Race

The sports world has been transfixed by the story of a biracial NFL player who abruptly quit his team after he said he was bullied and taunted with racial slurs by a white teammate. But players of all races rallied around the alleged bully, a fact owing to the league's peculiar locker room culture.

Veteran guard Richie Incognito is alleged to have left intimidating messages and texts on the phone of second-year offensive tackle Jonathan Martin, who left the team last week. The NFL and the Dolphins have transcripts of some of the messages.

President Obama has always been reluctant to talk about the role of race in his life and in American society. Aside from one famous 2008 speech, he had largely avoided the subject. But events this summer have pushed the nation's first black president to open up. And some expect that dialogue to continue.

With President Obama's remarks on Trayvon Martin serving as a backdrop, two new polls reveal dramatic differences in how whites and blacks perceive the verdict.

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?