Obama’s Trayvon response offered individual bias remedies over structural change

Evidence

Here the president acknowledged racial profiling and sought to make the rage and disappointment throughout black America intelligible to white people. He then offered four concrete suggestions for a way forward for the nation: (1) professional training for police, in partnership with states and local governments, in racial bias; (2) examination of laws like “stand your ground”; (3) enlisting support through public-private partnerships, clergy, athletes, and entertainers to address the dismal condition of African American boys (what later became his My Brother’s Keeper initiative); and (4) national soul-searching removed from the political arena that demands each of us examine our choices and actions to see whether we have worked hard to rid ourselves of the biases that perpetuate racism in this country. — Eddie S. Glaude Jr., Democracy in Black, 187

Categorization

• QUESTION: Glaude presents these four as insufficient; interesting to weigh whether police bias training and My Brother’s Keeper have since been evaluated as substantively effective or performative.