On June 22nd, President Obama, while being interviewed on a local radio show, commented on the issue of race in America and said, “what is also true is that the legacy of slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination in almost every institution of our lives – you know, that casts a long shadow. And that’s still part of our DNA that’s passed on. We’re not cured of it. Racism. We are not cured of it. And it’s not just a matter of it not being polite to say ‘nigger’ in public. That’s not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It’s not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don’t overnight completely erase everything that happened 2[00]-300 years prior.”
Soon after a firestorm raged over his use of the N-word. But a more telling story is what he said before the N-word comment, that, “I always tell young people in particular: Do not say that nothing’s changed when it comes to race in America… It is incontrovertible that race relations have improved significantly during my lifetime and yours, and that opportunities have opened up, and that attitudes have changed. That is a fact.”
In March President Obama in his speech at the 50th Anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march he noted that “there are places and moments in America where this nation’s destiny has been decided… Selma is such a place. In one afternoon 50 years ago, so much of our turbulent history – the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war; the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow; the death of four little girls in Birmingham; and the dream of a Baptist preacher – all that history met on this bridge. It was not a clash of armies, but a clash of wills; a contest to determine the true meaning of America. And… the idea of a just America and a fair America, an inclusive America, and a generous America – that idea ultimately triumphed.”
The President asked, “What greater expression of faith in the American experiment than this…, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with [the] creed written into our founding documents: ‘We the People…in order to form a more perfect union [and] We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'”
The instinct that moved those across the Edmund Pettus Bridge, the President said, was “the same instinct that moved patriots to choose revolution over tyranny. … It’s the idea held by generations of citizens who believed that… this country requires more than singing its praises or avoiding uncomfortable truths. It requires… the willingness to speak out for what is right, to shake up the status quo. That’s America. That’s what makes us unique. That’s what cements our reputation as a beacon of opportunity… And the change these men and women wrought is visible here today in the presence of African Americans who run boardrooms, who sit on the bench, who serve in elected office from small towns… all the way to the Oval Office. Because of what they did, the doors of opportunity swung open not just for black folks, but for every American.”
The President explained in the June interview, “So what I tried to describe in the Selma speech that I gave, commemorating the march there, was, again, a notion that progress is real, and we have to take hope from that progress. But what is also real is that the march isn’t over, and the work is not yet completed. And then our job is to try in very concrete ways to figure out, what more can we do?”
It is more than short sided to constantly assert America has not changed. “To deny this progress” the President said, “this hard-won progress – our progress – would be to rob us of our own agency, our own capacity, our responsibility to do what we can to make America better.” At the feet of the famous bridge, he said, “What happened in Ferguson may not be unique, but it’s no longer endemic. It’s no longer sanctioned by law or by custom. And before the Civil Rights Movement, it most surely was.” In explaining why he focuses on the cases of police shootings of young Black men, the President said in the June interview, it was not to attack the police, but to assert “what happens to those kids matters [and] I’m confident that my children and my grandchildren are going to live a better life if those kids also have opportunity.”
American history, he explained, has always been one of social and individual progress towards our shared ideals. For 246 years (1619-1865), slavery was on the American shores. For 100 years (1865 to 1965) Jim Crow Apartheid conditions reigned in America. But realize that 246 years of slavery and racism and 100 years of legal Jim Crow was stripped from the law in only 14 years (1954-1968). As the President observed in the June interview, “That’s where we have to feel hopeful, rather than just say that nothing’s changed – we have to say, ‘Wow, we’ve actually made significant progress over the last 50 years.'” In 1968 a Black man could not reside in a white neighborhood, 40 years later a Black man resides in the White House. As the President said of America, America is better than she was and with each generation she becomes better. Few nations can match that.
Dr. Arthur Garrison is an assistant professor of criminal justice at Kutztown University. This piece is the work of Dr. Garrison and does not reflect the opinions of Kutztown University or its faculty, staff, students or alumni.