Obama Slams Trump’s Comments On Race: Even 8-Year-Olds Know Slavery Wasn’t Good For Black People

ABC News reports:



President Barack Obama said the nation’s police have “a really tough job” for which they should be honored and supported, but he said the perception of discrimination in the justice system should be “a source of concern for all Americans.”

Speaking in an exclusive interview with “GMA” co-anchor Robin Roberts at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture ahead of its opening this weekend, the president responded when asked about the recent unrest in cities across America following controversial police shootings.

Pointing to remarks Trump has recently made in which he has said African-Americans have never been worse off than they are today and that they should vote for him because they have nothing to lose, the president said: “You know, I think even most 8-year-olds’ll tell you that whole slavery thing wasn’t very good for black people. Jim Crow wasn’t very good for black people.”

He added that it was important that white Americans understand the legacy of “lawful segregation in this country just a decade ago,” adding: “It’s unrealistic to think that somehow that all just completely went away, because the Civil Rights Act was passed or because Oprah’s making a lot of money or because I was elected president. You know, that’s not how society works. And if you have hundreds of years of racial discrimination it’s likely that the vestiges of that discrimination linger on. And we should acknowledge that and own that.”