Obama in UK: Ferguson Shows U.S. Still Has ‘Discrimination’ — ‘Even with a Black President’

While speaking to students in London on Saturday, President Obama took a shot at America's race relations. "There’s still discrimination in aspects of American life, even with a black president," Obama told Brits, pointing specifically to the Michael Brown incident in Ferguson as proof. 

“...saying I’m most familiar with American civil rights movement. You had abolitionist in the 1700s who were fighting against slavery and for a hundred years build a movement that eventually will led to a civil war and be amendments to our Constitution that ended slavery and called for equal protection under the law. It then took another hundred years for those rights that has been tried in the constitution to actually be affirmed to the civil rights act of 1964 and the voting rights act of 1964. 

And then, it’s taken another 50 years to try to make sure that those rights are realized. And — and they’re still not fully realized. There’s still discrimination in aspects of American life, even with a black president. And in fact, one of the dangers has been that by electing a black president people have then said, ‘Well there must be no problems at all.’ And obviously, you see Ferguson and some of the issues that we’ve seen in the criminal justice system indicating the degree to which that was always false. 

So, does that mean that all the work that was done along the way was worthless? No, of course not. But it does mean that — if — if any of you begin to work on an issue that you care deeply about don’t be disappointed if in a year out things haven’t been completely solved. Don’t give up and succumb to cynicism if after five years poverty has not been eradicated and prejudice is still out there somewhere and we haven’t resolved all of the steps we need to take to the reverse climate change. It’s ok. 

Dr. King said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’ And — and it doesn’t bend on its own it bends because we pull it in that direction, but it — it requires a series of — of generations, working, building off of what the previous one has done. And so as president, I think about in those ways. 

I — I consider myself a runner, and I run my leg of the race, but then I’ve got a baton and I’m passing it on to the next person and hopefully they’re running in the right direction, as opposed to the wrong direction and hopefully they don’t drop the baton and — and then they go and then they pass it on to somebody else. And that’s why I think you’ve got to think about change generally. OK. All right. It is a young woman’s turn.”