Wrongful Death

America's first biracial president relates deeply to his black roots as the son of a Kenyan man briefly married to a white American woman. He is pained at the history of blacks in America. He represented himself as a candidate for the presidency of the United States of America as a man who would represent the interests of all citizens of the country, no matter their origins, their politics, their religion, their heritage.

He appeared to a large number of the U.S voting public as a conciliatory figure, a man of philosophical presence, of intellectual and governing capability. He earned their trust by promising that he would deliver justice and play heed to the needs of the country and its people. His has been a careful balancing act. In his administration more blacks than ever before have been drawn into government and powerful positions.

But his predecessors did precisely the same thing. They too professed and practised respect for non-white Americans whose intelligence and values were the equal of their white colleagues, and rewarded them accordingly, with impressive posts in which they performed equally as well as their non-coloured counterparts.

Colour does enter the discourse on occasion when incidents occur that appear to disadvantage blacks in a still-racist society, trying hard to shed its social prejudices, but succumbing occasionally to precedent. When, for example, an academic who had locked himself out of his home and attempted to enter it in a manner that aroused suspicion, he was confronted by police who failed immediately to accept his explanation.

The President of the United States of America engaged himself in the affair of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates having been charged with disorderly conduct by Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley. The July 2009 incident elicited a criticism from President Obama, characterized as racial profiling in the public debate. Finally inviting both principals to the White House to "discuss the issue" in the White House Rose Garden, over beers.

That "Beer Summit" has since been replaced by the president's having stated when 17-year-old Trayvon Martin was shot dead by neighbourhood activist George Zimmerman in an unfortunate accident of suspected skulduggery, that "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon..." more than adequately conveying his empathetic sympathies as a black man facing yet another incident where skin colour appeared to predict an outcome.

Now that George Zimmerman has been found not guilty on manslaughter and second-degree murder charges, the president has had to urge Americans to respect the decision of jurors following that acquittal. It is a hard, hard thing to accept that a 17-year-old boy going about his business is confronted by someone who assumes that he is up to no good and takes the initiative to do something about it.

That the something happened to be taking the life of a young black man because of the violent confrontation that ensued represents a tragedy in a long history of tragedies in a country whose colour divide refuses to fade.