Given that he did not talk specifically about the case, I think the following comments come pretty close to what you asked to see (highlighted section is from the speech).
I'm done arguing what you think you did or did not see until you read the real content. If you want to disagree after you do so, we'll talk.
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I think the African American community is also not naïve in understanding that, statistically, somebody like Trayvon Martin was statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else. So folks understand the challenges that exist for African American boys.
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Now, the question for me at least, and I think for a lot of folks, is where do we take this? How do we learn some lessons from this and move in a positive direction? I think it’s understandable that there have been demonstrations and vigils and protests, and some of that stuff is just going to have to work its way through, as long as it remains nonviolent.
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Number three -- and this is a long-term project -- we need to spend some time in thinking about how do we bolster and reinforce our African American boys. And this is something that Michelle and I talk a lot about. There are a lot of kids out there who need help who are getting a lot of negative reinforcement.
And now I'M done cherry-picking. I wish you would just read the whole thing and try to actually pay attention. As much as I don't want to offend you, I truly have no patience for people who ignore the actual content and spout off about what they think was (or wasn't) said.
I'm pretty sure I'm done here, because I don't see how he could have gotten much tougher w/o really pissing some people off. And we really don't need that right now, when we should be trying to calm people down and start the conversation.
- 23/07/2013 08:50:12 AM
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