Robert F. Kennedy - On the death of Martin Luther King

Wehrwolfen said:

Leading from behind will be Obama's legacy. He's proven that time and time again whether it on Domestic, or foreign issues.

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Mason66 said:

Can we talk about Obamas legacy here?

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Wehrwolfen said:

Of course we can. Why don't you lead off.

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pbrauer said:

Yes, he is the being divisive, here is the relevant part of Obama's speech:

You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago. And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn’t go away.

There are very few African American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. There are very few African American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me -- at least before I was a senator. There are very few African Americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.

And I don't want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African American community interprets what happened one night in Florida. And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear. The African American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws -- everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws. And that ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case.​

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CycloneWanderer said:

When given a chance to call for unity, he goes about justifying hatred. Disgusting. Instead of providing a vision where race is no longer an issue in America, he belabors the past and says that such a vision is impossible. What a disgrace to the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. this president represents when he can't even dream of a day where people don't "look at this issue through a set of experiences and a history" because of the color of their skin. Makes my stomach turn reading it.

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