Jeff, I can only hope the statement you made was in ignorance of the situation and of your own, possibly limited, experience. Having lived my earlier years in a predominately black neighborhood and having to walk through what would now be termed a ghetto to get to school every day, fighting my way home a couple times a week, having knives drawn on me, being mugged at gunpoint, having my home burglarized, being asaulted with a broken bottle, all by black youths/men I certainly have cause to have a racist opinion...but I would like to think I don't. Everyone I meet, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, whichever, deserves the dignity to be treated equally until shown to be otherwise. But "Idiotic Lily White Americans"? Do you think the entire white population of this country is so naive, so predjudiced without cause, that they deserve to endure whatever befalls them or to be chastised for voicing objection to what they see happening under the guise of political correctness or the supposed persecution of a 'minority' regardless of the facts in the case? The fact that a large percentage of serious crime is committed by minority groups or individuals or groups has taught the rest of America to be vigilant, to be distrustful. It is not unwarranted. I think some serious introspection is in order here unless this statement might have a meaning that escaped the rest of us.
Just catching up on some of the shitstorm of stupid in this thread....
I meant every word. As a caucasian man, I'm embarassed by the response of many (and by your post) to this situation. Here are some facts that underlie the only fact you and other white Americans seem keyed on (that blacks are convicted of far more crimes than whites and hispanics):
1. Crime is predominantly committed by the poor. That is the key driving factor in the cause of crime. Blacks earn essentially 60% of what whites do in the US. They are far more likely to be poor, and thus far more likely to commit crime than other races.
2. Why is that? Uh, well, let's see. Only one race in the US -- not Irish immigrants, not Asian immigrants, not Italian immigrants, not Polish immigrants, not German immigrants -- was enslaved for 240 years, and then forced to live as a politically, educationally and socially disenfranchised underclass for another 120 years. That would be African Americans.
3. Who did that? Whites. Your ancestors. Mine.
4. What did it cause? It caused black educational (blacks under 40 are the FIRST generation to have a real shot at going to college), job opportunity and incarceration rate disparities.
5. So YOU need to engage in some very deep introspection and figure out if you think that the reason black crime rates are higher than other races are due to either (a) some inherent characteristic in the black race (which would be racist) or (b) the other factors I describe above.
6. Because of this higher crime rate, LAW ABIDING black folks are stopped, searched, and questioned by the police for doing nothing at a much higher rate than whites.
And so when the President points out that the black experience in America, which informs how black folks view the world, the government, and cases like the Martin-Zimmerman case, includes things like the above, for LILY WHITE AMERICA to get pissed off and call it race baiting is offensively stupid and ignorant of history.
The President also pointed out that he had seen things get better in his lifetime, which was totally missed by the poor oppressed white guys of America club.
So again, I'm embarassed by much of the response here. Should Zimmerman have followed Martin? No. Should Martin have punched him? No. Should either of them ended up dead? No. Under our present legal system, should Zimmerman have been convicted? No. Does that mean our existing laws make sense and encourage the right kind of behavior? No. Is it "race baiting" for the President to point this out? No. Is it "race baiting" for the President to explain to lily white America what it is like growing up as a black man in the United States? No.
You're white, male, American, upper class. You are about as privileged as it gets. And yet you have ZERO understanding of the causes of the statistics you like to trumpet when claiming you know where the "real" problem is.
Sad. Really sad.