Barack Obama taking on Republican
presidential candidates
for trying to downplay racial inequality
in the United States.
The former president
calling on Republicans to present, quote,
an honest
accounting of our past and our present
If somebody is not
proposing both acknowledging
and proposing elements that say,
no, we can't just ignore all that
and pretend as if everything's
equal and fair,
we actually have to walk the walk
and not just talk the talk.
If they're not doing that,
then I think people
are rightly skeptical.
There may come a time
where there's somebody
in the Republican Party
that is more serious
about actually addressing
some of the
deep inequality
that still exists in our society
that tracks race
and as a consequence
of our racial history.
And if that happens,
I think that would be fantastic.
I haven't yet seen it.
Was the former president
responding in an interview
with David
Axelrod on The X-Files
to a question about comments,
Republican presidential candidate
Senator Tim
Scott has made
a core part of his campaign.
He said this on The View recently
One of the reasons why I'm on the show
is because of the comments
that were made, frankly,
on this show, that the only way
for a young
African-American kid
to be successful in this country
is to be the exception and not the rule.
That is a dangerous,
offensive,
disgusting message
to send to our young people today,
that the only way to succeed
is by being the exception
I will tell you that
if my life is the exception,
I can't imagine.
I think it is, but it's not actually
right.
Conversation continued.
So so let's have it here now.
Jokinen is a Republican strategist
and the former U.S.
Senate candidate from New York.
Keisha Lance
Bottoms is the former mayor of Atlanta.
And a former senior adviser
to President Biden.
Joe, you're here with me.
So let me start with you.
Just to put some numbers around
this, Sunny Hostin,
who was there with Senator Scott,
responded with some numbers as well.
But just take the median income
for black households in America.
These are the latest numbers
in the Census Bureau.
$48,000 just about for white households.
$74,000 now,
obviously, that's just one number.
Right.
And I try to answer everything with it.
But while Senator Scott
rightly celebrates
his story, his background.
Are you comfortable
saying that yesterday's
exception is today's rule,
or does the former president
have a point?
Well, look,
I think yesterday's
exception is today's rule.
The problem with that
is that today's rule is still less
than what people deserve,
given the founding documents
of this nation.
And so, yes,
I think what we end up
having is what I call a love language
disconnect in our politics,
which is that
you have people saying the same thing
differently.
I think every Republican,
including Senator
Scott, would agree
with the notion
that there is generational neglect
that occurs in minority communities.
You look right here in New York City.
$40 billion behind in public housing.
You look right here in New York City,
we have public schools today
more segregated
in the height of Jim Crow.
Republicans call that
a political systemic problem.
I think Democrats call that a systemic
racial problem.
I think all of them
are referring to the same thing.
And I think what Republicans
have an issue
with is the syntax around
the phrase systemic racism,
which has a connotation
that America
in and of itself is irredeemably racist.
And I think that is
what people push back on
not on the actual reality
that no one should be able to deny
that racism is real,
that we still have work to do.
And I think there's a coalition
of Americans
across the political spectrum
that can coalesce around that point.
Mayor Bottoms,
Yeah.
You know,
I think it's a necessary conversation.
I think that when people attempt
to erase history
and act
as if we don't still have issues
that are based on race in this country,
then it is problematic
no matter what your party affiliation.
I think what President
Obama said was spot on.
There are issues
that are based in systemic issues,
whether it be generational poverty,
whether it be life expectancy,
whether it be
high school graduation
rates, incarceration rates.
There are all huge gaps
between African-Americans
and white Americans.
With that data.
And that's a conversation
that we all need to have
and we can have in Georgia.
I remember
Republican Governor Nathan Deal
push for it with very progressive
criminal justice reform.
This was a Southern Republican governor.
So it can be done.
We just have to have the will and people,
no matter their party
affiliation, needs
to know
that it's good
for the country as a whole.
And, you know, yesterday's exception,
today's rule, Joe,
just to make sure we kind of
get to the bottom of it, here's
another stat.
Black college
students, lower six year completion
for any type of
degree or certificate
than any other racial or ethnic group.
So I understand
the point of it's way better than it was.
Yes.
But yesterday's
exception being today's rule.
That doesn't seem fair either.
Well, look,
I think there is missing context
from what Senator Scott is saying.
And I think what ends up happening
is that we layer
our own prejudices
on the words of others, particularly
when we disagree with them politically.
And so I would say, yes,
we can talk about the fact
that right there in Baltimore
we've got 23 different schools.
Not a single black child is proficient
in math or reading.
We can talk about the fact
that all across this country,
in Syracuse, New York,
the epicenter for child
poverty per capita in this country.
So, yes,
we have real racial inequality
in this country.
I think, again,
we're really dealing with party orthodoxy
where in the confines
of a political election,
we get comfort food from the masses,
from both political parties
that don't want to have a true reckoning
with how their own policies
and their own rhetoric prevents
us from having the real conversation.
No times I went out to this point,
you know, just talk
about what has happened.
Obviously, on the other side
of the political spectrum.
You heard Senator Scott
and oversimplifying
and I
want to put words in your mouth, but
perhaps oversimplifying
how some Republicans may see it
on the other side.
It happens as well.
And the former
president talked about that.
He criticized
how some Democrats
are talking about race issues,
saying they're alienating
some potential allies.
Here's what he said.
We have tended
at times on the progressive side
to tip into kind of a scolding
social etiquette, police and virtue
signaling.
Our knee jerk assumption is
if somebody doesn't say something
the exact right way,
that we not only think it's our job
to correct them and
and scold them,
but we are making a judgment
about their character
and their intentions.
And I think that does make
people feel under assault.
Mayor Bottoms, this study,
Pew Support
Pew I'm sorry, survey came out of support
for Black Lives Matter
a 51% say they support the movement
it was 67% in June of 2020.
That's a that's a that's a huge plunge.
Do you agree
with what the former president is saying
Well I think that any time
you have absolutes
that there is a danger
you have to give people the opportunity
to make mistakes.
We're human.
We will all make mistakes.
And I think that's
what President Obama was speaking to.
It doesn't mean that
you give people license to be hateful
and to be disrespectful.
But if someone says you know,
I don't understand,
I want to know better,
I want to do better,
I want to understand more,
then I think we it's incumbent
upon all of us to give people that grace
and to be forgiving of people.
I think that's what
the civil rights movement was all about.
When you look at what Dr.
Martin Luther
King Junior worked towards,
it was about reconciliation
and forgiveness.
And I don't think that we
I think there's still an opportunity
for that
in our country,
no matter your party affiliation.
All right. Well, thank you both.
I really appreciate your time.
And you can listen to more
of that interview
with former President Obama
on the X-Files podcast.
And that is out now
to hear the full conversation