Obama’s Generalized Statements on Race are Wrong

Here is one paragraph of generalized statements made by the President in a recent speech about the Trayvon verdict: "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," Obama continued. "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."

Yes, there are racists in our country, but what these generalized statements do not include about the situation may be misleading: Were the blacks in the above scenario suspicious looking; where they intoxicated; did they have gang tattoos; was there more than one; was the neighborhood in a high or low crime area; was the neighborhood in an area with higher or lower minority populous; do these same White people act differently when in the company of suspicious looking Whites or Hispanics? Maybe these people’s actions were warranted and prevented a future crime or maybe their actions were unwarranted. We teach people to be vigilant in order to prevent crime. I still lock my car doors and home even though I live in a low crime area. Better to safe than sorry – it is how everyone is brought up.

About one in every 33 black men was a sentenced prisoner and the rate for white men was about one in every 205, for Hispanic men about one in every 79; and national victimization rate for crimes committed against the person for whites age 12 and older was 20.9 per 100,000 people, while the victimization rate for blacks was 28.7 per 100,000.

What do these statistics suggest? First, that black on black crime is high and should garner greater attention. Secondly, all people should be more cautious in the presence of suspicious looking blacks. Hence, people may be overreacting in the President’s hypothetical statements, but the data suggests they have every right to.

Instead of placing blame on white people potentially overeating to a situation when confronted with a black and calling them racists – maybe the President and civil rights leaders should acknowledge that until blacks commit less crime people may have every right to be cautious in their presence.

Blaming the issue of race on one ethnicity for being vigilant and cautious while assuming the other ethnicity has no culpability in the solution is wrong and misplaced facts. In fact, if blacks did their part and were involved in fewer crimes than Whites and Hispanics would be less cautious in their presence.

Usually when there is friction or issues between two parties – there must be some sort of compromise to resolve the problem. Until blacks hold up their end of the race debate, there will always be people cautious in their presence. When the U.S. was on high alert for terrorist activity, government and local authorities tell people to be vigilant on be on the lookout for suspicious behavior. How is this any different from how people are reacting in Obama’s generalized statements? In fact, most terrorist plots have been thwarted by vigilant Americans. We cannot stop asking people to be vigilant against crime and openly welcome a suspicious looking black male when there is a 3% chance they are criminal. Whether civil rights leaders, Holder, or Obama admit it or not, race is a two way street and they have the power to lower black crime by increasing employment and rewarding responsibility instead of irresponsible and unaccountable behavior in the black community.

It is sad that White’s react the way they do, but instead of blaming them of being racists only suggests that black leaders around the country are oblivious and ignorant to the real problems facing blacks around the country. If Obama’s solution to racism is to suggest that all whites who have looked at a black man suspiciously are racists, then Obama is a race agitator and baiter. Obama is being a problem creator and not a problem solver. To guilt white people into black acceptance does nothing to solve the root cause of the problem – high black unemployment, high black crime rates, high black dropout rates, and high rates of fatherless families.