I wanted to get everyone together
on the first day
to welcome you to the White House.
And from
our vantage point yesterday,
you couldn't help but be inspired
by the sight of Americans,
as far as the eye could see.
They were there because they believe
this is a moment
of great change in America,
a time for reinvigorating
our democracy
and remaking our country.
However long we are keepers
of the public trust,
we should never forget
that we are here as public servants,
and public service is a privilege.
Public service is simply
and absolutely
about advancing the interests
of Americans.
I remember my wife and I
heading up to the residence
on the first day that they were in
the White House
and riding up
with an elevator operator
this African American guy
who had worked in the White House
for 40 years at that time,
and I said, "So how did it feel
during this whole process
where an African American
was on his way to be elected
President of the United States?"
And he said,
"At no time during the entire campaign
did I ever think
he was going to win."
He said, "That is how improbable
it all felt to a man my age."
No one thought
we would live to see this thing.
But what did that day signify?
That was the question.
How much had America changed
because it had finally
gotten rid of this hereditary barrier
to occupancy of the White House,
that is race?
During the Obama candidacy,
there was a word that was in vogue.
There were a lot of people,
people of influence,
talking about
the notion that America
might be entering
a post-racial status.
Post-racial is an interesting word,
you know, it was a new word.
It was not part
of the American vernacular.
It's interesting why we, as a society,
embraced that word.
Was it hope that maybe race
would be less important?
Was a hubris?
Were we deluded?
-I think that when you study history
-All right, guys.
every time we made
a step forward,
there was always a backlash.
We go from Lincoln's
emancipation proclamation
into reconstruction, Ku Klux Klan,
White Citizens Council, backlash.
Supreme Court decisions, backlash.
Turn of the century,
NAACP is formed.
Backlash. Lynchings.
All the way up through
the Civil Rights Movement.
It was naive for us to think
there wouldn't be a backlash
to the first Black president.
Hello, everybody.
Well, it is great to see you.
I wanna thank both
the House and the Senate
for moving forward very diligently
on this process of getting
a recovery and renewal plan passed.
I know that it is a heavy lift
to do something as substantial
as we're doing right now.
I recognize that there are still
some differences
around the table,
and between the administration
and members of Congress,
about particular details on the plan.
This is Senate Republican
leader Mitch McConnell.
Earlier this week,
President Obama came to Capitol Hill
to speak with members
of my party about his plan
for an economic recovery bill.
Hello, everybody.
We had a wonderful
exchange of ideas,
and I continue to be optimistic
about our ability to get
this recovery package done,
and put people back to work.
The task for Democrats in the House
was to craft a stimulus plan
that was timely,
targeted, and temporary.
Apparently,
they didn't get the memo.
They were some forces working against
President Barack Obama,
there were members of Congress
they were some
very powerful individuals
simply would not let him succeed.
I don't expect
a hundred percent agreement
from my Republican colleagues,
but I do hope that
we can all put politics aside
and do the American people's
business right now. All right?
We know that Mitch McConnell
was not devoted
to making sure that he could
work with this man,
to forge a connection
that would have given the world
a sense of what is possible
when Americans agree,
even if they disagree politically.
That they agree that the nation
is bigger than their partisanship,
than their political affiliation.
The plan's not perfect. No plan is.
I can't tell you for sure
that everything in this plan
will work exactly as we hope,
but I can tell you
with complete confidence
that a failure to act
will only deepen this crisis,
as well as the pain felt
by millions of Americans.
When Barack became president
he still had the sense of fair play.
Now, all through
his organizing days,
this was a kind of a argument
between us.
Barack insisted that we appoint
some of the other members
of the community
who had fought against us
in the interest of cohesiveness,
and we were, like, "Why?"
The strongest democracies flourish
from frequent and lively debate.
But they endure when people
of every background and belief
find a way to set aside
smaller differences
in service of a greater purpose.
I have full faith and confidence
that we can do it.
But we're gonna have
to work together.
The Democrats are claiming this
as a major victory
for President Obama.
Barack Obama, in just a few
short weeks as president,
has passed one of the biggest
packages for economic relief
in our country's history.
There you go, it's done.
The package is intended to cut taxes,
increase jobs,
and modernize infrastructure.
But it's a victory that came
with almost no Republican support,
a long way from those hopes
of bipartisanship.
They didn't care whether
the American people suffer.
They only cared with the perception
of not working with this president,
and it was all about race.
You can dress it up,
you can dress it down,
but it was all about race.
Madam Speaker,
the President of the United States.
When he was elected,
there were a lot of Americans who've
never had a Black boss.
And here he was the highest
authority figure in the land.
Look, let's not be naive here.
Political parties are
in a permanent state
of opposition and political battle.
And to some degree
that's as it should be.
It's a battle for ideas
and whose policy is better,
and all the rest.
On the other hand,
he was met with absolute wall of
recalcitrance from day one.
I don't think you can ever separate
politics from race,
when it comes to Barack Obama.
How did he become president,
and why.
The first important reason was the
speech he gave in 2004
at the Democratic Convention,
where his whole theme was
bringing the divergent threads
of America together,
and he gets elected president,
and the Republicans say
"Forget that. We don't want that.
We don't want you."
This does not require
a Mitch McConnell or John Boehner,
or Paul Ryan
to be personally r*cist.
That's not really the question,
or be bad people,
or bigots, or whatever,
however, you want it.
That's not the actual question.
The question is structural.
What is the Republican Party
right now?
What was the Republican Party
when Barack Obama entered office?
It was a White party.
How can you have
your first Black president
and race, or racism be no factor?
Ann Compton.
Hey, Ann.
-Could I ask you about race?
- You may.
Yours is
a rather historic presidency,
and I'm just wondering whether
in any of the policy debates
that you've had
within the White House,
the issue of race has come up,
or has the last 64 days been
a relatively colorblind time?
I think that the last 64 days
has been dominated by
me trying to figure out
how we're gonna fix the economy.
And that affects Black,
Brown, and White.
And, you know, obviously,
at the inauguration,
I think that there was
justifiable pride
on the part of the country
that we have taken
a step to move us beyond
some of the searing legacies of
racial discrimination in this country.
But that lasted about a day.
Frankly, I spend a lot of time
trying to forget the details
of that day.
But I learned something.
I learned that being locked
in a cage,
no matter how short a time,
is one of the worst nightmares
any human being
could ever experience.
There's nothing quite like
the sense of finality.
Someone puts you in a cage,
slams the door behind you,
and you hear that clank.
And you have no idea how long
you're gonna be there.
Good evening.
Before I take your questions,
I wanna talk for a few minutes about
the progress we're making
on health insurance reform,
and where it fits into
our broader economic strategy.
Now, six months ago,
I took office
In the summer of 2009,
we were running out of time
to get health care reform
done that year,
and it was important to finish it,
so that we could move on to the rest
of President Obama's agenda.
So, President Obama decided to have
a press conference where he would have
the sole topic be health care.
We will pass reform
that lowers cost,
promotes choice,
and provides coverage
that every American can count on,
and we will do it this year.
With that, I'll take your questions.
The press conference went very well,
and except the last question.
Recently,
Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
was arrested at his home
in Cambridge.
What does that incident say to you,
and what does it say about
race relations in America?
I don't know all the facts.
What's been reported, though,
is that the guy forgot his keys,
uh, jimmied his way
to get into the house.
There was
a report called
into the police station
that there might be
a burglary taking place.
So far so good.
My understanding is,
is that Professor Gates
then shows his ID to show
that this is his house.
And at that point, he gets arrested
for disorderly conduct.
Now, I've
I don't know, not having been there,
and not seeing all the facts,
what role race played in that.
But I think it's fair to say,
number one,
any of us would be pretty angry.
Number two,
that the Cambridge Police
acted stupidly in arresting somebody
when there was already proof
that they were in their own home.
I support the President
of the United States 110 percent.
I think he's way off base,
wading into a local issue,
without knowing all the facts
as he himself stated
before he made that comment.
That's not to say Gates was wrong,
that's not to say
the officer was wrong.
Should President Obama
had gone on national television
last night and decided that
the officers acted stupidly?
