BARACK OBAMA: 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.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
MARTY NESBTT: 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?
MICHELE NORRIS: 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?
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
AL SHARPTON: 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.
♪ (TUNE CONCLUDES) ♪
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
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.
-(INDISTINCT CHATTER) -(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKING)
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.
JOHN LEWIS: 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?
MICHAEL DYSON: 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.
BARACK: 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.
(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)
REPORTER: 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.
REPORTER: 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.
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
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.
ANNOUNCER: Madam Speaker,
the President of the United States.
MICHELE: 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.
DAVID REMNICK: 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."
TA-NEHISI COATES: This does not require
a Mitch McConnell or John Boehner,
or Paul Ryan to be personally racist.
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?
♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
TA-NEHISI: 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? -BARACK: You may.
ANN COMPTON: 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.
BARACK: 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.
REPORTER: 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?
BARACK: 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.
JAMES CROWLEY: 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.
KEN MACK: 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...
HENRY GATES JR.: 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.
MICHAEL: 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.
HENRY: 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.
(ALL CHUCKLE)
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.
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
REPORTER: They're vocal.
Say no! Just say no!
REPORTER: They're impassioned.
We want you to represent us as the majority.
REPORTER: And they've got everyone
talking about health reform.
Now, this led us to ask questions.
REPORTER: 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.
(CROWD CLAMORS)
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.
DAVID: ...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 illegal 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.
REPORTER: 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.
(CHEERS)
JELANI COBB: 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.
BARACK: Some of people's concerns
have grown out of bogus claims,
spread by those whose only agenda
is to kill 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 kill 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.
(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)
Now.
There are also those who claim that our reform efforts
would insure illegal immigrants.
This, too, is false.
The reforms-- the reforms I'm proposing
would not apply to those who are here illegally.
(CROWD INDISTINCT CHATTER)
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 were entitled to do that to him.
SHERRILYN IFILL: 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.
VALERIE: 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."
SHERRILYN: 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?
CROWD: (CHANTING) Kill the bill! Kill the bill!
JOHN BOEHNER: This healthcare bill
will ruin our country. It's time to stop him.
REPORTER 1: 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.
REPORTER 2: 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.
REPORTER 3: Around the Capitol today,
protesters gather to cheer on the plan's opponents...
CROWD: (CHANTING) Kill the bill!
REPORTER 3: ...and to jeer Democratic leaders.
(CROWD CHEERS)
JOHN: As we start walking,
the Democratic members, I will never forget it.
(CROWD CHEERS, CLAMORS)
JOHN LEWIS: This is the 100th anniversary
of the march across the bridge in Selma.
(CROWD CHEERING)
JOHN: And it reminded me.
There were people yelling using the N-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.
CROWD: (CHANTING) Kill the bill! Kill the bill!
JOHN LEWIS: And we were determined.
We walked on the floor,
we cast our votes,
-and we passed the bill. -ANNOUNCER: That's it.
(ALL APPLAUD)
DAVID: 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?
DAVID: 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."
MICHAEL: 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.
MICHAEL: 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.
KEN: 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 this--
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!
(CHEERS, APPLAUDS)
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.
VALERIE: And they did it in interesting ways
through the way that they used
the architecture of the White House.
♪ ("SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED, I'M YOURS" BY STEVIE WONDER) ♪
♪ Oh, yeah, baby ♪
♪ Like a fool I went And stayed too long ♪
VALERIE: The people that they brought inside the building.
♪ How does a bastard orphan ♪
♪ Son of a whore And a Scotsman... ♪
VALERIE: Using programs around culture...
♪ Ain't gonna let nobody Turn me around ♪
VALERIE: ...to help America see their country
and to see each other in an interesting way.
-Yeah! -(CROWD APPLAUDS)
-All right. -Yeah!
VALERIE: 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.
TA-NEHISI: 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.
TA-NEHISI: ...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.
VALERIE: 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.
DAVID: 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.
REPORTER: 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 racist.
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 four to five years ago today
that my father's funeral was held.
I was a young girl at the age of 17
when my father was murdered
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
-AUDIENCE MEMBER: Right. -...is really about poor people.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: 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 murder, 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?
KEN: 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.
(CROWD APPLAUDS)
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.
GLENN BECK: 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!
REPORTER: Roughly 87,000 people
gathered here at this event today,
that's the largest gathering here on the mall
since President Obama was inaugurated.
SARAH PALIN: It is so humbling to get
to be here with you today patriots.
You who are motivated, and engaged and concerned.
REPORTER: 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.
REPORTER: Several Tea Party groups have sparked criticism
for using racist slurs and images
at marches around the country.
Organizers say each group sets its own agenda.
REPORTER 2: 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?
REPORTER: For the first time 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.
BARACK: 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.
JELANI: Time and time again, he's trying to find
some sort of middle ground,
only to realize that there is no middle ground.
-STAFF MEMBER: Hello there, sir. -How are you?
STAFF MEMBER: Good to see you this morning.
JELANI: 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. -AUDIENCE MEMBER: 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.
