President Obama still has 20 months left in the Oval Office, but he appears to be laying the groundwork for his post-presidential career — a focus on racial reconciliation and improving economic opportunity for young blacks and Latinos.
On Monday Mr. Obama spoke in New York City at the launch of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, the nonprofit spinoff of a task force the president formed last year. The alliance aims to have a hands-on approach in America’s cities working not just on race relations but also on education, jobs and infrastructure.
While the White House wouldn’t say whether Mr. Obama will serve in a prominent role with the group once he leaves Washington, the president has been clear that race relations — including the often-strained relationship between minority communities and law enforcement — is part of his life’s work.
“This will remain a mission for me and Michelle not just for the rest of my presidency but for the rest of my life,” Mr. Obama said at Monday’s My Brother’s Keeper event, drawing thunderous applause from the crowd inside Lehman College.
As the nation’s first black president, Mr. Obama often has found himself at the center of national debates over race. His role in that dialogue increased following the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin, and the president spoke at length about the incident on several occasions.
Since then, other racially charged deaths have taken place across the country, including in Ferguson, Missouri, New York, South Carolina and, most recently, Baltimore, where riots broke out last week following the death of Freddie Gray.
Gray died while in police custody, and six Baltimore officers now have been charged in connection with his death.
As protesters looted local businesses and overturned police cars last week, the president urged the crowd to keep demonstrations peaceful and avoid violence. On Monday, he stressed that there are underlying factors that led to that violence.
“At the end of the day, what kind of society do we want to have? What kind of country do we want to be? It’s not enough to celebrate the ideals that we’re built on — liberty for all, and justice for all and equality for all. Those can’t just be words on paper. The work of every generation is to make those ideals mean something concrete in the lives of our children, all of our children,” he said. “And we won’t get there as long as kids in Baltimore or Ferguson or New York or Appalachia or the Mississippi Delta or the Pine Ridge Reservation believe that their lives are somehow worth less. We won’t get there when we have impoverished communities that have been stripped away of opportunity, and where, in the richest nation on Earth, children are born into abject poverty.”
Mr. Obama has not been shy about addressing race relations, especially following instances where a black man has died at the hands of law enforcement. But the president also has taken a measured approach and hasn’t waded as deeply into the issue as some civil rights activists had hoped.
Specialists say Mr. Obama actually could end up making a bigger difference on race relations once he leaves the White House and no longer faces the kind of political backlash that could result from a president taking too strong a stand on controversial issues.
“I think this would be a great avenue for him to pursue when he’s out of the White House. Of course he’ll be able to speak more frankly, more openly, more honestly about what’s really going on in the streets of America with black youth. And I think it will be well received,” said Montre Carodine, a professor at the University of Alabama School of Law who has written extensively on race relations and the criminal justice system.
“I do look forward to seeing what he does on these issues once he’s out of the White House, once he can speak more frankly,” she continued. “I think we will see him really blossom in this area once he leaves office.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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