Columnist Erik Rush: President Obama’s Comments On Trayvon Martin Case Aren’t Doing Black People Any Good

Is President Obama inciting negative feelings and fueling racial anxiety with his public comments in the wake of the George Zimmerman not guilty verdict?

Some, including author and columnist Erik Rush, thing he is.

''I think he's being artfully devicive. He had an opportunity to diffuse the situation, but he keeps on drawing the parallels between what is happening today and occurrances in the 1960's, 50's and beyond - which is don't think is a realistic parallel to make,'' Rush said appearing on WIBX First News with Keeler in the Morning.

Rush says he recognizes that racial profiling exists at some level, Rush said the President and others don't acknowledge progress.

''It depends on where you live and what the young African American males tends to look like. Col. Alan West came out and said that never happened to him, because of the sort person [he was] and the way he carried himself. Young black males today  are taught to dress like and act like hoodlums. I don't see the 'realism' in comparing 35 ago to today.

''And, the President and I have similar backgrounds and very similar ethnic makeup, and I don't see where he's coming from.Folks like him tend to ignore all of the progress that has been made and focus on the half empty. And, it doesn't do black people any good.''

Rush is also critical of Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton.

''For them it is about self ingraciation and money. If there was not a perception of America still being an institutionally racist nation, then we wouldn't have any need for them, would we?''

Rush said he's bothered by the high number of people participating in protests across the country don't 'seem to realize that there was not a racial compoent in the Zimmerman-Martin case. Black kids getting killed by the hundreds, 1,500 - since Trayvon got shot - in Chicago alone, and we don't hear anything from Sharpton, or Jackson, or even the President.

Full interview from WIBX First News with Keeler in the Morning: