Jolted by Deaths, Obama Found His Voice on Race |
Jolted by Deaths, Obama Found His Voice on Race
The New York Times
2017-01-15
Michael D. Shear, White House Correspondent
Yamiche Alcindor, National Reporter
Tensions across the country prompted the president to abandon his early reticence on race again and again.
WASHINGTON — Only weeks after 70 million Americans chose a black man for president, shattering a racial barrier that had stood for the entirety of the nation’s 232-year history, no one in the White House, especially the man in the Oval Office, wanted to talk about race.
President Obama had made a pragmatic calculation in January 2009, as the financial crisis drove communities across the United States toward economic collapse. Whatever he did for African-Americans, whose neighborhoods were suffering more than others, he would not describe as efforts to specifically help Black America.
Mr. Obama made the decision knowing how powerfully his election had raised the hopes of African-Americans — and knowing that no matter what he did, it would not be seen as enough.
“I remember thinking, ‘They are going to hate us one day,’” said Melody Barnes, who is black and served as Mr. Obama’s first domestic policy adviser, recalling her sadness when she stood in an auditorium in those early months as a crowd cheered for the success of the new president. “I knew that we couldn’t do everything that people wanted to meet those expectations.”…
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Tags: Michael D. Shear, Michael Shear, New York Times, The New York Times, Yamiche Alcindor