Former President Barack Obama said he wanted to push for “justified” reparations but that it was a “non-starter” because of “white resistance.”
“There’s not much question that the wealth of this country, the power of this country, was built in significant part, not exclusively, maybe not even the majority of it, but a large portion of it was built on the backs of slaves,” Obama told singer Bruce Springsteen on their new podcast called Renegades: Born in the USA.
“And what I saw during my presidency was the politics of white resistance and resentment: the talk of ‘welfare queens’ and the talk of the ‘undeserving poor’ and the backlash against affirmative action,” he continued.
He said, “All that made the prospect of actually proposing any kind of coherent, meaningful reparations program struck me as, politically, not only a non-starter but potentially counterproductive.”
OBAMA SAYS HE PUNCHED A CLASSMATE IN THE FACE AND BROKE HIS NOSE AFTER BEING CALLED A RACIAL SLUR
In 2008, however, Obama signaled that he opposed reparations, saying, “The best reparations we can provide are good schools in the inner city and jobs for people who are unemployed.”
During another discussion with Springsteen on the podcast, Obama revealed that he once broke a classmate’s nose after being called a racial slur.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“Listen, when I was in school, I had a friend. We played basketball together,” the 44th president said. “And one time, we got into a fight, and he called me a coon.”
Obama said he “popped him in the face and broke his nose” in response.