In arresting him after proving
that was his home.
You have to add that, Rick.
You know
it's difficult
to be the first anything.
And I think those figures expend
an extraordinary amount of energy
resisting situations
that might inflame.
President Obama has tried
to bridge the racial divide
in this country, but based
on the ferocious response
to his comment last night,
he may have opened up a new chasm.
I think what he said was true.
But the backlash
My office was flooded
with hate phone calls
and hate email.
And you could see it in the media,
the way he was attacked.
Let's face it.
President Obama's Black,
and I think he's got a chip
on his shoulder,
I think there are
elements in this country
he doesn't like,
and he never has liked.
This president, I think,
has exposed himself as a guy,
over and over and over again,
who has a deep-seated hatred
for white people
or the white culture,
I don't know what it is.
He knows what it's like to be
a Black man in the United States.
But also he has to symbolize
something larger,
than just being a Black man
in the United States,
he's gotta be President
of the United States.
To the extent
that my choice of words
didn't illuminate,
but rather contributed
to more media frenzy,
I think that was unfortunate.
And that just was a microcosm
of one of the conundrums
he faced as president,
that if he spoke about race,
there was immediately a controversy.
But people wanted him
to speak about race,
and he felt these things, too.
So, there's no real right answer.
One last point I guess I'd make.
So, there are some who say
that as president,
I shouldn't have stepped
into this at all
because it's a local issue.
I have to tell you that,
that thing--
that part of it I disagree with.
Whether I were Black or White
I think that
me commenting on this,
and hopefully,
contributing to constructive,
as opposed to negative
understandings about the issue,
is part of my portfolio.
So
President Obama called me
and he said he had spoken
to Officer Crowley,
and what did I think
about the idea
of having a beer at the White House.
And instinctively,
I realized that this wasn't about
Officer Crowley and me.
This was about addressing
this wave of White supremacy
that had erupted so unexpectedly
at the embarkation
of the era of racelessness,
which we thought his election
had inaugurated.
Many people in his administration
did not want him to apologize.
No beer summit.
Many young Black people, staffers,
"You didn't do anything wrong.
You spoke the truth."
But speaking the truth is one thing,
offending Whites
upon whom you depend
for polls and reelection is another.
That spelled bad news
for those who were advocates
for an explicit engagement
with the issue of race.
It was an attempt
by Obama to calm the waters,
because the polls were showing
that the numbers were against Obama
being critical about the police.
He was siding against the police.
The day after Officer Crowley and I
met at the White House,
all the phone calls,
all the hate mails,
and all the people picketing
outside my house,
poof, disappeared like magic.
Hello, North Carolina.
Health care reform
was a challenging issue
for many presidents.
Seven presidents had tried,
seven presidents had failed.
Barack Obama was determined
to get it done.
It is not only great
to be back in Raleigh.
It is also nice
to get out of Washington.
With all the noise and the fussing
and the fighting that goes on,
it's pretty easy for the voices
of everyday people to get lost.
So, let me just explain
why the health
of the American people,
and the American economy
demands health insurance reform.
-They're vocal.
-Say no! Just say no!
They're impassioned.
We want you to represent us
as the majority.
And they've got everyone
talking about health reform.
Now, this led us to ask questions.
Many of those raising their voices
at town halls
have never been politically active.
Take John Bair.
He found an outlet in the conservative
anti-tax Tea Party movement,
whose organizers
are now busing protesters
to health care town halls.
The American people are not stupid.
Only common sense tells you
we just can't support this.
I got one letter from a woman.
She said, "I don't want
government-run health care.
I don't want your socialist plan.
And don't touch my Medicare."
The opponents
of the Affordable Care Act,
some of whom would be
the beneficiaries of it
No more Medicare.
were led to believe
by political forces
that they were going
to lose something,
someone else was
going to gain something.
The inference was that
'someone' were poor minorities,
you know, maybe
ill*gal immigrants, and so on.
I mean, it was--
it was an ugly campaign.
Democrats have been scrambling
to put to bed the rumors
that death panels
that will decide the fate
of your loved ones is
a part of healthcare reform.
And some committee is gonna decide,
what is the cost-benefit
analysis for grandma?
Grandma is not just your grandmother,
she's a statistic.
Even former Alaska governor
Sarah Palin jumped into the fray
with a Facebook posting,
claiming her young son,
who suffers from Down Syndrome,
would be subjected to death panels
under the proposed health reforms.
Where we do disagree, let's
disagree over things that are real.
Not these wild misrepresentations
that bear no resemblance
to anything
that's actually been proposed.
There had been
a paranoia around Obama,
all with the current of it, you know,
since he became a viable figure
in national politics.
And so it's not shocking
that you see
these town hall meetings
that seem to teeter
on the brink of bedlam.
They really don't belong here,
and I'm gonna ask them to leave.
All of this is happening
in direct relationship
to this idea of
who the president is,
and, you know, what you believe that
this president's ultimate agenda is.
Most inscrutably for a legislation
that was going to overwhelmingly benefit
uninsured White people,
one of the right-wing
talking points was that
the Affordable Care Act
was some sort of stealth plan
to give Black people reparations.
Some of people's concerns
have grown out of bogus claims,
spread by those whose only agenda
is to k*ll reform at any cost.
The best example is the claim,
made not just by radio
and cable talk show hosts,
but by prominent politicians,
that we plan to set up
panels of bureaucrats with the power
to k*ll off senior citizens.
Now such a charge
would be laughable,
if it weren't so cynical
and irresponsible.
It is a lie, plain and simple.
Now.
Now.
There are also those who claim
that our reform efforts
would insure ill*gal immigrants.
This, too, is false.
The reforms--
the reforms I'm proposing
would not apply to those
who are here illegally.
That's not true.
And one more misunderstanding
I wanna clear up
A member of Congress blurted out
and heckled the President,
"You lie"
in the middle of the speech.
I mean, we had presidents
that had got up,
and said all kind of things
that we didn't like.
And you had civil rights leaders
in the Congress
from Adam Clayton Powell
all the way to John Lewis,
that never happened.
But they almost felt they weren entitled
to do that to him.
I'll never forget the feeling of it.
I'll never forget. I mean,
I'm right now, I'm discussing it
and I'm enraged at this moment.
Of the disrespect that was shown
to this Black man,
because that's who he was for them.
He was not the president.
And it was despicable.
I, last night,
heard from the leadership
that they wanted me to contact
the White House,
and state that my statements
were inappropriate, I did.
I'm a big believer
that we all make mistakes.
He apologized quickly
and without equivocation,
and I'm appreciative of that.
There are people who thought
he should have stopped
and checked him for that,
and chastised him in public,
and he said,
"I'm trying
to get healthcare passed."
I could understand
why he was driving them crazy.
There were just moments
where he was so masterful,
so intellectually capable,
so astute, so informed, so clear.
Part of the goal here,
I think, is to figure out,
what are the areas
that we do agree on,
what are the areas
where we don't agree,
and at the end of that process,
then make an honest assessment
as to whether we can bridge
these differences.
I don't know yet whether we can.
And this is, of course,
the reality about race,
and racism in this country.
The exclusion of Black people
was not because they actually thought
we were inferior,
it was because
they feared competition.
And it was the fear
of somebody just like him
that would potentially shatter
and smash every stereotype.
And I think
it was maddening for them.
Does it frustrate you
when your own supporters
see racism
when you don't think it exists?
Well, look, I think that race
is such a volatile issue
in this society, always has been,
that it becomes hard for people
to separate out race
being sort of a part of the backdrop
of American society
versus race being a predominant factor
in any given debate.
The overwhelming part
of the American population
I think is right now
following this debate,
and they're trying to figure out
is this gonna help me?
k*ll the bill! k*ll the bill!
This healthcare bill
will ruin our country.
It's time to stop him.
It is the 11th hour in the debate
over health care reform.
Democrats insist
they've got the momentum,
but the President
is taking no chances.
President Obama
made a last-minute visit
to the Capitol this afternoon.
To call on Democratic lawmakers
to ignore the political risk
and do what he calls
the right thing.
