Outgoing U.S.
President Barack Obama has disclosed that he ‘absolutely’ suffered racism in
office, adding Americans’ ‘primary concern about me has been that I seem
foreign’.
“The concept of race
in America is not just genetic, otherwise the one-drop rule wouldn’t have made
sense”.
“It’s cultural. It’s
this notion of a people who look different than the mainstream, suffering
terrible oppression.
“But somehow being
able to make out of that a music and a language and a faith and a patriotism,”
Obama said, in a special looking back on his legacy with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.
“I think there’s a
reason why attitudes about my presidency among whites in Northern states are
very different from whites in Southern states.
“Are there folks
whose primary concern about me has been that I seem foreign, the other? Are
those who champion the ‘birther’ movement feeding off of bias? Absolutely.”
Obama said the
colour of his skin had ‘absolutely’ contributed to white Americans’ negative
perceptions of his time in office.
The president said:
“I think there’s a reason why attitudes about my presidency among whites in
Northern states are very different from whites in Southern states”.
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