In April 2011, African-American teenager Shawn Tyson killed two young British men, James Cooper and James Kouzaris. Tyson reportedly murdered them as they “begged for their lives.”
Two close friends of the victims, Paul Davies and Joe Hallett, talked about the lack of response from the Obama administration on behalf of the parents of the victims. The father of one of the victims apparently wrote President Obama on three separate occasions – to no response. “We would like to publicly express our dissatisfaction at the lack of any public or private message of support or condolence from any American governing body or indeed, President Obama himself,” said Davies. “It would perhaps appear that Mr. Obama sees no political value in facilitating such a request or that the lives of two British tourists are not worthy of ten minutes of his time.”
Were the victims’ races swapped, would President Obama have been so silent?