The question is whether enough
right-leaning Democrats
will go along when the votes are cast
tomorrow afternoon.
Around the Capitol today,
protesters gather to cheer
on the plan's opponents
k*ll the bill!
and to jeer Democratic leaders.
As we start walking,
the Democratic members,
I will never forget it.
This is
the 100th anniversary
of the march across
the bridge in Selma.
And it reminded me.
There were people yelling
using the *-word
cursing people
spitting on members.
This debate has been
a difficult debate.
Don't do it for me.
Don't do it for the Democratic Party,
do it for the American people.
They're the ones who are looking
for action right now.
Dr. King, like President Obama,
believed that healthcare is a right.
k*ll the bill! k*ll the bill!
And we were determined.
We walked on the floor,
we cast our votes,
-and we passed the bill.
-That's it.
When the final votes came in,
I went into my office
and I closed the door.
I just sobbed because I had
a child with a chronic illness,
and I almost went bankrupt
when I was a young
newspaper reporter
because we couldn't
afford her medication.
-Yeah!
-All right! What's next?
And I knew that
because of what he had done,
others wouldn't have
to go through that.
And I went and I found him
and I thanked him on behalf
of those families.
And he put his hand on my shoulder
and he said,
"That's why we do the work."
Mr. Obama is
an extraordinary human being
who's a great president potentially.
We love him, we think
he's a marvelous human being,
but at the same time, a Black agenda
is not qualified or surrendered
because Mr. Obama
is in the White House.
I was hoping that
he would make poverty
much more of a central issue
even as he was trying
to reconstruct the economy.
But by reconstructing
the economy, he had a chance
to render
Wall Street elites accountable.
And that was the beginning
of my deep suspicion
that lo and behold
he was leaning in the direction
away from the legacy
of Martin Luther King Jr.
We already see that any president
is under tremendous pressure
from the strong,
the corporate elites,
Wall Street oligarchs.
Various powerful folks at the top,
and can easily push Obama
in such a way
that he tilts too much
toward the strong,
and doesn't focus the way
he ought on the weak,
on the poor, on working people.
That's why we're here today.
Look, on the one hand
who could blame Obama?
I don't wanna be pigeonholed
as the Black president.
I don't wanna pigeonholed as the only
thing I can talk about is race.
In fact, when I come
into office, the greatest thing
that is confronting
the nation is the economy.
Do I allow the banks to fail?
Stop. Can you imagine the headlines
after the first Black president
allows the banks to fail?
And yet, equally de-spiriting
was his reluctance
to even weigh in.
I don't think that
there was any way possible
for Barack Obama
as president to ever come up
to the expectations of the
African American community,
because they expected him really
to undo 400 years of injustice
with the stroke of a pen.
I understand the left critique of Obama,
or either the Black left critique
of Obama,
that America hasn't solved
its race problem,
that the president has immense power
to talk about and to institute
public policy to address that,
that America hasn't solved
its economic inequality problem.
So with Obama, the only question is
does it make any difference
being a Black president?
I tell you, Mr. Obama,
to deal with the Black agenda
is what every president
before you had to do.
How you gonna be any different?
Abraham Lincoln
had to deal with race.
George Washington
had to deal with race.
LBJ had to deal with race.
How come you're the first president
that ain't got to deal with race?
It wasn't a Black president who
passed the Civil Rights Bill.
It wasn't a Black president
who passed the Voting Rights Act.
It wasn't a Black president
who passed the Fair Housing Act.
It wasn't a Black president
who dealt with affirmative action!
You're gonna be like
every other president
deal with race!
When President Obama was elected
there was an expectation
that he might lead some sort
of national conversation around race.
Some of that had to do with the
fact that he was a person of color.
And most conversations around race
are often led by people of color.
The expectations might be heightened
because of the speech
he gave in Philadelphia
where he talked with candor
and with eloquence and honesty
about a subject that a lot
of politicians don't talk about.
One of the more interesting
things about the First Family
and the conversation around race
is the casual nature
with which they have
the conversation that often
was missed by people.
Here we go, here we go,
here we go, here we go.
And they did it in interesting ways
through the way that they used
the architecture of the White House.
The people that they brought
inside the building.
Using programs around culture
to help America
see their country
and to see each other
in an interesting way.
Yeah!
-All right.
-Yeah!
His presidency
begins at a moment
where we are turning the page
to sort of a new era in America
where the demographics are changing.
We're moving closer to becoming
a majority, minority culture.
And we have to think about what it means
to be American
because for a long time
the cultural norm
around Americanness was built
around whiteness.
Obama I think gets a lot of flack
from the perspective of the presidency,
first Black presidency
only being symbolic,
but, you know, as I argue,
I think people underrate
the value of symbols.
I think the way Obama
conducted himself
in terms of specifically
his relationship with Black culture
-Hey, brother.
-Hello, sir.
communicated a totally different
symbol to other people.
And I think one of the great
mistakes was we forgot that.
We forgot that
there were other people,
you know, who were watching.
You get an understanding
there were other people
who are gonna see that, like see him
playing basketball for instance.
And they would feel a kind
of way about that.
As the cultural default changes,
as the conversation changes,
as the demographics
of the country change
that change creates vertigo
for some people.
That change makes some people feel
really uncomfortable.
He knows that there's a huge
number of people out there
talking about
taking their country back.
A big slogan
of the Tea Party movement.
He knew that his presence
in the White House
invariably exacerbated
some of the worst elements
in our history that are always there,
and so he was very careful.
Back into the segment tonight,
Reality Check,
where we fervently embrace
the truth, check one.
Speaking at an NAACP event in March,
Department of Agriculture
official Shirley Sherrod
was caught on tape saying
something very disturbing.
Seems a White farmer
in Georgia had requested
government assistance
from Ms. Sherrod.
Breitbart released a video in which
Shirley Sherrod was giving a speech
that appeared to disparage
White people.
Wow. Well, that
is simply unacceptable,
and Ms. Sherrod
must resign immediately.
The federal government
cannot have skin color
deciding any assistance.
And the White House flinched.
The reaction was swift and certain.
White House official say
the decision to fire
this official was solely
at the discretion
of the Agriculture Secretary
Tom Vilsack,
but the President
was briefed afterwards,
and we're told,
fully supports the decision.
Do you feel as though
you had an opportunity
to state your side of the story?
No, I didn't,
the administration didn't--
They were not interested
in hearing the truth.
No one wanted to hear the truth.
Everyone was running scared so much,
with this story out there.
You hear my words,
but you don't realize
he's cut it to make it appear
that it had just happened,
I was telling the story
from 24 years earlier.
You know, it was just
total shock to me
that someone would do
what this guy did to me.
This story is about the NAACP,
this story is about the NAACP
falsely accusing
the Tea Party of being r*cist.
Everyone is thinking
I'm this terrible, terrible person.
I've spent my whole life
trying to help people.
Racism is used by the left,
and the Democratic Party
to shut up opposition,
and I am showing you
that people who live in glass houses
should not be throwing stones.
As things unfolded
I realized, you know,
I was just a target
that he was using
to get at the President.
Only after the fact
do they realize that
this video has been doctored.
What appears to be an inflammatory
anti-white speech
is actually an empowering speech
about the importance
of understanding human beings
as human beings irrespective
of what they look like
where they're from,
or their background,
and it's coming from a woman
who had experienced
the worst of Southern racism.
It was 45 years ago today
that my father's funeral was held.
I was a young girl at the age of 17
when my father was m*rder*d
by a white man in Baker County.
On the night of my father's death
the thought just came into my head,
you can give up your dream
of living in the North,
you can stay in the South,
and devote your life
to working for change.
When I made that commitment,
I was making that commitment
to Black people.
And to Black people only.
But, you know,
God will show you things,
and he'll put things
in your path so that
that you realize that the struggle
-Right.
-is really about poor people.
All right, all right.
I decided to use
the story of my transformation
to try to say to them
if you look at all
that I've been through,
my father's m*rder, and all of this.
If I can place that
where it should be
now and try to work together,
why can't we all do it?
