[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by blueash

And when you have had a disagreement with a loved one and said " I understand you are upset", should they take that as an invitation to escalate the problem or see it as an attempt to diffuse the situation. Can you understand the anger in the black community even if you don't agree with their point of view?

Here is the text from the press conference that is the source of that comment:

So let me close just saying a few words about the tensions there. We have all seen images of protestors and law enforcement in the streets. It's clear that the vast majority of people are peacefully protesting. What’s also clear is that a small minority of individuals are not. While I understand the passions and the anger that arise over the death of Michael Brown, giving into that anger by looting or carrying guns, and even attacking the police only serves to raise tensions and stir chaos. It undermines rather than advancing justice.

Let me also be clear that our constitutional rights to speak freely, to assemble, and to report in the press must be vigilantly safeguarded, especially in moments like these. There’s no excuse for excessive force by police or any action that denies people the right to protest peacefully. Ours is a nation of laws for the citizens who live under them and for the citizens who enforce them.

So to a community in Ferguson that is rightly hurting and looking for answers, let me call once again for us to seek some understanding rather than simply holler at each other. Let’s seek to heal rather than to wound each other. As Americans, we've got to use this moment to seek out our shared humanity that's been laid bare by this moment -- the potential of a young man and the sorrows of parents, the frustrations of a community, the ideals that we hold as one united American family. ...
I want to be clear about this, because sometimes I think there’s confusion around these issues and this dates back for decades. There are young black men that commit crime. And we can argue about why that happened -- because of the poverty they were born into and the lack of opportunity, or the schools systems that failed them, or what have you. But if they commit a crime, then they need to be prosecuted because every community has an interest in public safety. And if you go into the African American community or the Latino community, some of the folks who are most intent on making sure that criminals are dealt with are people who have been preyed upon by them."


And from that comment by Obama, people somehow conclude he is responsible for the cop killer? He clearly in the very same sentence in which he said he understood the anger, that he said that looting serves chaos and undermines justice.

THAT comment by Obama could have been backed up with a lecture on following the orders of a police officer and a lecture on NOT breaking the law and that lecture could have been addressed to EVERYONE. He said that Trayvon Martin could have been his son. I understand his identification and sympathy, I think most of us do unless we truly are haters. But I believe that his comments WERE encouraging to many of the protestors. I think you believe that there are a lot of police that shoot to kill MORE when a person is black. I don't think it happens often. WHAT DOES HAPPEN way to often is that young black youth are crossways of the law more than young white youth are. Statistically.

I think what we should be doing and what President Obama should be doing is addressing the reasons WHY so many young black youth are crossways of the law. Being angry at the reasons WHY that is happening. Recognizing that young urban poor are breaking the law brings shame and more shame, but the shame is warranted.

We really had been heading in the right direction and now we are ALL heading in the other direction. You cannot legislate morality but you can stand as a leader and tell what is wrong and direct people to see when they are wrong. The last few speeches have been more emphatic about the grand jury being the way the law is written, but it wasn't emphatic ENOUGH. Too many protestors didn't hear it.

It is time for the young urban poor to have a good example. I think some of our new immigrants MAY be the good example. I am very tired of the excuses of so many to not do right. They are shaming all of the good people who have managed to rise above the awful prejudice and laws that segregated and held them back.

We can't change being white or black, but I feel that we have in place a reasonable law based fairness that would enable ALL people to make their way and support their families without breaking the law.

If you want to be rich in this country, no matter what your color is, you have to rise early and work hard and delay gratification and if that doesn't work, get another job and work harder. If people look down on you, prove them wrong.

I think that the majority of the population is pulling for the minority who has not been treated fairly in the past. We elected as a nation, a black president.

I think that the sympathy that the president showed has caused the problem to escalate and we are experiencing tensions that could escalate to a war between races.

Mrs. Obama could have chosen a better project than improving school lunches. She could have walked among the poor and talked to them about what she knows about being black in America and help encourage and direct them. Eleanor Roosevelt did just that kind of thing as first lady..