Obama: “We don’t have the capacity to eradicate 400 years of racism in one fell swoop”

Obama Foundation via Getty Images

Former President Barack Obama warned that people should not feel that this current unrest and the subsequent changes will address all issues facing black Americans, stating that the country doesn’t “have the capacity to eradicate 400 years of racism in one fell swoop” during his town hall Wednesday.

Obama quoted Dr. Martin Luther King’s famous “arc of the moral universe quote” but added that the arc does not bend without work. 

“We bend it, all of you have bent it over the last four, five, six, 10 years and we are seeing the fruits of those labors in the degree of awareness that is out there,” Obama said. 

To prove this point, he noted the array of people who are speaking out at this time, namechecking Jim Harbaugh, the head football coach at the University of Michigan.

“That is not something that was happening five, six years ago, although Jim I know have been on the right side of this for quite some time,” Obama said. “You have unlikely participants because all of you have worked so hard to raise awareness, that is the progress that has been made, that doesn’t mean everything has been solved.”

Here’s Obama’s full quote:

“We don’t have the capacity to eradicate 400 years of racism in one fell swoop. So, if we think this is a seismic shift, I hope people don’t feel like nothing is going to happen once we figure this out. I have been known to quote Dr. King, I’ve said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.’ We bend it, all of you have bent it over the last four, five, six, 10 years and we are seeing the fruits of those labors in the degree of awareness that is out there. Think about some of the people who have unequivocally spoken out against what happened in Minneapolis, you have, I just saw Jim Harbaugh… the coach of Michigan Football, marching today. That is not something that was happening five, six years ago, although Jim I know have been on the right side of this for quite some time. You have unlikely participants because all of you have worked so hard to raise awareness, that is the progress that has been made, that doesn’t mean everything has been solved.”