DONALD TRUMP ENTREPRENEUR
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 racist 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.
♪ (MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
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 the 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.
(CROWD CHUCKLING)
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.
DAVID: 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.
KEEGAN KEY: 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 on Mad TV,
the only thing I could really wrap my head around
was trying to figure out how to impersonate him.
-(CROWD CHUCKLING) -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.
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 shit, you know?
That goes for everybody,
including members of the Tea Party.
Don't even get me started
on these motherfuckers 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 motherfuckers gonna say no
before I can even suggest some shit.
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.
REPORTER: 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.
REPORTER: 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 gun.
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.
REPORTER 1: Was it self-defense,
or an unjustified overreaction?
That's the central question raised by the recent shooting
of a 17-year-old teenager in Florida by a member
of a neighborhood watch group.
REPORTER 2: Police got here within a minute
and found Trayvon Martin shot dead.
REPORTER 3: This shooter, 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.
INTERVIEWER: If your son had been white,
do you think he would have been shot and killed that day?
-No. -Arrest Zimmerman now.
REPORTER 4: Outrage over the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin
is spreading now around the country.
REPORTER 5: 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.
-Yes. -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.
BRODERICK JOHNSON: 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.
CHARLAMAGNE: 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.
♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
The chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois,
Mr. Rush, for five minutes
BOBBY RUSH: 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...
GREGG HARPER: Member will-- The member will sustain.
-...these words. -(GAVEL POUNDS)
-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!
BOBBY: 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!
VALERIE JARRETT: President Obama was acutely aware
of the frustrations, and many quarters
that wanted him to be much more
forward-leaning and confrontational.
SHERRILYN: 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.
JELANI: 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 killed.
HENRY: 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 Negro.
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.
(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)
♪ (MUSIC FADES) ♪
CROWD: Four more years! Four more years!
BARRACK: 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.
♪ (UPLIFTING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
REPORTER 6: 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.
REPORTER 7: 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.
REPORTER 8: A lot of African Americans
in this country are getting flat-out crushed
in this economy.
REPORTER 9: 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?
(CROWD CHEERING)
NEWS ANCHOR: 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.
-♪ (UPLIFTING MUSIC FADES) ♪ -(CROWD CHEERING, CHANTING)
Four more years! Four more years!
Four more years...
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.
♪ (INSPIRING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, the re-elected President
of the United States of America.
(CROWD CHEERS)
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.
(CAMERAS SHUTTER CLICKING)
And I'm really proud of that.
I'm really proud of all of you.
And...
(CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS)
-(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING) -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.
MICHELLE: 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.
♪ (INSPIRING MUSIC FADES) ♪
REPORTER: Connecticut State Police and SWAT teams
are now responding to a school shooting
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.
BARACK: 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.
(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING)
♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
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 massacre,
you know, of children.
And the country is paralyzed in its ability
to do anything about it.
REPORTER: A poignant reminder today
of the toll that gun 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 killed in a random shooting just a week
after performing at the president's inauguration.
I'm Hadiya from year 2015.
She was shot and killed 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.
MARTY: It made us all feel the need for...
fixing some of these deeply rooted problems.
BARACK: A few months ago,
in response to too many tragedies,
this country took up the cause of protecting
more of our people from gun 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 gun 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.
♪ (MELANCHOLIC MUSIC FADES) ♪
CLERK: 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.
-♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪ -(MOB CLAMORING)
Shooting 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!
REPORTER: 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!
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
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.
(MOB CLAMORING)
REPORTER: 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.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC FADES) ♪
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.
-(CAMERA SHUTTERS CLICKING) -You know...
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
BARACK: ...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...
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
BARACK: ...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.
(MOB CHANTS)
BARACK: I think it's understandable
that there have been demonstrations,
and vigils and protests.
Not one more!
BARACK: 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?
ANTHONY PETERSON: 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 are 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.
-(CROWD LAUGHING) -(LAUGHS)
That's true.
♪ (INSPIRING MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
DAVID: 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.
MICHELLE: 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.
-(CROWD CHEERS APPLAUDS) -Good job. Good job.
I'm proud of you, man.
BRODERICK: 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.
♪ (INSPIRING MUSIC FADES) ♪
OBAMA: 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.
(CROWD APPLAUDS)
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
CROWD: (CHANTING) No justice, no peace!
-No justice, no peace! -No justice, no peace!
REPORTER 1: Tensions are high after an unarmed teenager
was shot dead by a police officer.
REPORTER 2: 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?
LEZLEY MCSPADDEN: 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.
CROWD: (CHANTING) No justice, no peace. No justice, no peace!
DERAY MCKESSON: 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. Hands up. -Don't shoot! Don't shoot!
DERAY: It was a movement born of the police
killing people on the street,
that is we got people in the street,
it's what kept people in the street.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
It was organic, and the protest spread organically
across the country.
-Sixteen shots. Sixteen shots. -Sixteen shots. Sixteen shots.
REPORTER: Across the country this weekend,
Americans taking to the streets
over what has become 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.
