President Obama Grants 153 Commutations and 78 Pardons to Individuals Deserving of a Second Chance:
I liked this graph:
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Part of what’s been difficult though, during my presidency, is untangling the degree to which some of these issues are because of race and some of these issues being reflective of just a coarsening of the political culture and a sharpening of the political divides. Because I do remember watching Bill Clinton get impeached and Hillary Clinton being accused of killing Vince Foster. And if you ask them, I’m sure they would say, ‘No, actually what you’re experiencing is not because you’re black, it’s because you’re a Democrat.’ And right around the beginning of Bill Clinton’s presidency and what corresponds with the rise of right-wing media, a lot of the old boundaries and rules of civility just broke down.
Now, one way to think about this is that issues of race and issues of political philosophy have always been entangled, and it’s hard to draw them out. Right? So, when I think about the Tea Party or conservatives who’ve opposed my agenda, I have no doubt that there are those who oppose my agenda because they have a coherent and sincere view about the role of the federal government relative to the state governments; they believe that an overreaching federal power that is taxing, regulating, redistributing is contrary to the vision of freedom that the founders intended; and they can believe those things independent of race.
Having said that, a rudimentary knowledge of American history tells you that the relationship between the federal government and the states was very much mixed up with attitudes towards slavery, attitudes towards Jim Crow, attitudes towards anti-poverty programs and who benefitted and who didn’t. And so I’m careful not to attribute any particular resistance, slight, opposition to race. 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 G.I. Bill, and didn’t have a problem with the FHA 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, what’s changed.
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– Barack Obama, quoted in Ta-Nehisi Coates Talks to Barack Obama About Race and the Media – The Atlantic
(via dendroica)
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“This family. What can I say. What an honor to have photographed them for eight years. A couple of months ago, the Social Office came to me and said they were thinking of using a family photo for this year’s White House holiday card. So I thought of Justin Trudeau. I know you’re wondering what the heck I’m talking about. Earlier this year we hosted the Canadian Prime Minister for a formal State Dinner. Malia and Sasha attended as guests. Before the dinner, I did a family photo in the White House residence. But later, when the Trudeaus arrived, the two families spent some time on the Truman Balcony with their respective delegations. At one point, the Prime Minister asked if we could do a photo of he and his wife with the Obama family. Click, click, click. Then, he said I should do a photo of just the Obamas. I could have said, ‘Sir, we already did one before you arrived.’ But instead, I clicked off a few quick frames. And lo and behold, it was this picture that Justin Trudeau asked me to take which everyone loved as the choice for the 2016 White House holiday card.” —Chief Official White House Photographer Pete Souza
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“If you take anything from this eight years of us being in this White House, I want you to take that message with you, particularly all the young people here today, all the young women here today. I want you to see that it does not matter what you look like, it doesn’t matter how much money your parents have—none of that matters. Skin color, gender is the most ridiculous defining trait that we cling to. It doesn’t matter.
What matters is that you believe in your own potential, and that’s for sure. You have to believe in you first. Because people will try to tear you down, I guarantee you that. There will never be a point at which people will 100 percent be cheering you on. So when you hit those barriers in life, all you have is your belief in yourself. That’s all you have to fall back on.
What also matters is how hard you’re willing to work. Because none of this is easy—and it’s not supposed to be. Because then everybody could do it, right? How much work you want to put into the things you care about—President Obama works very hard. He is a serious man who takes his job seriously. And we are counting on you to be that in whatever you choose to be, whether it’s science or math or dance or teaching—you name it. None of these men and women here achieved what they achieved without working hard at it and making some sacrifices and overcoming a lot of failure. So we want you to take that away.
As Katherine Johnson has said—and these are her words—she said, ‘Stick with it. No matter the problem, it can be solved.’ And that’s really good advice. Look at this eight years. We were supposed to be hidden. People didn’t even want to believe we were real. But here we are, eight years later.
But it’s up to all of you, our young people, to continue that legacy.” —First Lady Michelle Obama speaking at a screening of the film Hidden Figures
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“By so many measures, our country is stronger and more prosperous than it was when we started. It’s a situation that I’m proud to leave for my successor. And it’s thanks to the American people—for the hard work that you’ve put in; the sacrifices you’ve made for your families and communities; the businesses that you started or invested in; the way you looked out for one another. And I could not be prouder to be your President.” —President Obama at his end-of-year press conference on the progress we’ve made over the past eight years.
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The heart of the first lady’s efforts was a message about the country’s persistent inequities of race, class and gender.
Read more here: How Michelle Obama became a singular American voice
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The Obamas in their final People Magazine interview from the White House.
❤️
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President Obama Delivers Remarks on the Administration’s Approach to Counterterrorism
December 6, 2016
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