President Barack Obama made a surprise appearance at the White House Friday to discuss African-Americans' reaction to last weekend's verdict in the George Zimmerman case, saying that "Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago."
He also suggested that the outcome of the case could have been different "if Martin were white".
"If a white male teen would have been involved in this scenario," he said, "both the outcome and the aftermath might have been different."
The nation's first black president, Obama said that it is impossible for the African-American community to not view the Martin case without filtering it through a long history of racial discrimination.