Race Issues Back in the Campaign

Back in 2008 during the presidential campaign, Barack Obama had had to explain his pastor’s controversial words. Jeremiah Wright had claimed, among other things, that when the Founding Fathers said that “all men were created equal,” they really believed that “all white men were created equal.” At that time, Obama had had to distance himself from Wright and, in Philadelphia, had delivered the most eloquent speech on race issues that had been heard in a long time.

The Trayvon Martin case has, once again, placed race issues in the center of this election year’s debate. Indeed, Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman, a white man who claimed self-defense despite the black teenager being unarmed and representing no threat. George Zimmerman did not seem even a bit concerned by the police nor was he put in jail.

While the people of Sanford, Florida, had forgotten how race issues had divided their town in the 70s, the attitude of the police in the Trayvon Martin case caused it all to resurface. The black residents feel that the police continue with their old racist habits and have, once again, taken the side of the white attacker over the black victim. According to Trayvon Martin’s lawyers, five weeks after a white man killed a black teenager because he was wearing a hoodie, an investigation has still not begun and an arrest has not yet been made.

George Zimmerman did shoot Trayvon Martin down. However, he is being protected by the “Stand your Ground” law, which was voted in by 25 other states and is sponsored by the infamous National Rifle Association. This law gives any killer the benefit of the doubt, whether the murder was committed in a bar, on the street, in a car or, of course, inside a private residence. This case, on which Barack Obama issued comments, has reopened a nationwide debate on racism and violence. It always comes back to this. If we were cynical, we could say that Trayvon Martin’s death is actually working in favor of the 44th president by strengthening his link with the black community.

First women’s issues, now race issues: the news is doing the Obama campaign some good.