We’re living Barack Obama’s legacy in real time.

Barack Obama’s legacy here started early.  Not quite in office for six months Obama showed his hand with his characterization that “The police acted stupidly” in reference to the arrest of Henry Louis Gates a professor at Harvard who, locked out of his house, broke in.  A neighbor, not recognizing Gates, called 911.  The police arrived and things didn’t go well and Gates was arrested. 

When asked about race and the incident a week later, Obama responded:  "I don't know, not having been there and not seeing all the facts, what role race played in that. But I think it's fair to say, number one, any of us would be pretty angry; number two, that the Cambridge police acted stupidly in arresting somebody when there was already proof that they were in their own home, and, number three, what I think we know separate and apart from this incident is that there's a long history in this country of African Americans and Latinos being stopped by law enforcement disproportionately."

Without the facts Obama stated the police acted stupidly and implied that racism might have played a role. Nothing however about Gates’ reported “loud and tumultuous behavior” just racism and police misbehavior. 

But this was just the beginning.  After George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin, Obama said:  “You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son...Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 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 a history that doesn’t go away.”

Again.  All race, no facts.

But there’s more. 

About the killing of Michael Brown Obama said: “In too many communities around the country, a gulf of mistrust exists between local residents and law enforcement… Too many young men of color feel targeted by law enforcement — guilty of walking while black or driving while black, judged by stereotypes that fuel fear and resentment and hopelessness.”

About the jury not indicting the NYPD officer involved in the killing of Eric Garner Obama said: “that we are going to take specific steps to improve the training and the work with state and local governments when it comes to policing in communities of color; that we are going to be scrupulous in investigating cases where we are concerned about the impartiality and accountability that’s taking place.”

In these instances and more Obama made the killing of a black man by police about race. It’s no surprise that the BLM movement began under Obama nor that the fiction of “systemic racism” took hold or that the black victimization ideology became omnipresent.

That’s unfortunate.

Like Rod Serling might have said, imagine if you will if Obama had handled those differently. 

What if he had said about Gates:  He should probably have remembered that the police were simply trying to protect his neighborhood after neighbors called them. Misunderstandings happen.

Or this about Brown:  Michael Brown was killed after stealing from a store, attacking the proprietor and attacking a policeman.  Had Mr. Brown not done these things he’d likely be alive.

What if he had responded to the riots in Ferguson, Missouri after the death of Brown by taking to the airwaves and told black Americans that the problem in their communities is not racist police, but criminal activity and fighting with police? 

What if he had nationalized national guard troops to restore peace in Baltimore or Ferguson rather than standing by and later coercing police forces around the country into “consent decrees” which invariably increase crime.

But he didn’t do any of those things.  Instead Barack Obama reinforced the notion that blacks are victims of systemic racism, that they cannot win on an even playing field and that in any negative outcome racism must be the cause.

It is that victimization that leads us to where we are today.  The Internet is simply bulging with videos of blacks behaving badly. Flash mobs robbing stores. Punching random people on the street. Pushing people in front of trains.  Running over bicyclists. Attacking bus drivers.  Destroying merchandise in stores. Rioting on cruise ships. Attacking airline workers. And more.  Sure, we have to state the obligatory reality that other people commit crimes too, but the fact of the matter is, blacks do so at far higher rates.

Race relations is reaching a boiling point. To put this in perspective, in 2007 75% of whites and 71% of blacks thought race relations in America were either good or very good.  By 2021 those numbers were down to 43% and 42% respectively, and no doubt they’re lower today. 

The reality of that dichotomy can be seen in two events from last month.   

In April Karmel Anthony, a 17 year old black high school student knifed and killed fellow 17 year old Austin Metcalf at a track meet in Frisco, Texas.  The family, claiming self-defense, has raised over $600,000 in support, with many of his supporters posting explicitly anti-white racist comments. 

Later that same month Shiloh Hendrix a white woman in Rochester, New York was captured on video calling a black child a nigger – vile word for certain, but one frequently used by blacks but arbitrarily off limits to whites.  After claims of death threats and pleas for security she raised over $700,000, with many of her supporters posting explicitly anti-black racist comments. 

Combine all of that with the growing phenomena called “Black fatigue” and cities, states and members of Congress calling for reparations and you get an idea of where America’s  temperature is on the scale of race relations.

And that’s where we are today. Obama had the opportunity to go down in history as one of America’s greatest presidents. He not only didn’t take it, but he made it worse. 

For longer than I can remember we’ve been told that America needs to have a Conversation about Race™.  We did, for generations, but it was always about whites abusing or keeping blacks down. That is, or at least is now, the wrong conversation. The conversation America needs to have today is pretty much the opposite. Far too many blacks see the system, the police, whites and society at large as racist, see themselves as victims and feel like they can do anything without consequences. That’s a recipe for disaster. Both for blacks and for America.  And that’s Barack Obama’s legacy. 

There may be a tiny sliver of hope, however. There are a growing number of black personalities and potential leaders who are pushing back on that victimization narrative.  Guys like Jason Whitlock, Byron Donalds, Charles Payne, Jason Riley and others are regularly telling their millions of followers how to succeed in life sans the victimization narrative, sort of a wider version of what Chris Rock did with his spectacular video How not to get your ass kicked by the police!

With Donald Trump at the helm Barack Obama’s legacy has the potential to be reversed as more Americans of all hues decide that the everything is racist shibboleth and more broadly the cancer of DEI get the derision they so badly deserve.

