua) who didn't speak a word of English. Within a week, he was able to put words together so we could communicate. Within 2 - 3 weeks, he was forming sentences. Very smart young man and very nice and easy to get along with.
| The second thing I want to say is to reiterate what I said on Sunday, which is there's going to be a lot of arguments about the legal issues in the case -- I'll let all the legal analysts and talking heads address those issues. The judge conducted the trial in a professional manner. The prosecution and the defense made their arguments. The juries were properly instructed that in a case such as this reasonable doubt was relevant, and they rendered a verdict. And once the jury has spoken, that's how our system works. But I did want to just talk a little bit about context and how people have responded to it and how people are feeling. You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And 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. 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. That includes me. 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. And 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. 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. 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. 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. I think the African American community is also not naïve in understanding that, statistically, somebody like Trayvon Martin was statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else. 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 and that context is being denied. 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. 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? 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. But beyond protests or vigils, the question is, are there some concrete things that we might be able to do. http://www.nationaljournal.com/whit...nt-obama-s-remarks-on-trayvon-martin-20130719 |
Let's go with the breakdown of the family unit. What do you think to be causative factors?
Okay, put aside Al Sharpton for a moment. Is anyone who thinks there still remains much to be done when it comes to attitudes about race in this country a race baiter? Does that immediately put them, in your mind, in the Al Sharpton camp?
Would POTUS's speech resonated with you if he said - A life cut short the result of a teen who lost his way, Trayvon was a troubled youth, the transformation from that 12yr old boy to the No Limit Nigga, is a symptom no the disease that festers in the Black community. Where single mothers, divorce, gang life and violence are all too common.Where one is called a sellout or an Uncle Tom for wanting to pursue an education, work instead of selling drugs or stealing. Where excuses are made rather than taking responsibility for your actions, Trayvon was suspended from school for fighting, was found with stolen jewelry, he bragged about smoking pot....
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/viewSubCategory.asp?id=1261
Accusing MLK of being a communist is just plain stupid.
And thanks to frauds like Martin Luther King Jr., babies in the womb count as 0/5 of a person.
In 2010 Republicans were busy "gerrymandered" state congressional district boundaries so that in some states in 2012, a ballot to elect a Democrat for the House is worth less than 3/5 of a Republican one.
Yes, there have been strong reactions on both sides, though I'm not sure if it simply exposed an existing polarization or if it actually moved the sides. You believe that this case shows we have a long way to go. Can you be more specific?
