Race remains a potent and divisive force in our society: Obama's farewell speech

January 11, 2017 08:01

Obama, the United States' first black president discusses race and immigration.

"Race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society. Ive lived long enough to know that race relations are better than they were ten, or twenty, or thirty years ago you can see it not just in statistics, you see it in the attitudes of young Americans across the political spectrum, he says.

"If we're going to be serious, we need to uphold laws against discrimination...But hearts must change..."

The US president quoting Atticus Finch, a character from the book How to Kill a Mockingbird, says minorities must also pay attention to the needs of the privileged white guy, while the complaints of minorities must also be listened to.

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of viewuntil you climb into his skin and walk around in it.

He reminds people the Irish and Italians faced the same problems in the past. "But they embraced this nation's creed and this nation was strengthened....We all have to try harder."

Image: Obama along with his family marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma, Alabama to mark the 50th anniversary of 'Bloody Sunday'.

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