{"id":32532,"date":"2013-07-23T19:51:53","date_gmt":"2013-07-23T19:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=32532"},"modified":"2013-07-23T19:51:53","modified_gmt":"2013-07-23T19:51:53","slug":"obama-bares-his-%e2%80%98blackness%e2%80%99-in-trayvon-speech","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=32532","title":{"rendered":"Obama bares his \u2018blackness\u2019 in Trayvon speech"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.buffalonews.com\/city-region\/obama-bares-his-x2018blacknessx2019-in-trayvon-speech-20130720\" target=\"_blank\">Obama bares his \u2018blackness\u2019 in Trayvon speech<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.buffalonews.com\" target=\"_self\">The Buffalo News<\/a><br \/>\n2013-07-20<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sonya Ross<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>The Associated Press<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In a move unparalleled among presidents, Barack Obama reflects on being black in America.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>WASHINGTON \u2013 Something in <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Barack_Obama\" target=\"_blank\">President Obama\u2019s <\/a>voice caught <a href=\"http:\/\/www.candler.emory.edu\/faculty\/faculty-bios\/ellison.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">Gregory C. Ellison\u2019s<\/a> ear. It was fleeting, subtle, and easy to miss \u2014 unless you\u2019re a black man, too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn between his personal reflections on what it feels like to be an African-American man, and the history of pain and his strategic plan, there was what I call a very pregnant pause,\u201d says Ellison, a theology professor in Atlanta.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I ever have an opportunity to talk to President Obama, I would ask him what was he searching in his soul during that pregnant pause?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Obama was wrapped in presidential authority Friday as he talked to a nation rubbed emotionally raw in the week since the man who <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin\" target=\"_blank\">shot and killed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin<\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/State_of_Florida_v._George_Zimmerman\" target=\"_blank\">was acquitted in a Florida courtroom<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Then, in a move hardly anyone saw coming, Obama unwrapped himself, <strong>and put his own young, black face on Trayvon\u2019s dead, young, black body.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This first black president, the guy accused by some of running from his blackness, of trying to address black folks\u2019 needs on the down low, suddenly lifted the veil off his black male identity and showed it to the world. It was something no American president before him could have done.<\/p>\n<p>He had to do it, Obama said, because \u201cTrayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago.\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<a href=\"http:\/\/www.coas.howard.edu\/afroamerican\/faculty_carr.html\" target=\"_blank\">Greg Carr<\/a>, chairman of the Afro-American Studies department at Howard University in Washington, said the president \u201chas an authenticity, because he does signal to the black community that he too has experienced what we experienced.\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"http:\/\/www.buffalonews.com\/city-region\/obama-bares-his-x2018blacknessx2019-in-trayvon-speech-20130720\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Obama bares his \u2018blackness\u2019 in Trayvon speech The Buffalo News 2013-07-20 Sonya Ross The Associated Press In a move unparalleled among presidents, Barack Obama reflects on being black in America. WASHINGTON \u2013 Something in President Obama\u2019s voice caught Gregory C. Ellison\u2019s ear. It was fleeting, subtle, and easy to miss \u2014 unless you\u2019re a black [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,63,1467,8,26,394,20],"tags":[2822,15281,15280,15279,15278,8569,15277],"class_list":["post-32532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-barack-obama","category-law","category-media-archive","category-politics","category-socialscience","category-usa","tag-associated-press","tag-buffalo-news","tag-greg-carr","tag-gregory-c-ellison","tag-sonya-ross","tag-the-associated-press","tag-the-buffalo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32532","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=32532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32532\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}