In Twilight of Term, Obama Finds More Urgent Voice on RacePosted in Articles, Barack Obama, Media Archive, Politics/Public Policy, United States on 2015-05-12 15:14Z by Steven |
In Twilight of Term, Obama Finds More Urgent Voice on Race
Bloomberg News
2015-05-11
Mike Dorning, White House Correspondent
Angela Greiling Keane, White House Correspondent
Polls show racial polarization in the U.S. is at the highest in decades.
With his time in office waning, President Obama is speaking out on race and poverty in increasingly blunt terms as violent protests in U.S. cities highlight the unrealized promise of his election.
Searing images of a burning CVS pharmacy in Baltimore and armored vehicles arrayed along the streets of Ferguson, Mo., are a grim contrast to the elated, multiracial crowd celebrating in Chicago’s Grant Park on the warm November night in 2008 after the nation elected its first black president.
Many of the hopes of that night haven’t been fulfilled. Polls show racial polarization in the U.S. is at the highest in decades. Poverty is higher among Americans in general and blacks in particular. The gap between rich and poor has grown.
A president who throughout his two terms has been restrained in addressing racial controversies now is raising his voice and declaring he’ll make lifting up impoverished communities and the young men within them the cause of his post-presidency years…
…Obama, 53, began his career as a community organizer working on economic issues in impoverished black neighborhoods on Chicago’s South Side. His life story as the child of a mixed-race marriage contributed to his political rise. A speech on race relations, titled “A More Perfect Union,” was a high point in his 2008 campaign.
Yet as president, with few exceptions, Obama has acted cautiously in addressing race…
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