Originally posted by: Phokus
Can't reach youtube, here's the full text:
snip
Nowhere does he link the two, in fact , he goes on to say:
"And even when there are honest misunderstandings, the fact that blacks and Hispanics are picked up more frequently, and oftentime for no cause, casts suspicion even when there is good cause."
Signifying that because of the disproportionate amount of stops/arrests of minorities, minorities would be prone to being more suspicious of those arrest even with 'good cause'. That in no way blames this incident on race and in fact says that Gates' experience and the experience of so many african americans may have led him to jump the gun even if the reason was a good reason to stop him.
The reason why your original point was 'too pointed' is because you hear what you want to hear based on your worldview and it's quite obvious you subscribe to the conservative hysteria surrounding this case, throwing out any facts that absolve Obama while absorbing in the heated rhetoric, even if based on a lie.
You had me until the bolded part. Seriously, I was impressed there for a moment. Honest question: can you have a discussion with someone with an opposing viewpoint without employing childish attacks based on even more childish/simplistic assumptions? I'm trying to work with you here, Phokus, so help me help us, ok? 😉
Now, you need to watch the actual speech. There are nuances to the actual speech that cannot be captured in text, and you know this. You claim that I'm merely subscribing to the "conservative hysteria", whatever that is, and that it has dominated my impression of what was said in Obama's speech. I'm sorry, but concluding that I'm wrong is just not as simple as pigeonholing me into a group of fringe followers that, collectively, are your boogieman. What dominates my impression of Obama's remarks is that, despite his attempt to distance racial profiling from the Gates incident, he can't help but go on and on about it in the context of the Gates incident. Subconsciously, he ties two together at some level, which is what I was speaking to in my original comment. If he truly believed the two were separate, then the last third of his speech would not have been dedicated to the topic of racial profiling. The question asked of him was, "what does the incident say about race relations in America." If it said nothing of race relations in America, why did Obama spend more than a third of his time talking about it? Seems odd.
Edit - fixed quote