George Zimmerman

Many African-Americans are pleased that President Obama spoke frankly about the inequities experienced in this country by blacks. They say understanding the distress over the Zimmerman verdict is key to honest discussions about race.

The president spoke in unusually personal terms about the history and experiences that shape the way African-Americans see the case.

Since the Zimmerman verdict, countless black men have recounted stories of being treated with suspicion — a list that now includes both the president and the attorney general.

President Obama did something no other holder of his office has ever had the life experience to do: As the first African-American president, he used the bully pulpit to explain black America to white America.

With a very personal message about the Trayvon Martin case and race relations, the president "connected with so many African-American men," says Detroit radio host Angelo Henderson. He's among many commenting on the president's remarks.

President Obama's statement Friday in the White House briefing room, where he made an unscheduled appearance and talked about the Trayvon Martin shooting death and last week's acquittal of George Zimmerman. "I did want to just talk a little bit about context and how people have responded," he said.

In extensive and personal comments about the Florida teen's death and the trial that just concluded with a not guilty verdict for the man who fired the fatal shot, the president urged Americans to consider why African-Americans have reacted so strongly.

New research suggests that racial disparities and other biased outcomes in medicine, the criminal justice system, and other areas, can be explained by unconscious attitudes and stereotypes. But how do we get rid of subtle racial biases?

Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton said they were "devastated" by the verdict. "How can you let the killer of an unarmed teen go free?" Tracy asked of the jury.

NPR's Michel Martin says Americans sometimes have an empathy gap when it comes to other people's pain.

The jurors said the death of a teenager "weighed heavily on our hearts." But they did what the "law required."

"It's time to question laws that senselessly expand the concept of self-defense and sow dangerous conflict in our neighborhoods," the attorney general said Tuesday. Such a law hovered over the trial of George Zimmerman for the death of Trayvon Martin.