Obama Says Racism in U.S. Surfaces in ‘Violent Opposition’ to Programs to Help Minorities

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In an exit interview on race relations during his two terms, President Obama said racism is evident to him when Americans suddenly voice opposition to long-standing federal programs “as soon as African-Americans or Latinos are interested in availing themselves” of the benefits.

“I’m careful not to attribute any particular resistance or slight or opposition to race,” Mr. Obama said in the interview published Tuesday in The Atlantic.

Then he added, “But what I do believe is that if somebody didn’t have a problem with their daddy being employed by the federal government, and didn’t have a problem with the Tennessee Valley Authority electrifying certain communities, and didn’t have a problem with the interstate highway system being built, and didn’t have a problem with the GI Bill, and didn’t have a problem with the [Federal Housing Administration] subsidizing the suburbanization of America, and that all helped you build wealth and create a middle class — and then suddenly as soon as African-Americans or Latinos are interested in availing themselves of those same mechanisms as ladders into the middle class, you now have a violent opposition to them — then I think you at least have to ask yourself the question of how consistent you are, and what’s different, and what’s changed.”

After eight years in office, the nation’s first black president said he’s not sure how much of the opposition to him by Republicans can be attributed to racism, and how much of it was simply partisanship.

 

READ MORE HERE: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/dec/13/obama-says-racism-us-surfaces-violent-opposition-p/