♪ (TENSE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
ELIZABETH: 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.
(MOB CLAMORING)
DERAY: 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 killing people in your city,
we don't have to bring it there,
like, we're just highlighting this,
like we didn't do this."
ELIZABETH: 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.
NEWS ANCHOR: You didn't start this.
This problem didn't begin under your watch.
This is incredibly persistent and pervasive.
-Yeah. -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.
REPORTER 1: 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.
REPORTER 2: The report also detailing racist 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.
BARACK: If Selma taught us anything,
it's that our work is never done.
CROWD: No racist 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.
CROWD: I am Eric Garner.
I am Eric Garner.
CORNEL: 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.
ALL: No more.
REPORTER: 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 killed last weekend
running from his car by the white police officer
who pulled him over in South Carolina.
CROWDS: (CHANTS) 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!
REPORTER 1: This morning another case of the possible use
of excessive force by police against a Black suspect.
REPORTER 2: That suspect Freddie Gray would end up
with a severed spine, he would later die.
BOBBY: 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?
HENRY: 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.
JELANI: 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 Glock,
and murders nine people in the church.
In the midst of the shooting 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 murdered 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 threat to our democracy and our ideals.
SHERRILYN: 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.
JUDGE: You are representing the family of Ethel Lance,
-is that correct? -NADINE COLLIER: Yes.
JUDGE: And you are whom, ma'am?
-NADINE: The daughter. -JUDGE: The daughter.
I'm listening.
NADINE: 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.
MICHAEL: 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.
(CROWD APPLAUDS)
JOHN: 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.
BARACK: We do not know whether the killer 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.
(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yes, sir!
He didn't know he was being used by God.
(ALL CHEER, APPLAUD)
BARACK: Blinded by hatred, the alleged killer
could not see the grace
surrounding Reverend Pinckney,
and that bible study group.
CROWD: Amen.
The light of love
that shown as they opened the church doors
-and invited a stranger... -CROWD: Yeah.
...to join in their prayer circle.
CROWD: Yes, sir!
BARACK: 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.
BARACK: 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...
AUDIENCE MEMBER: That's right.
BARACK: ...is what's called upon right now, I think.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Yeah.
If we can find that grace,
-anything is possible. -Yeah, come on!
If we can tap that grace,
everything can change.
Amazing grace.
♪ (SINGING "AMAZING GRACE") ♪
♪ Amazing grace ♪
♪ How sweet the sound ♪
♪ That saved ♪
♪ A wretch like me ♪
♪ I once ♪
♪ Was lost ♪
♪ But now ♪
♪ I'm found ♪
♪ Was blind ♪
♪ But now ♪
♪ I see ♪
SHERRILYN: There's a lot that can't be said
about what that moment, what this killing 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.
MICHAEL: 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.
MARTY: 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.
AUDIENCE MEMBER: 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.
-(CROWD CHEERING) -♪ (TUNE FADES) ♪
DAVID: 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!
REPORTER: What do you think of Donald Trump?
Well, I think that he...
is a great publicity seeker.
Build that wall.
REPORTER: Do you think he's running out of steam?
I mean, do you think he's gonna disappear?
You know, 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.
(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)
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.
TA-NEHISI: 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.
(CROWD CLAMORS)
BARACK: 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!
BARACK: ...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.
♪ (MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JELANI: 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.
♪ (MUSIC CONTINUES) ♪
TA-NEHISI: 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.
(CROWD CHEERS, APPLAUDS)
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.
(CROWD CHEERING)
That was not John Philip Sousa right there.
(CROWD CHUCKLES)
This is our final musical evening
as President and First Lady.
CROWD: Aw!
I know.
(CROWD CHUCKLES)
It's gonna be all right.
(CROWD CHUCKLES)
It became very clear that this was on the one hand
a recognition of African American contributions
to American musical culture.
♪ (SONG ENDS ABRUPTLY) ♪
Give it up, ladies and gentlemen for De La Soul.
We love you, Mr. President, Mrs. President.
JELANI: But another sense, it was really a punctuation
for what the Obamas had represented
in the United States for the previous eight years.
ELIZABETH ALEXANDER: 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.
(INDISTINCT CHATTER)
ELIZABETH: 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!
TA-NEHISI: 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.
MARTY: To me,
the most important thing is that Barack Obama won,
and Barack Obama won twice.
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDING)
MARTY: 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.
CROWD: (CHANTING) Four more years!
-Four more years! -BARACK: I can't do that.
CROWD: Four more years! Four more years!
-(LAUGHS) -CROWD: Four more years! Four more years!
AUDIENCE MEMBER: 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...
(CROWD CHEERING)
...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.
(CROWD CHEERING)
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.
So you see,
that's what our democracy demands.
♪ (MUSICAL SOUND WAVE) ♪
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...
(CROWD CHEERING, APPLAUDS)
...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 slaves 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.
(CROWD CHEERING AND APPLAUDING)
BARACK: Yes, we did.
Yes, we can.
Thank you, God bless you.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
Thank you.
♪ (TUNE CONCLUDES) ♪
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