Outgoing President Barack Obama, in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt, mentioned how his ‘hope and change’ campaign may have been “naive” and put “unrealistic expectations” in the minds of Americans. Here is a transcript of the interview segment:
Obama: “…That pride is something that was a positive…any talk of it being a post-racial America, after my election, was unrealistic.”
“That talk was naïve, but I think it created some problems down the road. Because two things happened, number one, it means that African Americans and other minority groups might have felt as if the problems built up over centuries, a wealth gap, an education gap, significant poverty, that those things could be addressed overnight.”
“On the other hand, some white voters who sincerely were glad to see that the country have made this breakthrough, there was also maybe an unrealistic notion that somehow, ‘discrimination is over.’ ”
Holt: “But was there a third group that just didn’t want a black president?”
Obama: “Well, undoubtedly so, there’s no doubt about that, but in the same way, you wouldn’t expect, in a four year span and an eight year span to undo the entire legacy of race in America, social attitudes don’t transform in four years or eight years, it happens over generations, so sure there is residual racial prejudice in society.”
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