Here you have a Black woman,
civil rights activist. In her family,
you know, is this history of brutality,
just the worst kind of racism
that you ever wanna see
and the notion
that the Obama Administration
bought that this woman
was perpetuating
some sort of vengeful scheme
against White people.
They believed Andrew Breitbart,
they believed the guy
who actually was trying
to do them in.
It was sad that you would part
with Shirley Sherrod,
you know, who, in some really,
you know, profound ways
have made it possible
for a Black president to exist.
You know, in pursuit of people
who don't like you,
who will never like you,
who will never believe you,
who will never support you,
who have never accepted you.
Last week I had the chance
to talk to Shirley Sherrod
an exemplary woman
whose experiences marked
both the challenges we have faced,
and the progress that we've made.
She deserves better
than what happened last week.
Now, many are to blame
for the reaction,
and overreaction that followed
these comments,
including my own administration.
What I said to Shirley was
that the full story
she was trying to tell
a story about overcoming
our own biases,
and recognizing ourselves
and folks who on the surface
seem different, is exactly
the kind of story
we need to hear in America.
That we can take
an opportunity to learn
from our imperfections,
and our mistakes,
And I'm confident that
we can move forward together
and make this country
a little more perfect
than it was before.
This country
has spent far too long
worried about scars,
and thinking about the scars
and concentrating on the scars.
Today we are going to concentrate,
on the good things in America.
The things
that we have accomplished,
and the things
that we can do tomorrow.
Oh, huzzah!
Roughly 87,000 people
gathered here at this event today,
that's the largest gathering
here on the mall
since President Obama
was inaugurated.
It is so humbling to get
to be here with you today patriots.
You who are motivated,
and engaged and concerned.
Democrats are worried
about an enthusiasm gap,
headed into the fall elections,
and judging by all the conservatives
who are willing to board buses and head
here to Washington, they should be.
The influence of the Tea Party
could be the story of campaign 2010.
The movements have been
turning voting anger
into energy coast to coast.
Several Tea Party
groups have sparked criticism
for using r*cist slurs and images
at marches around the country.
Organizers say each group
sets its own agenda.
The star attraction of today's
Tea Party Express rally,
Sarah Palin, whose endorsements
have already helped 25 candidates
win their primary races.
Tea Party Americans, you're winning.
You're winning.
And the left, they just don't know
what the heck to do with you.
Are you fired up, and ready to go?
For the first timen since 2008,
Michele Obama
joined her husband
on the campaign trail.
The first lady's campaign swing
is a shot in the arm
for weary democrats, and her husband
whose approval numbers,
especially in battleground states,
continue to sag.
We'll see you. We'll see you.
Tuesday is Election Day,
and here in Washington,
the talk is all about who will win
and who will lose
about parties and politics.
I believe it's
the fundamental responsibility
of all who hold elective office
to seek out common ground.
All right, everybody have a seat.
Time and time again,he's trying to find
some sort of middle ground,
only to realize that
there is no middle ground.
Hello there, sir.
Good to see you this morning.
The Republicans are very much following
the electorate.
They don't want him to be successful
in any way.
When Mitch McConnell said
that his main objective
was to ensure that Barack Obama
would be a one-term presidency,
he was reflecting
a really significant impulse
among a not small number
of White people in the United States.
That Obama, by virtue
in fact of who he was,
was an illegitimate occupant
of the White House.
Our current president
came out of nowhere.
-Came out of nowhere.
-Kenya!
In fact, I'll go a step further.
The people that went to school with him,
they don't even know,
they never saw him,
they don't know who he is, crazy.
I heard ""birther" this,
and I keep saying what is ""birther"?
To people, like,
what is this ""birther" stuff?
"You know, because Barack Obama
wasn't born in Hawaii."
What do you mean
he wasn't born in Hawaii?
Hey guys, I got a whole
300 and something classmates
that we all grew up together, too.
People have birth certificates,
he doesn't have a birth certificate.
Now, he may have one,
but there's something
on that birth, maybe religion,
maybe it says he's a Muslim,
I don't know.
Long ago, the President did release
a certificate of live birth
which many non-partisan
watchdog groups say
definitively proves
he was born in the US.
Just wanna be clear,
I was born in Hawaii.
Donald Trump didn't begin
the birther movement,
but he extended it, he gave it legs.
He exacerbated the narrow
and hateful positions
on Obama that the Birthers had adopted.
I heard he had terrible marks,
and he ends up in Harvard.
He wrote a book that was better
than Ernest Hemingway,
but his second book was written
by an average person.
Quite vigorously,
and quite explicitly,
Donald Trump
had introduced r*cist rhetoric
into the presidency
by attacking Barack Obama as he did.
Questioning his talent,
questioning his skill,
questioning his grades in school,
which is kind of ironic.
And, you know, I wrote
many best sellers,
and also number one best sellers
including The Art of Deal,
I know something about writing.
-Hello, everybody.
-Here's the President.
Here he is!
As many of you have been briefed,
we provided
additional information today
about the site of my birth,
and I have to say that over
the last two and half years,
I have watched with
bemusement,
I've been puzzled at the degree
to which this thing just
kept on going.
We've had every official in Hawaii,
Democrat and Republican,
every news outlet
that has investigated this,
confirmed that yes, in fact,
I was born in Hawaii
August 4th, 1961
in Kapiolani Hospital.
We posted the
certification that is given
by the State of Hawaii
on the internet
for everybody to see.
I know that there's gonna be
a segment of people,
for which no matter what we put out,
this issue will not be put to rest.
But I'm speaking
to the vast majority
of the American people
as well as to the press.
We do not have time
for this kind of silliness,
we got better stuff to do.
I think for a long time
he treated those attacks
as yet another example
of how stupid politics could be.
That politics is a game,
that, you know,
it's filled with name-calling
and insults.
I think that Birther stuff
from Trump got to him.
I don't know if it made him
angry because he never,
I never really saw him get angry.
My fellow Americans.
But clearly, when we were writing
his speech for the White House
Correspondents' Dinner.
Mahalo.
We decided to make sure
there were a lot of jokes
in that speech about Donald Trump,
And I know that
he's taking some flak lately,
but no one is happier,
no one is prouder
to put this birth certificate matter
to rest than Donald.
And I can tell you that
the president was delighted
to tell those jokes.
Say what you will about
Mr. Trump,
he certainly would bring some
change to the White House.
I would describe President Obama
as a still water that runs deep.
That he has a very cool
temperament and demeanor
which requires strength
because it's not
that the emotion isn't there,
it's just that he knows
that it's important
that he keep it under check.
There is something very
writerly about him.
Very self-examining,
very careful in the way he talks,
and to some people it seems formal,
or arrogant or distant.
It's not the typical fair
in Washington.
You know, I think that
his self-confidence,
came from nature and nurture.
That self-confidence drove him all the
way to the White House
then would get him in trouble
in the White House
because it was thought that he didn't
need people enough.
There was something in the zeitgeist
amongst the comedy community
which was he seems
so graceful and so competent.
What is it that we're supposed
to do to lampoon him?
And I remember when I was onMad TV,
the only thing I could really
wrap my head around
was trying to figure out
how to impersonate him.
Folks, we have hope, change,
dignity, you, me.
Yes. Hooray.
It wasn't until Key and Peele,
where Jordan and I were going, okay.
So if he's that reserved,
what's happening on the inside?
We had to look outside of him
to find the way into him.
How are others treating him?
In particular,
how are
white Americans treating him?
How are white Americans in the other
seats of power treating him?
And when that
one senator said to him,
you know, "You lie."
That only happened for one reason.
That only happened for one reason.
You could think the President
was an absolute buffoon,
and you wouldn't say that if he didn't
have melanin in his skin.
And for him to stand
in a podium and go
That's all he did!
That's all he did.
Because you can't win.
If I overreact,
I'm an angry Black man.
If I underreact, I'm ineffectual.
And Jordan and I said so if that--
Okay, so we can identify with that.
How must that feel?
Good evening, my fellow Americans.
Now, before I begin,
I just want to say that I know
a lot of people out there
seem to think
that I don't get angry.
That's just not true.
I get angry a lot.
It's just the way I express passion
is different from most.
