Memo to Newt: Martin shoot was about race

I remain shocked that anyone takes Newt Gingrich seriously. The pseudo-historian and disgraced former speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has managed to maintain his perch among the political elite over the years despite a willingness to play fast and loose with the facts and to manipulate those he accepts to make them mean what he wants them to mean.

The latest example occurred yesterday, when the erstwhile Republican presidential contender weighed in on the death of Trayvon Martin. Martin was shot to death by a Neighborhood Watch leader who has claimed self-defense under Florida’s absurd “Stand You Ground” law, which allows citizens to use deadly force if they feel threatened. The threat posed by Martin, who was armed only with a package of Skittles and an iced tea, apparently was his race. He was killed because he was black and walking down the wrong street at the wrong time.

On Friday, President Barack Obama responded to the shooting with a personal reflection that acknowledged the race issue (though not explicitly):

“When I think about this boy, I think about my own kids,” Obama told reporters when asked about the case during a Rose Garden press conference.

“I think every parent in America should be able to understand why it is absolutely imperative to investigate every aspect of this and that everybody pulls together – federal, state and local – to figure out exactly how this tragedy happened,” he said.

He added:

“I think all of us have to do some soul searching to figure out how does something like this happen,” Obama said. “And that means we examine the laws, the context for what happened, as well as the specifics of the incident.

“But my main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin: If I had a son he’d look like Trayvon. And I think they are right to expect that all of us as Americans are gonna take this with the seriousness it deserves and that we’re going to get to the bottom of exactly what happened.”

A strong statement, but not one you’d call inflammatory or divisive — unless you happen to be a politician with a complete disregard for truth.

Here’s Gingrich:

What the president said, in a sense, is disgraceful. It’s not a question of who that young man looked like. Any young American of any ethnic background should be safe, period. We should all be horrified no matter what the ethnic background.

Is the president suggesting that if it had been a white who had been shot, that would be OK because it didn’t look like him. That’s just nonsense dividing this country up. It is a tragedy this young man was shot. It would have been a tragedy if he had been Puerto Rican or Cuban or if he had been white or if he had been Asian American of if he’d been a Native American. At some point, we ought to talk about being Americans. When things go wrong to an American, it is sad for all Americans. Trying to turn it into a racial issue is fundamentally wrong. I really find it appalling.

Of course, the president is not saying that a shooting of a white or a Latino would have been OK. Obama was making it cllear that what happened in Florida was not an isolated incident,. And he was right to make the racial connection, given the obvious racial animous expressed by the shooter.

And Gingrich damned well knows this. He just doesn’t care.

Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie. View all posts by hankkalet