President Obama said for all that he has accomplished, his family is still what matters most to him.
“On my deathbed I will not remember a bill I passed or a speech I gave or getting the Nobel Peace Prize,” Obama told an audience gathered at North Carolina A&T State University for an ESPN student forum about his “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative and historically black colleges and universities.
“What I will remember is holding hands with my daughters,” he said Tuesday, according to a unofficial transcript of the program airing at 10 p.m.
Since taking office he has been “aggravated” at times, he answered another student. “But, during my presidency, there has never been a time where I felt like, ‘this is too much,'” he said.
Although comparing politics to sports can be dangerous for politicians, Obama offered one when asked.
“What is true about politics that is similar to sports is that when you lose, you lose publicly; and it’s a hard,” he said.
Obama said athletes who mix sports with politics should focus more on their message than their delivery.
“How you do it is less important than your commitment to speak to the issues that matter,” Obama said, noting that the late Muhammad Ali and tennis legend Arthur Ashe were two social-conscience athletes he admired growing up.
“Ali was all personality and noisy and truth telling and self-promoting,” he said. “Arthur, on the other hand, was always a gentleman and humble.” And both were transformational, he said.
Obama said he launched “My Brother’s Keeper” as a lifeline to young minorities.
“The central principal is: for so many of our boys, it is important to have an adult who is taking an interest in them … who tells them, ‘you are worth something; you are important.'”
He repeated his oft-told biography of being a wayward youth who did drugs and mad “all kinds of bad decisions.” But growing up in Hawaii he had far more leeway than black and Latino teens living in big cities do, he said.
“It does not take a lot to transform the life of a young man,” he said.
Earlier Tuesday the White House announced a wave of new private commitments to the initiative. For example, Sprint Corp., is promising Internet-enabled devices and four years of broadband to 1 million high school students who do not have service at home.
Since the program’s creation in 2014, “more than $600 million in private-sector and philanthropic grants and in-kind resources and $1 billion in low-interest financing have been committed” to the initiative, the White House stated Tuesday.
Obama said the hardships that historically black colleges and universities like North Carolina A&T State University face are indicative of the financial hardships many African Americans suffer.
“When America gets a cold, sometimes black folks get pneumonia,” he said, citing the rising price of college.
“If you are really concerned, then you’d better vote,” he said.
Obama promised to remain involved with “My Brother’s Keeper” after leaving office, just like Michelle Obama plans to stay involved with her “let girls learn” program.
Obama also suggested to reporters traveling with him that his basketball playing days might be behind him.
“My game is broke,” he said, adding that he is worried about his Achilles tendon.
“Every brother thinks he can play ball, and it’s not the case,” Obama joked during a commercial break, according to reports from the traveling press corps. “It’s disappointing,” he said.