So, just so there's no more
confusion,
we've hired Luther here
to be my anger translator.
-Luther.
-Hi.
And that's where
we came up with Luther,
with him being able
to express his anger,
and his dissatisfaction
through a surrogate.
I just want to say to my critics,
I hear your voices,
and I'm aware of your concerns.
So maybe you can chill
the hell out for like a second,
then maybe I can focus
on some sh*t, you know?
That goes for everybody,
including members of the Tea Party.
Don't even get me started
on these m*therf*ckers right here.
I want to assure you,
that we will be looking
for new compromises with the GOP
in the months ahead.
And you know
these m*therf*ckers gonna say no
before I can even suggest some sh*t.
It's not an impersonation
more than is an account
of how he's living
through the world,
and through a small piece
of problem-solving.
How can we problem-solve,
and make his life easier?
I know, we'll do
the screaming for him.
-I am not a Muslim.
-And then you can't say,
"Told you. See?
Look, uppity angry Black man."
But he's not. Luther's
the angry uppity Black man.
Four years ago, Springfield.
-Cold.
-It was freezing.
You declared your candidacy,
and you said,
"The reason we've not met
our challenges
is a failure of leadership,
the smallness of our politics
The ease of which we're distracted
by the petty and trivial,
our chronic avoidance
of tough decisions, our preference
for scoring cheap political points
instead of rolling up our sleeves,
and building a working consensus,
to tackle the big problems
of America.
Those were eloquent words,
and true words.
Unfortunately, they're still
largely true today.
Did you overpromise?
Did you underestimate
how difficult this was gonna be?
I didn't overpromise,
and I didn't underestimate
how tough this was gonna be.
I always believed that this
was a long-term project.
The one thing I've prided myself
on before I was president,
and it turns out that continues
to be true as president,
I'm a persistent son of a g*n.
I just stay at it, and I'm just gonna
keep on staying at it
as long as I'm in this office,
and we're gonna get it right.
And America will succeed.
I am absolutely confident about that.
Man, Trayvon Martin was
Trayvon Martin was
such a sad situation,
simply because when you hear
that 911 call
That's everything
that we as Black people,
especially Black men.
That's everything
we tell you we experience,
but you hear it from the person
who's actually doing it to us.
The racial profiling,
the stereotyping,
seeing us in the neighborhood
thinking we don't belong.
That's what we tell people
we're experiencing,
but nobody believes it
until they see it.
Was it self-defense,
or an unjustified overreaction?
That's the central question raised by
the recent sh**ting
of a 17-year-old teenager
in Florida by a member
of a neighborhood watch group.
Police got here within a minute
and found Trayvon Martin shot dead.
This sh**ter, George Zimmerman,
was questioned,
but has not been arrested.
He holds a license to carry
a concealed weapon,
and claims he fired in self-defense.
But the teen's family
disputes that claim.
If your son had been white,
do you think he would have been
shot and k*lled that day?
-No.
-Arrest Zimmerman now.
Outrage over the fatal sh**ting
of Trayvon Martin
is spreading now around the country.
Late last night,
the Department of Justice
announced that
their civil rights division
and the FBI are opening a thorough
and independent investigation.
-Our son is your son.
-Hallelujah.
I want you guys
to stand up for justice,
-and stand up for what's right.
-Yeah!
Mr. President, will you comment
on the Trayvon Martin case, sir?
Well, I'm the head
of the executive branch,
and the Attorney General
reports to me.
So, I got to be careful
about my statements
to make sure that we're not
impairing any investigation
that's taking place right now.
But obviously, this is a tragedy.
I can only imagine what these parents
are going through.
And when I think about this boy
I think about my own kids.
You know, if I had son,
he'd look like Trayvon.
And, you know, I think
they are right to expect
that all of us, as Americans,
are going to take this
with the seriousness it deserves,
and that we're going
to get to the bottom
of exactly what happened.
All right. Thank you.
At a very personal level,
what happened to Trayvon Martin
really affected President Obama.
And it's something that I as a,
you know, an African American man,
think about all the time.
That could have been
one of my son's very easily.
He saw it in those very stark
personal terms
and he talked about it that way.
To us regular everyday people,
Trayvon Martin
was a huge deal. Huge deal.
How many presidents
would acknowledge that
on any given Sunday?
So, for him to do that, you know,
it was just a reminder, like,
yo, that's a Black man.
The chair recognizes
the gentleman from Illinois,
Mr. Rush, for five minutes
I thought that something was missing
in his response.
Racial profiling has
to stop, Mr. Speaker,
just because someone wears a hoodie,
does not make them a hoodlum.
The Bible teaches us,
Mr. Speaker.
In the book of Micah 6:68
Member will--
The member will sustain.
these words.
-The member will
-These words.
-The member
-"He had shown you, O man"
-The member will suspend.
-"what is good."
-The chair must remind members
-"What does not--"
-of Clause 5 of Rule 17.
-"What does the Lord require of you"
-The member got an order.
-"but to do justly
and to love mercy?"
My statement was delivered
to those young people
out there who was demonstrating.
-What do we want?
-Justice!
You know, some of us
feel as though that's what we need.
The assailant has not been charged,
something wrong with that.
We want arrest! We want arrest!
President Obama
was acutely aware
of the frustrations,
and many quarters
that wanted him to be much more
forward-leaning and confrontational.
The president doesn't have the power
to go and order someone's arrest.
The president doesn't have that power.
We don't have a king.
We have a justice system
that is deeply imperfect.
But he does have
the power to just speak.
To speak in a way that tells us
that we are seen,
that reminds us that he is human,
that reminds us that he understands
the shared nature of our struggle.
I think that Barack Obama
almost inevitably
was gonna be vested with
the weight of Black people's claim
on American society.
Everything has been denied to us
starting with the right
to even exist as free people.
And the lesson had been
the less you talk openly
about race, the better.
Then Trayvon Martin was k*lled.
W. E. B. Du Bois
in one of the classics
of the Black tradition called
The Souls of Black Folk
defined the double consciousness
of every African American.
And Du Bois said,
"One ever feels his two-ness,
an American, a n*gro.
Two warring ideals
in one dark body."
There never has been
a more classic example
of Du Bois's dilemma
than Barack Obama
in the White House.
Bit by bit, he allows himself
more sense of grief and outrage.
In the parameters of what he can
see as possible as president.
He is President
of the United States.
He is not a community activist,
he's not the leader
of a social movement
to the frustration of many.
He's the President
of the United States.
Four more years!
Four more years!
We have come too far
to abandon the change we fought
for these past few years.
We have to move forward
to the future we imagined in 2008,
where everyone gets a fair shot,
and everyone does their fair share,
and everyone plays
by the same rules.
That's the choice in this election
and that's why I'm running
for a second term
as President of the United States.
Why do you think you deserve to be
re-elected? What did you accomplish?
Not only saving this country
from a great depression,
not only saving the auto industry,
but putting in place
a system in which
that we're gonna start lowering
health care costs,
ending Don't Ask, Don't Tell.
This is done.
Decimating Al-Qaeda,
including Bin Laden.
But when it comes to the economy,
we've got a lot more work to do,
and we're gonna keep on at it.
Thanks to large leads among women,
Hispanics, and even independents,
the President begins
with a 49-43 advantage
over presumptive GOP nominee,
Mitt Romney.
But it's a six-point margin
that is, by no means, insurmountable.
Even if you like Barack Obama,
we can't afford Barack Obama.
It's time to get someone
that'll get this economy going,
and put the American people
back to work
with good jobs and rising incomes.
A lot of African Americans
in this country
are getting flat-out crushed
in this economy.
In 2008, African Americans
went to the polls in record numbers
but some people
in the Black community feeling
a sense of disappointment now.
The question is,
can the president hold on
to the Black vote?
Do you think there's a reasonable chance
that you could lose this election?
Oh, absolutely, I mean,
this is gonna be a close race.
I take nothing for granted.
I'm gonna be working my tail off,
trying to present a clear choice
to the American people.
The one thing I hope
I'm able to communicate
in this campaign
is that I'm not tired,
that I am, as eager every morning,
and as determined
as I've ever been to work
as hard as I can on behalf
of the American people.
