Obama: I Have Tried to Get Americans ‘to Understand the Difficult Legacy of Race’

EXCERPT:

REPORTER: “But when you look back on your presidency and consider race relations, what do you hope your legacy will be? How do you think the shootings in Dallas and the high profile shootings by police and other events will shape the way your presidency is remembered?”
OBAMA: “I do want to leave legacy questions to the history books. What I can do, maybe this is a fair response to your question, is to say how I’ve tried to lead the country on this issue. More than anything, what I hope is that my voice has tried to get all of us as Americans to understand the difficult legacy of race. To encourage people to listen to each other. To recognize that you know, the legacy of slavery and Jim Crow and discrimination didn’t suddenly vanish with the passage of the Civil Rights Act or voting rights act or the election of Barack Obama, that things have gotten better. Substantially better. But that we’ve still got a lot more work to do. And that as was the case with the police task force that we set up that I’ve tried to encourage people to come up with practical concrete solutions that can reduce, if not eliminate, the problems of racial bias. And if my voice has been true and positive, then my hope would be that it may not fix everything right away. But it surfaces problems, it frames them, allows us to wrestle with these issues. And try to come up with practical solutions and that that perspective may lead to continued improvement so that not just Malia and Sasha, but their children can experience a country that is more just. ..."