Melissa Prunty Kemp

President Obama held a press conference today, in part to finally give his comments on the Trayvon Martin verdict. This was amongst the most lukewarm speeches I've ever heard.  I stopped listening to this president shortly after the 2012 election because I realized (actually prior to this) that he just says the same over and over. However, though late, I was hoping he had reached between his legs and seen what’s there, and I would actually know that he knew as a result of hearing him speak on “race.” In fact, he reached down there and found a Ken doll.

 

Since I read the speech as opposed to listening to it, I could pay a lot more attention and capture a lot more of what he said and didn't say.  One hallmark of such an important speech is the halting, stuttering nature of his words.  Perhaps this is due to transcription, but I doubt it.  If George Bush could give a speech with only six spoken mistakes (and that’s a miracle for him) after the Katrina natural disaster, arguably one of the most stirring presidential speeches of Bush’s career, why couldn’t the great orator Obama deliver on this front?

 

Here's what he said:  

 

1. That people have to understand the reasons black people are upset about Trayvon.  Their upset is borne from a long, tragic history of this sort of thing that doesn’t end.  That’s actually a decent statement, but I’m annoyed that he felt he had to explain why black people are upset.  I would think it’s obvious.  And I’m further annoyed that he felt that black people are the only ones who are as upset as they are.  In fact, there are a lot of people of all colors who are devastated by this violence and want it to stop.  Where do they stand in your argument, Obama?

2.  That the legal process in Florida functioned as it should.  WOW.  That is a totally spectacular statement.  It could be correct, procedurally speaking, but most of us know in our hearts and souls that nothing could be further from the truth.  Why else worry about rioting in the streets if you think everything’s all right? If a system kills you, it probably isn’t working very well unless that’s what it was designed to do.  Most sane people know this.

3. That there ought to be some things that the Federal Government can do to support Black youth.  Too damn late, bruh.  That support should have started eight years ago, especially since you state several times that you, yourself, have been the victim of overt racism, even though you are who are you.  If you could “have been Trayvon Martin 35 years ago,” then why aren’t you more up in arms?  Why not use that bully pulpit and executive orders you have used to give the presidential office unprecedented power over everything in the country?   Why not use all that power you’ve grasped over the past few weeks to actually do something for the people?  If you can look at yourself in the mirror and see yourself perhaps dead, are you saying that you wouldn’t do something to save yourself?  You would let yourself be killed?  If not, then why are you continuing to do nothing while others who look like you are killed.

4. We should open a conversation on race, but such conversations should be on local levels.  Are you for real?  Are you crazy?  What do you think is happening now, right here today?  Do you actually think people are not doing what you suggested in churches, community centers, synagogues, mosques, temples and chapels?  In offices, at the water cooler, in the parking lot, the laundromat, the barber shop?  You say you wanted to watch the conversations over the last week.  I think you did, in fact, just that.  You WATCHED, but you DID NOT HEAR A THING!!!  Nothing at all.  All you heard was “there’re no riots; everything is OK.”  We need conversations, but they need to be national and lead by our nation’s leaders.  Politicians behaving badly is no excuse to not have such conversations.  Our national leaders shouldn’t get a “pass” on leading.  Either lead or get out of the way.  How else do you think those people who only listen to their politicians will ever get the message?  You better start talking fast before no one listens to you at all ever again.  Remember, you have a presidential legacy to uphold, and at the rate you’re going, it’s gonna look like garbage and murderous drone strikes.

 

What he didn’t say:

1.  I’m pissed about this sort of violence perpetrated against black males and other children in general and it has to stop.  Would that have been so hard?  Would your face have cracked if you said it?  Would someone have shot at you now that you admitted you are in fact a “black” man?  And that you actually, personally care about “black” people as people and as Americans?  Would saying such actually indicate in your mind that you are more in favor of black than any other color?  How does that work?  Did you assume the same when you spoke about the children of Newtown or Aurora or Arizona? Did you become more “white” in the minds of Americans because of your statements?  Where were your public tears for Trayvon, shed so freely for the little Arizona girl killed during the shooting that injured Gabby Gifford?

2. The Federal Government is committed to stopping this type of violence.  Saying we ought to be able to do something (several times) just reinforces in my mind you intend to do nothing.  If all you have is an “ought,” you have nothing.  You’re supposedly an educated, brilliant man.  You were a community organizer in Chicago.  Perhaps your comments today, and perhaps the murder statistics among black youth in your former home, actually demonstrate how committed and how successful your efforts were.  Is “ought” all you got?  If so, it would have been better if you just stayed in your office.  

3. The Justice Department is going to do something about this miscarriage of justice by examining the constitutionality of a Stand Your Ground laws in violating another person’s civil rights, particularly if that person hasn’t done anything other than appear in front of another FRIGHTENED, RACIST, PRESUPPOSING person.  He said the opposite.  And he actually asked listeners to consider the reasons why they need such a law.  If its purpose is to give you the right to defend yourself against an attacker, you and I already had that right.  It’s called SELF DEFENSE.  This law doesn’t improve on that fact.  It makes self defense an excuse for murder.  And, the president—a constitutional law professor at one time—somehow missed this idea.  Imagine such a thing.

 

So there you have it, folks.  One of the most gutless, pitiful, shameful excuses for a “healing conversation” I’ve ever witnessed.  Did you hear that collective groan?  The sighs?  The soft sound of people turning their backs and walking away from this leadership?  They’re all going to their churches to do some real organizing.