Four more years!
Four more years!
Four more years!
Four more years!
Four more years!
Four more years
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Tonight
more than 200 years
after a former colony
won the right
to determine its own destiny
the task of perfecting
our union moves forward.
Ladies and gentlemen,
the re-elected President
of the United States of America.
You know, I tried to picture myself
when I was your age,
and I first moved to Chicago
at the age of 25.
And I had this vague inkling
about making a difference.
I didn't really know how to do it.
It's not that you guys actually remind
me of myself,
it's the fact that you are so much
better than I was.
You're just gonna do great things.
And that's why even before
last night's results,
I felt that the work
that I have done
in running for office
had come full circle
because what you guys have done
means that the work
that I'm doing is important.
And I'm really proud of that.
I'm really proud of all of you.
And
And what you describe
President Obama very quickly
developed this moniker,
"No-drama Obama,"
and he was seen as being
very cool and very aloof.
Thank you, guys.
He was a president
who shed tears.
He wasn't the first president
to shed tears
but he did so on several occasions
without apology.
Connecticut State
Police and SWAT teams
are now responding
to a school sh**ting
at an elementary school in Newtown.
As of 10:30 Eastern,
students were still being led,
as you see the students here,
led from the school
by their teachers.
I know there's not
a parent in America
who doesn't feel the same
overwhelming grief that I do.
The majority of those
who died today were children
beautiful little kids between the ages
of five and ten years old.
I think he-- he's level.
He's an extremely level dude.
You know, he don't get too hot
and he don't get,
you know, too cold.
At the same time,
he's a human being.
This evening, Michelle and I
will do what I know
every parent in America will do,
which is hug our children
a little tighter,
and we'll tell them
that we love them,
and we'll remind each other
how deeply we love one another.
But there are families in Connecticut
who cannot do that tonight.
And they need all of us right now.
Sandy Hook is, you know,
I mean, you have a m*ssacre,
you know, of children.
And the country is paralyzed
in its ability to do anything about it.
A poignant reminder today
of the toll that g*n violence is taking
on this nation.
Today, the First Lady was among those
who gathered
in Chicago, to say goodbye
to Hadiya Pendleton,
the teenager who was killedin a random
sh**ting just a week
after performing
at the president's inauguration.
I'm Hadiya from year 2015.
She was shot and k*lled
in a place that's not too far
from where we all live
on the south side of Chicago.
Hadiya Pendleton was me
and I was her.
But I got to grow up.
It made us all feel
the need for
fixing some of these deeply
rooted problems.
A few months ago,
in response to too many tragedies,
this country took up
the cause of protecting
more of our people
from g*n violence.
Families that know unspeakable grief
summoned the courage to petition
their elected leaders.
A few minutes ago, a minority
in the United States Senate
decided it wasn't worth it.
They blocked
common-sense g*n reforms,
even while these families looked on
from the Senate Gallery.
There were no coherent arguments
as to why we wouldn't do this.
It came down to politics.
So, all in all, this was
a pretty shameful day for Washington.
In the circuit court
of the 18th Judicial Circuit
in and for Seminole County, Florida,
State of Florida
versus George Zimmerman.
Verdict. We the jury find
George Zimmerman not guilty.
sh**ting death of Trayvon Martin
in Sanford, Florida,
almost 17 months ago
opened up emotional questions
about racial profiling,
and about a person's right
to defend themselves.
Not one more!
It also sparks
spirited demands for justice.
Now that justice has spoken,
those conversations have maybe even
grown louder
as thousands have taken to the streets
in cities coast-to-coast.
Obama, I hope that you are looking.
-I hope that you are looking.
-You know, I hope he burn hell!
To see George Zimmerman
get off, it's like
I don't know what more
y'all needed to see.
That was a tough one to swallow.
There were calls
for President Obama
to speak out in the wake
of the verdict all week,
especially from within
the African American community,
and White House officials tell me
that President Obama
was watching the reaction
to the verdict
since it came down last weekend.
So, he surprised us all by stepping
behind the podium this afternoon.
The reason I actually
wanted to come out today
is not to take questions,
but to speak to an issue
that obviously has gotten
a lot of attention
over the course of the last week,
the issue
of the Trayvon Martin ruling.
You know
when Trayvon Martin
was first shot,
I said that this could have
been my son.
Another way of saying that is,
Trayvon Martin could've been me
35 years ago.
And when you think about why,
in the African American
community at least,
there's a lot of pain
around what happened here,
I think it's important
to recognize that
the African American
community is looking
at this issue
through a set of experiences
and a history that
that doesn't go away.
There are very few
African American men
in this country who haven't had the
experience of being followed
when they were shopping
in a department store.
That includes me.
There are very few
African American men
who haven't had the experience of
walking across the street,
and hearing the locks click
on the doors of cars.
And those sets of experiences inform
how the African American
community interprets
what happened one night in Florida.
I think it's understandable
that there have been demonstrations,
and vigils and protests.
Not one more!
But beyond protests or vigils,
the question is,
are there some concrete things that we
might be able to do?
We need to spend
some time in thinking
about how do we bolster
and reinforce
our African American boys.
And is there more
that we can do to
give them a sense that
their country cares about them?
You never know when people sign
your high school yearbook
who's gonna be signing it.
I didn't know
that I was gonna go to school
with someone
who was gonna be president.
And certainly didn't think,
Barry Obama would be that person,
not because of any level
of competence,
but because he was gonna be
a basketball player.
So, this is what he wrote
in my yearbook.
He says, "Tony, man,
I sure am glad I got to know you
before you left,
all those ethnic corners,
trips to the snack bar,
and playing ball
made the year
a lot more enjoyable."
"Anyway, it's been great knowing you
and I hope we keep in touch.
Good luck in everything you do,
and get that law degree.
Someday when I'm an
all-pro basketballer
and I want sue my team for my money,
I'll call on you.
Friends always, Barry."
I have some friends
who do character education
in high schools
and most of these kids
we're talking about
our African American students,
and they sometimes have me
come out and bring my yearbook.
The question that gets asked is,
"Do you think this guy
who wrote this
became an NBA player?"
And they'll say, "No,"
because everybody wants
to be an NBA player and only
a handful of people get there.
And the next question
that's asked is,
"What do you think
happened to this guy?"
And the answer usually is,
he's either in jail or he's dead.
-Good afternoon.
-Good afternoon.
My name is Christian Champagne.
I'm 18. I'm a senior
currently at High Park Academy.
Last February,
President Obama sat down with us
and shared his story.
And to my surprise,
he was just like me,
growing up without a father.
And sometimes
not too concerned with school.
That's true.
The most compelling interactions
I ever saw Barack Obama have
was with young, Black men,
particularly young, Black men
who didn't have fathers
like he didn't have a father.
He was on the South Side of Chicago,
and he's sitting in a circle
and he's talking to these young men,
and he's talking about his own life.
And he's talking
about his own struggles,
and his search for confidence.
And he said, you know, I'm you.
That's not something
that you traditionally have heard
a president say to a roomful
of young Black men.
Meeting the President,
and have him tell me
that my life now is not different
from the way his was
made me realize
I have potential too.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I now have the honor
of introducing you to the President
of the United States.
Good job. Good job.
I'm proud of you, man.
I remember the very distinct
conversation
that he and I had not long after
he'd been inaugurated
for the second term.
And he said, you know,
in this second term,
I'm gonna do something.
Recognizing that historically
countless boys and young men
of color especially
are shut out of opportunities
in this country.
And recognizing
that this country is not
what it should be.
Fifty years after Dr. King talked
about his dream
for America's children,
the stubborn fact is,
that the life chances
the average Black
or Brown child in this country
lags behind by almost every measure
and is worse for boys and young men.
If you're African American, there's
about one in two chance you grow up
without a father in your house.
We know that boys who grew up
without a father
are more likely to be poor,
more likely to underperform in school.
There's a higher chance you end up
in the criminal justice system.
And a far higher chance
that you are the victim
of a violent crime.
And all of this translates
into a higher unemployment rates
and poverty rates as adults.
