Obama speaks on US race

As Zimmmerman’s acquittal continues to attract the attention of many Americans, President Barack Obama has also spoken on the Trayvon Martin case. In a surprise appearance in the White House press room on Friday, Mr Obama made extensive comments on the case speaking in personal terms about his own experience of being black in America.

This comes six days after a Florida jury acquitted a Hispanic man in the shooting death of an African-American teen. Mr Obama said that Trayvon Martin could have been him 35 years ago. Martin, aged 17 and African-American, was shot dead in Florida last year in a case that engaged millions of Americans and sparked debate over the state of race relations in the country.

Barack Obama discussed the Trayvon Martin case, saying the dead 17-year-old could have been him 35 years ago and explained why the case is so painful and infuriating to African Americans.

However, the president avoided directly commenting about the verdict saying that he was not fit to critique it being not a legal analyst. Saturday's acquittal came as George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watchman faced various charges related to the killing.

Mr Obama tried to explain the plight of black Americans saying that their own experiences and the country's history with race inform how many view what happened to Mr. Martin. He further indicated that there are very few African-American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. Mr. Obama said. "That happened to him at least before he was a senator."

His remarks of such maginitude about racism come 5 years since his most pointed comments about race in 2008 presidential campaign. Mr Obamas well articulated calculated commented delivered with no attack on the judiciary were a good example of America's first black president seeking to guide the country's thinking on race without inciting racial tensions. They also amounted to Mr. Obama's most pointed comments about race since his 2008 presidential campaign.

It is said that the president had a number of meetings and conversations with different people about the issue before his detailed reaction. Mr. Obama who spoke shortly after the verdict and encouraged people to remain calm was compelled to give an extensive speech following activists and sounded drums calling for more Justice for the family of the fallen 17 years old. White House spokesman Jay Carney said. Privately, the president had outlined ahead of time the gist of his remarks.

"He knows what he thinks, and he knows what he feels, and he has not just in the past week, but for a good portion of his life, given a lot of thought to these issues," Mr. Carney said. The president spoke just ahead of a series of planned weekend protests over the verdict.

The president's comments have been praised by various people including Benjamin Todd Jealous, the president and chief executive of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who called it a powerful moment. "That our president has been profiled should encourage all Americans to think deeply about both the depth of this problem and how our country moves beyond it," he said in a statement.

Amidst the possibilities of festering racial tensions, Abigail Thernstrom the vice chairwoman of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and an adjunct scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, said Mr. Obama's original statement on the case struck the right tone and that Friday's follow-up could have the unintended consequence of ratcheting up racial tension.

Mr. Obama who didn't propose any formal government reaction, and didn't indicate any decision his administration still has to make, which is whether to pursue a case against Mr. Zimmerman using federal civil rights laws, did, however, propose an examination of state and local laws to consider whether some encourage altercations such as the one that took Mr. Martin's life. He said the Justice Department should work with local law enforcement to reduce mistrust in the system, and said that, in the long term, more needs to be done to support African-American boys.