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sheshe2

(83,878 posts) Mon Aug 10, 2015, 05:39 PM Aug 2015

President Obama 'Feels Great Urgency’ to Tackle Race Issues While In Office

In an interview recorded just days before the one-year anniversary of Michael Brown’s death in Ferguson, Missouri, President Barack Obama told "NPR Morning Edition" host Steve Inskeep that time on the job—not politics—kept him from tackling race issues as hard as he would have liked to during his first term.

When Inskeep asked if he was waylaid by the politics of being the first black president, the president said no.

That I don’t buy. I think it's fair to say that if, in my first term, Ferguson had flared up, as president of the United States, I would have been commenting on what was happening in Ferguson. Here’s one thing I will say: that I feel a great urgency to get as much done as possible. And there's no doubt that after over 6 1/2 years on this job, I probably have an easier time juggling a lot of different issues. And it may be that my passions show a little bit more, just because I have been around this track now for a while.

Watch the segment on Ferguson above. And the full interview will start airing tomorrow.

Video clip at the link: http://www.colorlines.com/articles/president-obama-feels-great-urgency%E2%80%99-tackle-race-issues-while-office?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+racewireblog+%28Colorlines.com%29

8 replies

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President Obama 'Feels Great Urgency’ to Tackle Race Issues While In Office (Original Post) sheshe2 Aug 2015 OP

Obama knows our history, present and future. People better listen up to what JBaldwin said in 1965: freshwest Aug 2015 #1

"The ones who built this nation did not benefit from it." sheshe2 Aug 2015 #2

And he didn't even have to hire an ambassador to do it! William769 Aug 2015 #3

Daymn... sheshe2 Aug 2015 #4

yeah he's been so quick to get on it. 2pooped2pop Aug 2015 #5

He's been on it since day one. It's just that few wanted to hear it or acknowledge it. nt kelliekat44 Aug 2015 #6

+1. Been on it since he learned to walk and talk. And he can't walk away from it... n/t freshwest Aug 2015 #7

what changes has he managed in his 7 years as president 2pooped2pop Aug 2015 #8

freshwest

(53,661 posts)

1. Obama knows our history, present and future. People better listen up to what JBaldwin said in 1965:

Reply to sheshe2 (Original post)

Mon Aug 10, 2015, 07:03 PM

Aug 2015

“The white South African or Mississippi sharecropper or Alabama sheriff has at bottom a system of reality which compels them really to believe when they face the Negro that this woman, this man, this child must be insane to attack the system to which he owes his entire identity.”

“In the case of the American Negro, from the moment you are born every stick and stone, every face, is white. Since you have not yet seen a mirror, you suppose you are, too. It comes as a great shock around the age of 5, 6, or 7 to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has not pledged allegiance to you. It comes as a great shock to see Gary Cooper killing off the Indians, and although you are rooting for Gary Cooper, that the Indians are you.”

“From a very literal point of view, the harbors and the ports and the railroads of the country—the economy, especially in the South—could not conceivably be what they are if it had not been (and this is still so) for cheap labor. I am speaking very seriously, and this is not an overstatement: I picked cotton, I carried it to the market, I built the railroads under someone else’s whip for nothing. For nothing.”

"The Southern oligarchy which has still today so very much power in Washington, and therefore some power in the world, was created by my labor and my sweat and the violation of my women and the murder of my children. This in the land of the free, the home of the brave.”

“Sheriff Clark in Selma, Ala., cannot be dismissed as a total monster; I am sure he loves his wife and children and likes to get drunk. One has to assume that he is a man like me. But he does not know what drives him to use the club, to menace with the gun and to use the cattle prod. Something awful must have happened to a human being to be able to put a cattle prod against a woman’s breasts. What happens to the woman is ghastly. What happens to the man who does it is in some ways much, much worse. Their moral lives have been destroyed by the plague called color.”

“It is a terrible thing for an entire people to surrender to the notion that one-ninth of its population is beneath them. Until the moment comes when we, the Americans, are able to accept the fact that my ancestors are both black and white, that on that continent we are trying to forge a new identity, that we need each other, that I am not a ward of America, I am not an object of missionary charity, I am one of the people who built the country—until this moment comes there is scarcely any hope for the American dream. If the people are denied participation in it, by their very presence they will wreck it. And if that happens it is a very grave moment for the West.”

http://bacanisays.tumblr.com/

Blacks don't need to hear what was done for them when their children are living under the boot, their men are being jailed and killed for what whites are not recieving the same. It is in their face and claims of what was done years ago are not going to cut it with this generation. As Obama says, this is urgent. Unless people want to blindly face the end of our system of beliefs about what a good economy is when too many times the economy is good, but not for everyone. The ones who built this nation did not benefit from it. JMHO.

sheshe2

(83,878 posts)

2. "The ones who built this nation did not benefit from it."

Reply to freshwest (Reply #1)

Mon Aug 10, 2015, 07:22 PM

Aug 2015

I am so upset with what happened here yesterday. I am still trying to catch up with it all. Our Democratic base is being run off this board.

"The Southern oligarchy which has still today so very much power in Washington, and therefore some power in the world, was created by my labor and my sweat and the violation of my women and the murder of my children. This in the land of the free, the home of the brave.”

I want to thank Obama,

And it may be that my passions show a little bit more, just because I have been around this track now for a while.

Let it out. You have so many miles before you sleep.

William769

(55,147 posts)

3. And he didn't even have to hire an ambassador to do it!

Reply to sheshe2 (Original post)

Mon Aug 10, 2015, 07:40 PM

Aug 2015

Go figure.

sheshe2

(83,878 posts)

4. Daymn...

Reply to William769 (Reply #3)

Mon Aug 10, 2015, 07:49 PM

Aug 2015

Have I told you recently that I luv ya!

Thank you for your comment, spot on.

2pooped2pop

(5,420 posts)

5. yeah he's been so quick to get on it.

Reply to sheshe2 (Original post)

Mon Aug 10, 2015, 09:20 PM

Aug 2015

maybe he just needed a bow down message?

kelliekat44

(7,759 posts)

6. He's been on it since day one. It's just that few wanted to hear it or acknowledge it. nt

Reply to 2pooped2pop (Reply #5)

Mon Aug 10, 2015, 10:33 PM

Aug 2015

freshwest

(53,661 posts)

7. +1. Been on it since he learned to walk and talk. And he can't walk away from it... n/t

Reply to kelliekat44 (Reply #6)

Mon Aug 10, 2015, 10:59 PM

Aug 2015

2pooped2pop

(5,420 posts)

8. what changes has he managed in his 7 years as president

Reply to kelliekat44 (Reply #6)

Tue Aug 11, 2015, 12:04 AM

Aug 2015

that has changed the way the police treat blacks?

seems that the proposal to put cameras on cops should have come about during year one. Maybe it did and I just didn't hear about it.

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