These statistics
should break our hearts,
and they should compel us to act.
And that's what My Brother's Keeper
is all about.
If we help these wonderful, young men
become better husbands and fathers,
and well-educated,
hardworking, good citizens
then not only will they contribute
to the growth, and prosperity
of this country
but they will pass on those lessons
onto their children,
onto their grandchildren.
And this country will be
richer and stronger for it
for generations to come.
So, let's get going.
Thank you, God bless you.
God bless
the United States of America.
No justice, no peace!
-No justice, no peace!
-No justice, no peace!
-No justice, no peace!
-No justice, no peace!
Tensions are high
after an unarmed teenager
was shot dead by a police officer.
Eighteen-year-old Michael Brown,
just days away
from starting college,
lay dead in the street.
The teen's mother, inconsolable.
Why? Why did I do it? Why?
You took my son away from me.
You know how hard
it was for me to get him
to stay in school and graduate?
You know how many
Black men graduate?
Not many.
Because you bring them down
of this type of level
where they feel like I don't got nothing
to live for anyway.
They're gonna try
to take me out anyway.
No justice, no peace.
No justice, no peace!
When I think about Black Lives Matter,
what is always important to remember
is that there is no movement
without what happened in Ferguson,
that like that is the spark,
it is the impetus.
-Hands up.
-Don't sh**t!
It was a movement born of the police
k*lling people on the street,
that is we got people in the street,
it's what kept people in the street.
It was organic, and the protest
spread organically across the country.
Sixteen shots. Sixteen shots.
Across the country this weekend,
Americans taking to the streets
over what has becomen a pressing
national issue.
The use of lethal force by police.
Protests have been going on
from coast to coast
over a series
of controversial cases.
I think about all of these young people
who have grown up watching
the violation of young,
Black men on their phones
over and over and over,
and over again,
being inundated
with their vulnerability.
In August, September, October
and November 2014,
there were a lot of people
who didn't believe us.
There were a lot of people who thought
it was interesting what was happening
in the street, but they thought
we were being dramatic.
I remember people telling us,
"Don't bring this to their city,"
and we're like, "What you mean?
The police are k*lling people in your
city, we don't have to bring it there,
like, we're just highlighting this,
like we didn't do this."
I think that so many of
the young people of this country
are in a post-traumatic depression.
I think it's a generation,
and I think we have to really, really
understand and listen
to what those young people
are dealing with
because we don't yet have answers
for how to keep them safe.
And how to have their humanity
recognized in their brown male bodies.
You didn't start this.
This problem didn't begin
under your watch.
This is incredibly persistent
and pervasive.
But how much of it
does your administration feel
you're responsible
for making an impact on?
Well, I think an enormous amount,
not just because as president
you're always responsible
for what happens in this country
and you got to be part of the solution,
not part of the problem.
But because of my particular
experiences that I bring to this office.
You know, part of the reason
I got into politics
was to figure out how can I
bridge some of those gaps
and understandings,
so that the larger country
understands this is not just
a Black problem or a Brown problem,
this is an American problem.
Today we finally got
the full and damning report
from the feds that alleges
in detail the pattern
of racial bias among authorities
in Ferguson, Missouri.
African Americans representing
93 percent of arrests,
90 percent or citations,
85 percent of all traffic stops
and 88 percent of all
use of force incidents.
The report also detailing r*cist emails
sent by city employees.
One describing the President
of the United States
as a chimpanzee.
There are places
and moments in America
where this nation's destiny
has been decided.
Selma is such a place.
We gather here to honor the courage
of ordinary Americans
willing to endure billy clubs
and the chastening rod,
tear gas and the trampling hoof.
Men and women who
despite the gush of blood
and splintered bone would stay true
to their north star
and keep marching towards justice.
-What do we want?
-Justice.
-When do we want it?
-Now.
If Selma taught us anything,
it's that our work is never done.
No r*cist NYPD!
The American experiment
in self-government
gives work and purpose
to each generation.
And this is work for all Americans,
not just some, not just Whites,
not just Blacks.
If we want to honor the courage
of those who marched that day,
then all of us are called to possess
their moral imagination.
All of us will need to feel
as they did the fierce urgency of now.
Racism is not just a burden
for Black people.
It will destroy us all,
it will consume us all.
-I am Eric Garner.
-I am Eric Garner.
The very notion
that Black people
are human beings
at the deepest level
is still news for too many people,
a lot of my fellow citizens
have yet to get that memo.
No more.
The church couldn't
hold all the people
who turned out today
for the funeral of Walter Scott.
He is the African American man
shot and k*lled last weekend
running from his car
by the white police officer
who pulled him over
in South Carolina.
-No justice.
-No peace!
America has never admitted
or come to grips with,
how racism is sewn
into the fabric of the country.
It's a ghost from our past
that we have not dealt with.
Freddie! Freddie! Freddie!
This morningn
another case of the possible use
of excessive force by police
against a Black suspect.
That suspect Freddie Gray would end up
with a severed spine,
he would later die.
This phenomena
that we were living
in a post-racial society.
Where did all this
stupid rhetoric come from?
Who hoisted that up
on the body of politics?
And who accepts that nonsense?
You know, how do you erase history?
White supremacy is in the DNA
of the American people.
And the myth
of a post-racial America
because of the election
of a Black man
to the White House let us
unfortunately put our guard down.
June 17th, 2015
Dylann Roof enters the sanctuary
of the Emanuel AME Church
in Charleston, South Carolina.
He attends bible study
and at the conclusion
of bible study he
draws a .45 caliber GL*CK,
and murders nine people
in the church.
In the midst of the sh**ting spree,
a young man by the name
of Tywanza Sanders
who has already been shot
says to him,
"You don't have to do this,
we mean you no harm."
In response, Roof says,
"I have to do this
because you all
are raping our women,
and taking over the world."
And it wasn't coincidental
that at the same time
there was a Black man
occupying the White House.
Michelle and I know several members
of Emanuel AME Church.
We knew their pastor,
Reverend Clementa Pinckney,
who along with eight others
gathered in prayer
and fellowship,
and was m*rder*d last night.
The fact that this took place
in a Black church
obviously also raises questions
about a dark part of our history.
This is not the first time
that Black churches
have been attacked and we know
that hatred across races and faiths
pose a particular threatto our democracy
and our ideals.
The work to defeat racism,
and the work of civil rights
is not a story
of relentless progress.
It's just not.
There is progress.
There are also moments
that crystalize
the fragile nature
of the progress you've made.
And this was one of them.
You are representing
the family of Ethel Lance,
-is that correct?
-Yes.
-And you are whom, ma'am?
-The daughter.
The daughter. I'm listening.
I just want everybody to know,
to you, I forgive you.
You took something
very precious away from me.
I will never talk to her ever again.
I will never be able
to hold her again.
But I forgive you.
The nation is taken aback
by the immediacy
of the gesture of forgiveness.
It's a remarkable display
of Black humanity.
The willingness to forgive
even the most heinous
forms of white supremacy
and violence
in the name of the God
that they serve.
The church was packed.
It was
unbelievable,
unbelievable sea of humanity.
Black people, white people,
young, old,
elected officials,
non-elected officials,
just people.
It was an unbelievable feeling.
You can see it on the face
of President Barack Obama
that he knew
that he was on a mission
to somehow get all Americans
to believe that we have
to do our best
to create a sense of community,
a sense of family.
Giving all praise and honor to God.
We are here today
to remember a man of God
who live by faith.
A man who believed
in things not seen.
Slain in his sanctuary
with eight wonderful members
of his flock.
To the families of the fallen,
the nation shares in your grief.
Our pain cuts that much deeper
because it happened in a church.
The church is,
and always has been the center
of African American life.
That's right.
We do not know whether
the k*ller of Reverend Pinckney
and eight others
knew all of this history.
But he surely sensed
the meaning of his violent act.
An act that he presumed
would deepen divisions
that trace back
to our nation's original sin.
Oh, but God works
in mysterious ways.
Yes, sir!
He didn't know
he was being used by God.
Blinded by hatred,
the alleged k*ller
could not see the grace
surrounding Reverend Pinckney,
and that bible study group.
