Barack Obama Could Have Saved Trayvon Martin

By Walt Ughes. When the President famously said in the heat of a presidential election “If I had son, he’d look like Trayvon,” he ironically spoke a truth greater than he knew. I assume Obama was talking about the photo of the young, smiling Trayvon that was shamelessly displayed on every major media outlet and on activists tee shirts, not the actually 17 year old troubled youth expelled twice from school with the raised middle finger. Both pictures of Trayvon were taken during Mr. Obama’s Presidency. The lad went from smiley youth to self-described angry “gangsta” on your watch, Mr. President. Mr. First Black President, both versions of Trayvon were your sons and you failed them.

Regardless of your political persuasion, it is a sign of the greatness of this country that black Americans could go from Selma to the White House in part of one lifetime. All Americans should have be proud of that achievement particularly given that the black man ran on an inclusive platform of “Hope and Change,” uplifting ideals if also very fuzzy. Martin Luther King would have been proud.

Much progress has been made since Selma, but not everything “progressive” is good. To say the black family is in crisis is a huge understatement when over 70% of black children are born to single mothers. The education inner city minorities receive is a scandal. Even those few who graduate get a substandard education that leaves them increasingly unqualified in a high tech world. Black teen unemployment is twice white rates. Welfare dependency is a multigenerational problem with young black males incarceration rates astronomically high. Half of all murders are committed by blacks and almost all blacks are killed by other blacks. The black inner city is an urban war zone with wasted lives and destroyed dreams

The black family is imploding and there has never had a greater need for a black voice of authority and reason. Barack Obama, elected as America’s first Black President (or White Black President as the New York Times might say), was uniquely qualified to deliver that message. Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: APPresident Obama keeps quiet on race — again

By Edward-Isaac Dovere. America’s been waiting five years to hear more from President Barack Obama on race.

The waiting continues.

Trayvon Martin is dead and George Zimmerman was found not guilty — leaving many looking to the president to lead the thoughtful, national conversation about black-white relations they thought was promised in his 2008 campaign speech on race.

Yes, there’s a double standard. No previous president has been asked so often for his personal feelings on race. But for the first black president, that double standard is part of his life, and of his presidency. And black leaders say that, especially after last year’s election, the time has come to deliver more than what he has so far.

“The president is now in his second term. Because of the Voting Rights Act and the Trayvon Martin case” and the disproportionately greater impact on the black community from the recession, said National Urban League President Marc Morial, “I think that the table is set for the president to think about how he can address these issues not just in words, but renew some of the issues that he’s championed.” Read more from this story HERE.