How the Trayvon Martin case showcases the plight of black America... but probably not in the way you think.

It’s been 20 years since Maxine Waters coined (or at least popularized) the phrase “No Justice No Peace”. The time was after the LA Riots in 1992 when the freshman Congresswoman from Los Angeles was defending looters as simply “women who wanted shoes for their children and bread". Of the violence that eventually claimed the lives of 53 people, Waters said: “The anger that you see expressed out there in Los Angeles, in my district this evening, is a righteous anger, and it's difficult for me to say to the people, ‘Don't be angry.’" She even went on use the threat of further violence around the country to try and extort action of some sort out of the White House. "Many other cities could go the way that Los Angeles went last night unless the president is willing to step in and take some strong action in terms of letting people know that he cares about this issue." The White House listened and indeed a new trial was brought about, double jeopardy be damned. This time two of the officers were convicted. Finally some justice! For those Constitutional sticklers out there… The argument was that double jeopardy didn’t really apply as the four were charged with civil rights violations the second time rather than assault and excessive force, so, no problem at all.

So now here we are, two decades later and again race and crime intersect to put American cities on edge. “Justice for Trayvon” has been the ubiquitous call for much of the last year. This is easily one of the most high profile – and consequently political – trials in decades. The original prosecutor declined to press charges, believing there was not sufficient evidence for conviction. Enter race pimps Al Sharpton and Jessie Jackson and judicial frivolity ensued.

While one’s heart has to go out to the parents of Trayvon as their grief and sadness is very real and they have comported themselves with dignity in the most trying circumstances a parent will likely ever face, the “Justice for Trayvon” signs across the country have little to do with what went on that fateful night last year or what went on in that Sanford courtroom over the last month.

But then that doesn’t really matter because in America of 2013 the only thing that does matter is satiating the demands of raucous mobs or favored demographic groups. Just on cue, now that the verdict is in the demands for federal civil rights charges have already started. Prior to the verdict, as the Miami and Sanford police departments prepared to deal with the consequences of a potential not guilty verdict, one couldn’t help but wonder how we had arrived here in the first place.

I remember watching the OJ trial and verdict as it was read aloud. To say I was dumbfounded is an understatement. More stupefying however was the scene from a college student union filled with black students who erupted into joyous pandemonium when the verdict was read. How was it even possible that anyone could cheer a ruthless murderer getting off, just because of his skin color?

One has to wonder how did race affinity ever come to replace common sense, or self preservation among so many people? The perfect example of the latter is the movement in New York City to ban “Stop and Frisk”. Stop and Frisk has been a tremendous success in helping to drive down and keep down crime rates in crime ridden neighborhoods of the city. Nonetheless, many blacks have objected to the policy because blacks are disproportionately stopped. Perhaps, but those neighborhoods have a disproportionate number of blacks and black lives are disproportionately saved as well. And the neighborhoods in which many of those black citizens live are safer than they might be without Stop and Frisk. Safer neighborhoods help with jobs, schools and quality of life. But let’s get rid of it, regardless of the lives saved or improved.

Just as knee jerk white racism a half a century ago was irrational and ignorant, so too is the knee jerk black racism of today. The difference is, the black racism of today is part of the liberal & media fiction that the state of black America is the result of white racism. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Blacks may indeed be victims, but they are largely the victims of other blacks, not whites. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics points out – via Walter Williams – that between 1976 and 2011 279,000 blacks were murdered in the United States, 94%, or 262,000 of them, by fellow blacks. That compares to a 3,446 blacks being lynched by whites in the 86 years between 1882 and 1968!

This irrational focus on the relatively insignificant (not to be confused with nonexistent) white racism at the expense of a focus on the far greater danger to members of the black community, the black predators preying on them, is an extraordinarily expensive mistake. By focusing on the mirage of widespread white racism, many blacks cease to address the dangers and issues within their own communities, with devastating consequences. It has led to over a quarter of a million dead young black men over the last four decades. Perhaps even more damaging more is the fact that tens of millions of black Americans live in poverty, 45% of black teens cannot find a job and over 75% of black children are born out of wedlock.

If the so called black leaders of today were really concerned with the state of black America, and young men like Trayvon while they are still alive, they would put down their “No Justice No Peace” posters and turn their focus on saving black America from itself. Stop supporting murders like OJ Simpson and Mumia Abu-Jamal and start honoring men like Herman Cain, Dr. Ben Carson, McDonalds CEO Donald Thompson, American Express CEO Ken Chenault and US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, all of whom chose to build successful lives for themselves rather than bleat about the oppressive nature of a majority white society.

Instead of clamoring for never ending government programs, special dispensation in jobs and college admissions or seeing every crime or political issue through race tinted glasses, they should instead focus on reducing unwed and teen pregnancies, demanding quality education for their children and seeking relief from government regulations in order to make black communities compelling places for businesses to invest.

Don’t hold your breath however, because leadership in solving real problems is much harder work than just picking up the racism flag and waving it about so that people pay attention to you and call you a “black leader”. The civil rights movement helped destroy the scourge of white racism that had constrained the lives of blacks in America for centuries. One wonders what it will take, or how many more dead young black men it will take to remove the shackles of black racism that keep so many black Americans from enjoying the fruits of liberty that that people like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks and Medgar Evers fought so hard to give them access to?