The late Trayvon Martin’s parents joined President Obama at the White House Thursday to help usher in the President’s initiative to help men of color choose a road to productivity and success.
Tracy and Sybrina’s son was killed two years ago in an altercation with security guard George Zimmerman. A jury found Zimmerman not guilty of murder, which caused nationwide protests from many who felt that the ruling was unjust.
Obama’s initiative, which will bring together foundations, businesses, churches, nonprofits, government agencies, and other entities to help young men stay on the right path, is fulfilling a veiled promise he made during his SOTU speech in January. Moreover, it is fulfilling a promise he made just days after the Trayvon Martin trial, when Obama said that, “We need to spend some time in thinking how we bolster and reinforce our African-American Boys.”
The president repeated the comment at Thursday’ gathering, saying, “In the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin verdict, with all the emotions and controversy it sparked, I spoke about the need to bolster and reinforce our young men and give them the sense their country cares about them and values them and is willing to invest in them.”
The new initiative, referred to as “My Brother’s Keeper,” was criticized for being hypocritical by columnist Charles Hurt. Hurt asserted that, “Setting aside the lunacy of divvying up mankind based on the hue of their skin, it is truly a rich irony that generous Americans must suffer through a sermon from this president on how to better be our brother’s keeper.”
Hurt contends that, aside from the fact that the President has done next to nothing for his own brother of color, George Hussein Obama, “who lives in a tin shack in a Nairobi, Kenya slum, struggling with addictions to booze and drugs,” Obama has also stuck people of color, as well as other Americans, “with massive debts, lost doctors, and rising health insurance premiums.”
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