The 44th commander-in-chief told Anderson Cooper in a CNN special Monday that many race problems are a reflection of the US not having "fully reconciled with our history."
Comment: Many of today's race problems are caused by individuals not reconciled with contemporary reality; not everything can or should be seen in the narrow scope of race relations - despite what proponents of critical race theory would have you believe.
He said it was "hard for the majority" of white Americans "to recognize you can be proud of this country and its traditions and its history and our forefathers and yet, it is also true that this terrible stuff happened."
"The vestiges of that linger and continue," Obama said.
The Democrat said that his political opponents would often "not only block that story but try to exploit it for their own political gain."
Comment: Obama is projecting Big Time here. It is the Dems and progressives that have been exploiting the radical left movement for their own political advantage...
"I also think that there are certain right-wing media venues ... that monetize and capitalize on stoking the fear and resentment of a White population that is witnessing a changing America and seeing demographic changes," he said, without identifying specific outlets.
Comment: More projection: Groups like BLM, Antifa and other far left groups thrive on their resentment of others - and use this hysteria in their attempts to accrue more power for themselves. They are the pawns of the political elite who have been using the activists as a kind of forward team or proxy force of woke policies; a camouflage for a decidedly illiberal agenda.
They "do everything they can to give people a sense that their way of life is threatened and that people are trying to take advantage of them," Obama told Cooper.
"And you're seeing it right now," he said during the AC360 special, "Barack Obama on Fatherhood, Leadership and Legacy."
The former president said "siloing of the media" — "so you don't have just Walter Cronkite delivering the news, but you have 1,000 different venues" — has "contributed to that sense that we don't have anything in common."
Comment: So "diversity" is only appropriate when everyone kowtows to the same radical left ideology and believes the same thing eh?
"We occupy different worlds. And it becomes that much more difficult for us to hear each other, see each other," Obama said of the sharp divisions in the US.
Comment: He's got that right - but who is really responsible for this development??
He ripped Republicans for ignoring major issues like the economy and climate change to instead suggest that "the biggest single most important issue ... right now is critical race theory."
"Who knew that was the threat to our republic?" he said with a chuckle.
Comment: Critical race theory has become "the biggest single most important issue" among many because Obama and Co. have made it so and needs to be addressed for all the damage it has become responsible for.
Critical race theory dictates that race is an underlying dynamic of all human interaction and views the human experience as a constant power struggle between the races, often with a focus on "white privilege."
Still, he also warned that "a lot of the dangers of cancel culture" are that we are "just going to be condemning people all the time."
Comment: Too little too late, Barry.
Obama said that his daughters — Sasha, 19, and Malia, 22 — tell him how "sometimes among their peer group or in college campuses you'll see folks going overboard."
He said they have to rebel against that by realizing that "we don't expect everybody to be perfect."
"We don't expect everybody to be politically correct all the time. But we are going to call out institutions or individuals if they are being cruel, if they are, you know, discriminating against people," he said.
Comment: Define "discrimination"!
The former president said seeing his daughters participate in Black Lives Matter protests after George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis last year gave him a "great source of my optimism."
"My daughters are so much wiser and more sophisticated and gifted than I was at their age," Obama said with a laugh.
"When people talk about ... how do I think about my legacy, you know, part of it is the kids who were raised during the eight years that I was president.
"There are a bunch of basic assumptions they make about what the country can and should be that I think are still sticking. They still believe it. And they're willing to work for it," he said.
"That's among not just my daughters, but among their white friends," he said.
Reader Comments
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." Winston Churchill
I do not envy people like this. Amazes me how many are blind to it.
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