| The devil you say! Being beaten over the head day in, day out for eight solid years about something the general population did not do, didn't help matters any? |
| Spent the last eight years balkanizing the country by race, and forgot that the single largest racial group is ... white Scots-Irish. Few of whom were happy about what has been done... |
Obama acknowledged the difficulty but added the caveat the country still hasn’t overcome its legacies of slavery, Jim Crow, colonialism and salvery.
Partial transcript as follows:
You know, my general theory is that, if I was clear in my own mind about who I was, comfortable in my own skin and had clarity about the way in which race continues to be this powerful factor in so many elements of our lives. But, that it is not the only factor in so many aspects of our lives, that we have, by no means overcome the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow and colonialism and racism, but that the progress we’ve made has been real and extraordinary -- if I’m communicating my genuine belief that those who are not subject to racism can sometimes have blind spots or lack of appreciation of what it feels to be on the receiving end of that, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not open to learning and caring about equality and justice and that I can win them over because there is goodness in the majority of people.
Another way of saying this is there has not been a time in my public life or my presidency where I feel as if I have had to bite my tongue. There have been times in my public life where I’ve said, "How do I say this diplomatically? How do I say this, as you indicated, in a way that it’s received?"
So there have been very few instances where I’ve said, "Well, that was racist, you are racist." There have been times where I’ve said, "You know, you might not have taken into account the ongoing legacy of racism in why we have so many black men incarcerated. And since I know that you believe in the Constitution and believe in justice and believe in liberty, how about if we try this?"
| The legacy will only be overcome when the U.S. follows the model of the democratic utopia of Zimbabwe and all whites surrender their privilege and migrate elsewhere. |