Black and White

I agree with everything Obama said in his speech today, well everything I saw in the clip anyway.
BUT,
yes a big but,
I know that a lot of white people (that includes me because when I walk down the street I am pretty much white I think) will say, "Hey all those things he listed happens to me too." and then a lot of white people will use that as a reason to say Obama and black people are full of it, or this isn't fair or that is messed up or etc etc.

I can't really talk about other white people's experience, but I just want to say that before I started pushing around a stroller women will lock their car doors when they see me, sometimes old ladies clutch their purses or say weird shit that I later realized was there attempt at a threat, when I was making polite conversation. I have even been profiled by police when wearing a hoodie in college. In high school (preppy boarding school), I returned to my neighborhood (projects) wearing, well I wasn't wearing "street" looking clothes. People would say I looked Russian or foreign. Well A neighborhood watch guy (but we had no neighborhood watch) stopped me. He was in his car. He flashed some sort of badge and demanded to know where I lived. He didn't get out of the car like Zimmerman.
In my neighborhood, even though I didn't ever carry a gun, you always have to assume that everyone else is. And from the distance, and the fact that he didn't get out of the car, if he had a gun, well I was screwed if he decided to shoot so I just told him the truth, that he had stopped me right in front of my house. It turned out he actually was some sort of neighborhood watch and not, I don't know, someone trying to get me for some other reason.

I even got stopped by police a week after Henry Louis Gates Jr. was arrested. Someone had called thinking that I had kidnapped my own son or something like that. Some cops were good about it but one second responder in particular was a jerk. Let's just say I learned from Gates's experience. And I also learned from that particular experience what a lot of black men already know. How to talk to police. I.e. it is not enough to be polite and cooperative. You must also congratulate them on a job well done and thank them for their service.

Anyway, so yes this stuff happens to me too.... but I'm also pretty sure things might have been worse for me on some occasions had I been black. And sometimes it just doesn't matter how nicely you speak.

But here's the main point. White people in with regards to the Zimmerman trial (btw Zimmerman is  as white as I am. We are both "white enough" fi you know what I mean) and also after Henry Louis Gates's arrest turned on blacks. Well actually a lot of blacks turned on Gates, because they immediately thought, "that stuff happens to me too so what are you people or you complaining about."

Instead of thinking, "That stuff happens to me too, and it needs to stop, We should work together to make it stop."

There is the historical oppression of blacks in this country that adds to the stress of what's happening now. But let me go back to some historical cooperation I read somewhere that at the beginning of this country, they had white slaves too and that poor blacks and whites would regularly drink with each other and socialize as if they were the same people. This was seen a DANGEROUS. A threat to those in power. So white were given land and rights. Something to lose, and slowly blacks became a race and that race became the slave race. Easily identifiable. A white slave (indentured servant) can escape and blend in. But as long as everyone agrees that all slaves are black and most blacks are slaves then it makes it difficult for slaves to escape, rebel revolt.  My point is, if you are a white guy thinking, "this is bullshit all that shit happens to me too. This all Obama's fault." Why not work towards bettering society for yourself and for other people like you who have those things happen to you. Who is your real enemy? And if you say black people, just remember that long ago, that's what the old imperialists wanted you to think. So why isn't it  the same now?

Now okay, maybe there isn't a man behind the curtain trying to keep us all down (and maybe there is.) but whatever happened, Trayvon Martin is probably not your problem. Henry Louis Gates is certainly not you problem. People going around with guns trying to "save" you may or may not be your problem depending on your appearance, not just skin color. But everyone shooting each other instead of working together... that is a problem. So focus on that instead of immediately trying to put down your fellow man for whatever reason. Sympathize and work together and focus on common ground instead of arguing and fighting each other.

And even if you don't like Obama for whatever reason, is anything he said in his speech incorrect? Isn't his speech trying to bring us together? Isn't that a good thing? Just saying.