Seth Troxler on Obama: 'He's scared of playing the race card'

With race relations coming to the fore in the US, the outspoken DJ questions the President's ability to speak for the African-American community

Seth Troxler has said that President Barack Obama cannot respond to domestic US matters such as the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner because he is "scared of playing the race card".

Discussing race relations in America, which have come to the forefront after grand juries in Missouri and New York decided not to charge two different police officers for their roles in the death of two unarmed black individuals, the renowned African-American dance DJ said Obama was too worried to address the issues head on.

"I think he's easier with Hispanic issues like immigration rather than acting on black issues in the fear of being put in this box, of playing the race card or being accused of favouritism towards people of his own race," Troxler said.

"That is a funny place to be in. With the recent situation in Ferguson, it's f***ed, it's so bad, he could have stepped in and launched a government investigation – which there probably will be anyway – but he can’t because people will be like… He's going against the Blue Code of Silence.

"With police brutality, at what point does the government really intervene and really stand up for something? In government at the moment, no one is really standing up for anything. Everyone is just trying to keep their political head above water rather than standing for something they believe in.

"If you're in politics you're there to support the public, that's the whole point. Not to create a career."

The August shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, by a white police officer who was then not charged, triggered a series of protests and riots in the town and sparked a international debate in recent days.

This week, it was announced that a New York police officer would not face trial for the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed man who died after police arrested him using a chokehold.

On Thursday, US Attorney General Eric Holder said that the Justice Department had found "reasonable cause" that Cleveland police had routinely used excessive force following a civil rights investigation launched last year.

A Bloomberg Politics Poll that surveyed 1,001 US adults between December 3 and 5 found that 45 per cent of black people thought that race relations had deteriorated under the US’ first African-American. 7 per cent of the same group thought relations had improved and 36 per cent said they had strayed the same.

Troxler, who regularly appears at the top of Resident Advisor’s poll, was speaking to The Independent about his latest label, Tuskegee, which aims to bring electronic music back to its cultural roots and counter the growth of the commercial electronic dance music (EDM) craze.

Read The Full Interview With Seth Troxler Here