The light of love
that shown as they opened
the church doors
-and invited a stranger
-Yeah.
to join in
their prayer circle.
Yes, sir!
Reverent Pinckney once said,
"Across the south we have
a deep appreciation of history."
"We haven't always had
a deep appreciation
of each other's history."
-Yeah.
-Wow.
What is true in the South
is true for America.
He knew that the path of grace
involves an open mind.
But more importantly, an open heart.
That's what I felt this week.
An open heart.
That, more than any particular
policy or analysis
That's right.
is what's called upon
right now, I think.
Yeah.
If we can find that grace,
-anything is possible.
-Yeah, come on!
If we can tap that grace,
everything can change.
Amazing grace.
Amazing grace.
There's a lot that can't be said
about what that moment,
what this k*lling meant to us,
how devastating this was to us.
And how we had to organize ourselves
as our forebears have had to do
many times in the past
not to allow our sense of who we are
and who we will be in this country
to be defined by these moments.
And it was all in that song.
No clearer statement can be made
all of the reluctance
has melted away,
all of the hymn hawing,
and the fits and starts,
the gives and takes, all dismissed.
And now a clear vision
of redemption.
He reflected who we really are
as a country.
And I think that's
the thing about him
is that he represents
to the people in this country
everything that's good about us.
It's not about him, it's what
we see in him that represents us
in who we are,
in who we aspire to be.
Sadly, the American dream,
is dead.
Bring it back!
But if I get elected president,
I will bring it back
bigger and better
and stronger than ever before
and we will make
America great again.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
When a president
retires after two terms,
that president sets
the stage for the next.
Good morning.
In the sense that the country
never looks,
no matter how popular the president is,
for the replica of what they have.
They generally look for the remedy.
By that measure, there's no one
who's a greater antithesis
to Barack Obama than Donald Trump.
Build that wall!
Build that wall!
What do you think
of Donald Trump?
Well, I think that he
is a great publicity seeker.
Build that wall.
Do you think he's running out of steam?
Do you think he's gonna disappear?
I'll leave it up to the pundits
to make that determination.
I don't think he'll end up being
president of the United States.
Donald Trump caught
into a backlash fervor
of the fears,
unfounded fears, of many people,
and striking on simplistic things
like they're not one of us,
we need to go back to old America,
make America great.
And no one thought
that that could work.
When they started saying
by the year 20-something
there'd be more people of color,
I kinda knew there
would be a backlash
but I didn't know where it was gonna
come from.
Trump, he spoke that language,
he spoke directly to the racists.
He spoke directly to the bigots,
he knew exactly what they were feeling
because he was feeling it.
He know exactly how he felt seeing
that Black man every day.
I think in general
we deeply underestimate
the power of hate.
You know, of a particular
kind of politics
that, you know, takes as its base,
I'm not you, you live over there,
I live over here,
I'm with my people,
you're with yours.
Now, there were a lot things
that had to happen,
you know, in order for Trump
to be president.
But I think like he just missed
the extent to which
what Trump was saying
was in fact in deep concert
with folks that he had been facing
for the past eight years.
I do think that the country
is inexorably changing.
I believe in all kinds
of positive ways.
But I do think that when you combine
the demographic change
with all the economic stressors
that people have
been going through
Build the wall! Build the wall!
that means
that there's gonna be
potential anger, frustration, fear.
Some of it justified,
but just misdirected.
And I think that somebody like Mr. Trump
is taking advantage of that.
There are some people that are,
just stone cold racists.
We know that.
But there are a lot of people also
who feel
and are to some degree or another,
feel like they're
on the losing end of the stick.
There are a lot of people
who rose to the bait I would say.
The encouragement of the kind
of PR mastery of Trump.
Trump made it into an us and them,
and Black and White.
There's no question
that he had a self-consciousness of
a path to whipping up resentment.
And Obama was a Black president.
Toward the end
of Obama's presidency
I have received an invitation
to what was billed
as a celebration of Black music
at the White House.
It was Bell Biv DeVoe,
De La Soul, Common,
although Bradley Cooper was there.
It was the wildest thing.
Anyway, so but besides Bradley Cooper,
everybody was Black.
Hello, everybody.
And it's at the end,
you know, of Obama's presidency
and people know it's the end.
Well, you can tell
what kind of night this is.
That was not
John Philip Sousa right there.
This is our final musical evening
as President and First Lady.
Aw!
I know.
It's gonna be all right.
It became very clear
that this was on the one hand
a recognition of
African American contributions
to American musical culture.
Give it up, ladies and gentlemen,
for De La Soul.
We love you,
Mr. President, Mrs. President.
But another sense,
it was really a punctuation
for what the Obamas had represented
in the United States
for the previous eight years.
I like to think about
the Obama presidency
for its, what I would call,
real symbolic power.
The ways that
not only that man but that family
stood on the world stage
and showed us
that being a whole person
means loving people
and belonging to people
and being responsible to people.
The most important thing
we can all do
is to treat each other
with kindness and respect.
Just showing us in his persona
the joy of living,
the love of music,
the love of children,
the love of connecting
with other human beings.
-Fired up
-Fired up
-Ready to go
-Ready to go
I think all of that
stood for something,
and stands for something.
What's your name?
How old are you?
There was a sense of decorum
and ethics and honesty,
and commitment to the country
that suffused the entire White House.
I'm proud of the way
he conducted himself
as President of the United States,
that's no small thing.
My president.
My president!
There are now white children
who earliest memories
of any sort of president
is a Black guy.
I don't think that's small.
I don't think that's small at all.
Because I think
your ability to imagine
who can't occupy the highest levels,
you know, in society
directly informs your ability
to see people as human.
That's not the whole battle,
that's not everything
but it certainly is a component.
To me, the most important thing
is that Barack Obama won,
and Barack Obama won twice.
Now, he might argue differently
he's a policy guy,
and he might argue healthcare
and he might argue
saving the banking industry,
and saving the auto industry,
and ending the wars
in the Middle East
but to me the biggest accomplishment
was that he won,
because it means something
about this country,
and our country's capacity
to pursue becoming
a more perfect union.
Four more years!
-Four more years!
-I can't do that.
Four more years!
Four more years!
Four more years!
Four more years!
We love you!
Now, this is where I learned
that change only happens
when ordinary people get involved,
and they get engaged.
And they come together to demand it.
After eight years as your president,
I still believe that.
And it's not just my belief
it's the beating heart
of our American idea,
our bold experiment
in self-government
that we the people
through the instrument
of our democracy
can form a more perfect union.
Yes, our progress has been uneven.
The work of democracy
has always been hard.
It's always been contentious.
Sometimes it's been bloody.
Our constitution is a remarkable
beautiful gift.
But it's really
just a piece of parchment.
It has no power on its own.
We the people give it power.
We the people give it meaning
with our participation,
and with the choices that we make.
And the alliances that we forge,
whether or not we stand up
for our freedoms,
whether or not we respect,
and enforce the rule of law.
That's up to us.
For all our outward differences
we in fact all share
the same proud title,
the most important office
in a democracy.
Citizen.
Citizen.
So you see,
that's what our democracy demands.
It needs you.
Not just when there's an election,
not just when your own narrow interest
is at stake,
but over the full span
of a lifetime.
My fellow Americans
it has been the honor
of my life to serve you.
I won't stop.
In fact,
I will be right there with you
as a citizen
for all my remaining days.
But for now, whether you are young,
or whether you're young at heart,
I do have one final ask
of you as your president,
the same thing I asked
when you took a chance on me
eight years ago.
I'm asking you to believe,
not in my ability to bring about change,
but in yours.
I'm asking you to hold fast
to that faith
written into our founding documents,
that idea whispered by sl*ves
and abolitionists,
that spirit sung by immigrants
and homesteaders
and those who march for justice
that creed reaffirmed by those who
planted flags
from foreign battlefields
to the surface of the moon,
a creed at the core
of every American
whose story is not yet written.
Yes, we can.
Yes, we did.
Yes, we can.
Thank you, God bless you.
May God continue to bless
the United States of America.
Thank you
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