Defending the Black Lives Matter
movement, President Barack Obama said Thursday the protests are giving voice to
a problem happening only in African-American communities, adding, “We, as a
society, particularly given our history, have to take this seriously.”
Obama said the movement, which
sprung up after the deaths of unarmed Black men in Florida, Missouri and
elsewhere, quickly came to be viewed as being opposed to police and suggesting
that other people’s lives don’t matter. Opponents have countered that “all
lives matter.” At the conclusion of a White House forum on criminal justice,
Obama said he wanted to make a final point about the nexus of race and the
criminal justice system before launching into his defense of the movement.
“I think everybody understands all
lives matter,” Obama said. “I think the reason that the organizers used the
phrase ‘Black Lives Matter’ was not because they were suggesting nobody else’s
lives matter. Rather, what they were suggesting was there is a specific problem
that’s happening in the African-American community that’s not happening in
other communities.
“And that is a legitimate issue that
we’ve got to address.”
Neal Blair, of Augusta, Ga., wears a
hoodie which reads, “Black Lives Matter” as stands on the lawn of the Capitol
building during a rally to mark the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March,
on Capitol Hill, on Saturday, Oct. 10, 2015, in Washington. Black men from
around the nation returned to the capital calling for changes in policing and
in black communities. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Police relations with minority
communities and the deaths of unarmed Black men have been topics of great
interest since the shootings of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012 in Florida
and 18-year-old Michael Brown in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Those deaths, and
others of Black women, have inspired protests around the country under the
“Black Lives Matter” moniker.
Obama paired his defense of the
Black Lives Matter movement with praise for police and other law enforcement
officials. Some police groups have been unhappy with Obama’s response to the
deaths of the unarmed Black men. The president lately seems to be making the
extra effort to publicly praise police officers for willingly taking on a
dangerous assignment.
He did so while participating in a
forum on drug abuse Wednesday in Charleston, West Virginia, and next week he’s
scheduled to address the International Association of Chiefs of Police. At the White House, Obama said there
are specific concerns about whether Blacks in certain areas are treated
unfairly or are more frequently subjected to excessive force by police.
But the president said people should
also “understand the overwhelming majority of law enforcement’s doing the right
thing and wants to do the right thing” and “recognize that police officers have
a really tough job and we’re sending them into really tough neighborhoods that
sometimes are really dangerous and they’ve got to make split-second decisions.” He said people shouldn’t be “too
sanctimonious” about situations that can sometimes be ambiguous.
“But having said all that, we as a
society, particularly given our history, have to take this seriously,” Obama said.
“And one of the ways of avoiding the politics of this and losing the moment is
everybody just stepping back for a second and understanding that the
African-American community is not just making this up.” “It’s not just something being
politicized. It’s real and there’s a history behind it and we have to take it
seriously,” he said.
In a separate development, the Black
Lives Matter organization on Thursday rejected a town hall-style forum it had
been offered by the Democratic National Committee, in lieu of a sanctioned
debate it had requested. The group said a town hall wouldn’t “sufficiently
respond to the concerns raised by our members.” The DNC said it has approved
only six debates, and all have been scheduled.
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