Echoes of Michelle Obama's words in Trayvon Martin killing

Remember 6 years ago when Michelle Obama nearly lost Obama his chance for the White House by saying, "for the first time in my adult life I am proud of my country because it feels like hope is finally making a comeback."

I was not on DU then, so don't know what people here were saying, but what I was hearing was plenty of 'gotcha' venom from Republicans and lots of apologia from Dems, like 'Well she didn't mean that exactly', etc.

What I felt at the time, and what was demonstrated so glaringly by the Trayvon Martin killing, and later the acquittal of his killer, was this:

Blacks do not live in the same America as whites!

I've often wondered, as a white mother, how awful it would be to look at my toddler and know that the shine of hope and trust in his eyes would be replaced by hurt and anger in just a few short years, simply because he is black. When does that child first realize that many people in the world hate him, sight unseen? How could I explain that to him? What is it like for him to fear aggression by cops?

Growing up in America is a completely different experience for blacks than for whites. Why should Michelle have been proud of this country which had kept her ancestors as slaves? Which imprisons and executes so many black men? Which has a huge swath of actively racist people? Which forced her to look into her tiny daughters' eyes and know life will be unfair to them?

When Trayvon Martin was hunted down, and ultimately killed, it reminded me of Michelle's words. I think it is high time that all of us make an effort to understand each other's worlds. Rather than spatting over the Zimmerman verdict, we should be having a national dialogue over what it is like to be an African American in a racist country, and how that should change.

There will always be people who are racist. Let's make it so they are at least embarrassed to show it in public.