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when
Trayvon Martin was first shot
I said that this could have been my son
another way of saying that is
Trayvon Martin could've been me thirty-five 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 and history that that doesn't go away
there are very few african-american
man in this country the had not have the experience of being followed when they were
shopping
in a department store that includes me there for a very few
african-american men who have never experienced of walking across
the street and hearing locks click
on the doors of cars that happens
to me at least before I was a Senator. they're very few african-americans who have no
experience are getting on elevator
and a woman clutching her purse nervously
and holding her breath
until she had a chance to get off that
happens often and
you know 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
for people to bring those experiences for
the afro-american is also knowledgeable that
there is a history of
racial disparities in the application of our laws
everything from the death penalty
to enforcement our drug laws
and that
Ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case
now this isn't to say that the american
community is naive about the fact that african-american
young men are disproportionally
involved in criminal justice system that
their disproportionally both victims and perpetrators
of violence it's not to make excuses
for that fact although black folks do interpret
the reasons for that in a historical context they understand it
some of the violence that takes place in
poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of
a very violent past in this country
and that the poverty and
dysfunction that we see in those communities
can be traced to a very difficult history
and so the fact that sometimes that's unacknowledged
adds to the frustration and the fact that
a lot of african American boys
are painted with a broad brush and
the excuses given well there are these statistics out there that show that african-american
boys are more violent using that as an excuse
to then see sons treated differently
causes pain I think african-americans are not navie in understanding that
statistically somewhere like Trayvon Martin was
statistically more likely to be shot by a pear
than by somebody else
so so
folks understand the challenges that
exist for african-american boys
but they get frustrated I think if they feel that there's no context
for it and that context is being denied
and and that
all contributed i think to a sense that
if a white male team was involved
in the same kind of scenario that from top to bottom
both the outcome in the aftermath might have been different