WASHINGTON — In his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Barack Obama touched on the turmoil in many cities where African-Americans have been protesting unjust treatment by the police.
“We may have different takes on the events of Ferguson and New York,” Obama said. “But surely we can understand a father who fears his son can’t walk home without being harassed. Surely we can understand the wife who won’t rest until the police officer she married walks through the front door at the end of his shift.”
Some progressive advocates were disappointed that Obama didn’t delve further into the controversy and push for specific criminal justice reforms. But for Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), even the president’s brief mentions were too much, evidence that Obama is trying to divide the country racially.
–
The fact that “the multitude of Americans are watching ‘Selma’ on the screen but seeing the conditions that led to Selma being played out at the ballot box in 2015 is a tragedy that needs to be addressed and reversed,” Brooks said. “We’re seeing all across the country legislatures who’ve engaged in a kind of Machiavellian frenzy of voter disenfranchisement. It was important that the president sent the right signal that we’ve got to amend the Voting Rights Act. It’s non-optional.”
Gohmert has repeatedly expressed his uneasiness with Obama’s views on race. In 2013, for example, he claimed that Obama and his administration have “done more to stir up racial tension and violence than any administration since, you know, the ’60s.”
