To the Point
Barack Obama and race in America
As President Obama prepares tonight's farewell speech, his approval ratings are well above many ex-presidents and much higher than Donald Trump's. He's bound to go down in history as the first black president of a nation with a legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and other forms of racial discrimination.
By Warren Olney • • 1 min readAs President Obama prepares tonight's farewell speech, his approval ratings are well above many ex-presidents and much higher than Donald Trump's. He's bound to go down in history as the first black president of a nation with a legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and other forms of racial discrimination. We ask activists and historians about the example he and his family have set during the past eight years. Are millions of black people better off because of his policies? What's the state of race relations after Barack Obama's two terms in the White House?
Warren Olney
former KCRW broadcaster
Andrea Brody
Senior Producer, KCRW's Life Examined and To the Point podcast
Sáša Woodruff
Producer, 'To the Point'
Katie Cooper
Producer, 'One year Later'
Peniel Joseph
historian and professor at the University of Texas at Austin, and founding director of the school’s Center for the Study of Race and Democracy
DeRay McKesson
Black Lives Matter
Jason A. Johnson
professor of political science and journalism, Morgan State University; politics editor, The Root; host, “A Word with Jason Johnson.”