Announcing the nonprofit that will continue part of his mission after he leaves the White House, President Barack Obama said opportunity gaps for young black and Latino men have led to the protests in cities across the country.
“By almost every measure, life chances of the average young man of color is worse than his peers,” Obama said Monday at Lehman College in New York City. “Those opportunity gaps begin early, often at birth, and they compound over time, becoming harder and harder to bridge, making too many young men and women feel that no matter how hard they tried, they may never achieve their dreams. That sense of unfairness, of powerlessness, of people not hearing their voices, that’s helped fuel some of the protests we’ve seen in places like Baltimore and Ferguson and right here in New York.”
President Barack Obama speaks during the launch of the nonprofit group, My Brother's Keeper Alliance at Lehman College in the Bronx borough on May 4, 2015 in New York City. The President arrived in New York City for several appearances including a taping of the Late Show with David Letterman. In the afternoon speech at the college the President addressed the racially charged turmoil in Baltimore and other American cities. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Obama was speaking at the launch of the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a new nonprofit aimed at closing the gaps for boys and young men of color.
"This will remain a mission for me and for Michelle, not just for the rest of my presidency, but for the rest of my life,” Obama said.
Obama said "the statistics are clear" in how minority groups are treated different by law enforcement, even as he also said police have "tough job" and "deserve our gratitude."
“In too many places in this country, black boys and black men, Latino boys, Latino men, they experience being treated differently by law enforcement,” Obama said. “In stops and in arrests and in charges and incarcerations, the statistics are clear. Up and down the criminal justice system, there is no dispute.”
Obama also took a veiled shot at Republicans and conservative commentators.
“Some will argue that all these social programs don’t make a difference,” Obama said. “We cast blame. Politicians talk about poverty and inequality, then gut policies that help alleviate poverty or reverse inequality. Then we wait for the next outbreak or problem to flare up.”
Obama established the My Brother's Keeper initiative as a partnership with his administration and nonprofit groups to expand opportunities for young black and Hispanic men. Earlier Monday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the new My Brother's Keeper Alliance is a private nonprofit group and the White House will not be involved in fundraising.
Asked about similar questions on transparency regarding the Clinton Foundation, Earnest said the participants in the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance are "aware of president Obama's priority of transparency."
Obama said the companies involved in the My Brother’s Keeper Alliance to promote more education and job opportunities are not doing so for charity, but out of economic imperative. The president said if more men are going to college than to jail, it creates a better business climate — one reason, he argued, that every American should care.
“If we feel like because they don’t look like us, they don’t talk like us, or they don’t live in the same neighborhood as us, that they are different, that they can’t learn, or they don’t deserve better, or it’s OK if their schools are run down, or it’s OK if police are given a mission just to contain them rather than to encourage them, then it’s not surprising we are going to lose a lot of them,” Obama said. “But that’s not the kind of country I want to live in. That’s not what America is about.”
