奥巴马就Trayvon Martin枪击案发表讲话

Without warning today, president Obama decided to blow open the argument about race and bias in America, calling on the nation to do some soul searching, and six days after the verdict getting personal, he said he could have been Trayvon Martin.

Afterwards, people across the country posted these images, side by side. And now ABC's Jim Avila has the seismic moment at the white house today.

Reporters scramble, the half empty white house press room jolted by a rare surprise visit from the president of the United States.

“Is there anybody else showing up?”

After talking to his wife Michelle and calling senior staff into the oval office, the president decided late yesterday to speak from the heart today about the case of Trayvon Martin.Today, the nation's first African-American president talked about the indignity of being profiled and it got personal. He made it clear, it's happened to him. “There are very few African-American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store.That includes me.”

The slights are daily and they don't go away, the president said, telling the country that Africa-Americans are looking at the Trayvon Martin shooting through a different lens.

Many African-Americans believe Martin was singled out because of his race, and as a consequence, died because of his race.

“I don't want to be like Trayvon Martin's mom, burying my child.”

When we talked to middle-class African-American mothers last year in the wake of Martin's shooting, they told us they worried about their sons being unjustly targeted and that they had to teach their boys how not to be profiled.

“I tell them always you have to keep your hands out of your pockets because people will perceive that as threatening, or they may think that you've stolen something.

It's a long-standing problem. In 1991, ABC news conducted an experiment where we sent a black man and a white man into a record store.The black man was followed by the store clerk. The white man was ignored. And it is still happening.

We’ve seen an honest student son talked about being feared,

prejudged.

“Sometimes when I'm on the metro, like I'll walk right past them and they'll kinda like tighten up.”

Today we’ll see react to Zimmerman's acquittal.

“Sad. Heartbroken.”

In this image circulating on the internet is asking a profound question, would things have been different if Trayvon Martin were white and George Zimmerman black?

Tomorrow expect major demonstrations across the country, Diane.

Pierre Thomas, thank you so much. Now the president in this fray.