{"id":32529,"date":"2013-07-23T19:01:04","date_gmt":"2013-07-23T19:01:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=32529"},"modified":"2013-07-23T19:01:04","modified_gmt":"2013-07-23T19:01:04","slug":"discussing-trayvon-martin-obama-embraces-his-blackness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=32529","title":{"rendered":"Discussing Trayvon Martin, Obama Embraces his Blackness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Discussing Trayvon Martin, Obama Embraces his Blackness<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The American Prospect<\/a>
\n2013-07-19<\/p>\n

Jamelle Bouie<\/a><\/strong>, Staff Writer<\/p>\n

On Obama’s remarks this afternoon.<\/em><\/p>\n

When President Obama<\/a> issued a pro forma<\/em> statement following last week\u2019s verdict in the Zimmerman trial<\/a>, there was some disappointment\u2014\u201cWhy didn\u2019t he say more?\u201d It only takes a small step back to see the answer; not only would it have been inappropriate for the president to question the decision of the jury, but given wide outrage at the ruling, it could have inflamed passions on both sides.<\/p>\n

But it isn\u2019t out of bounds for Obama to speak on the meaning of Trayvon Martin<\/a>, which he did this afternoon, during a White House press briefing. And unlike his earlier statement, this was a frank and heartfelt take<\/a> on the racial issues surrounding the shooting and the trial.<\/p>\n

Which, to be honest, came as a surprise. Barack Obama\u2019s entire political career has been about de-racializing his personal identity. Yes, he was a black senator from Illinois, but for white audiences at least, he wasn\u2019t a black one<\/em>. It\u2019s why the Jeremiah Wright controversy<\/a> was so dangerous for his candidacy\u2014it emphasized his blackness at a time when he was trying most to build a universal appeal…<\/p>\n

…Obama gains nothing by identifying with his blackness, but in talking about Martin, he did exactly that.<\/strong> \u201cYou know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son,\u201d said the president, \u201cAnother way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.\u201d He continued, \u201cThere are very few African-American men in this country who haven\u2019t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.\u201d…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Discussing Trayvon Martin, Obama Embraces his Blackness The American Prospect 2013-07-19 Jamelle Bouie, Staff Writer On Obama’s remarks this afternoon. When President Obama issued a pro forma statement following last week\u2019s verdict in the Zimmerman trial, there was some disappointment\u2014\u201cWhy didn\u2019t he say more?\u201d It only takes a small step back to see the answer; […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,8,26,20],"tags":[9476,5208,10143],"class_list":["post-32529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-usa","tag-jamelle-bouie","tag-the-american-prospect","tag-trayvon-martin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}