President Obama launched a new spin-off of his “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative Monday, pledging to make helping young men in impoverished communities his life’s mission.
Speaking at an event on the campus of Lehman College in the Bronx, N.Y., Obama said the country will “profit or pay” for what the young men in poor communities across the country become and spoke extensively about the lack of opportunities that are contributing to drug addiction, unemployment and a sense of hopelessness in these areas.
“The good news is it doesn’t have to be this way,” he said. “We can have courage to change. We can make a difference.”
“This will be my mission, not just for me and Michelle for the remainder of my presidency, but for the rest of my life.”
As the president spoke about the work of the new spin-off of My Brother’s Keeper initiative, he sprinkled in references to the racial tensions in Baltimore over the past two weeks and argued that the opportunity gaps for these communities begin early, often at birth, and “compound over time.”
“That feeling of not being heard that has fueled protests in Baltimore and elsewhere — that feeling that the law is not applied evenly in this country,” he said.
Obama first created the My Brother’s Keeper organization in 2014 in the wake of Trayvon Martin’s killing in order to address the dearth of opportunity that young minority boys face in poor neighborhoods across the country.
Monday’s event comes amid new national concerns about police brutality and race relations after the unrest in Baltimore following the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray.
Earlier in the day, the president held a roundtable event that included singer John Legend and basketball star Alonzo Mourning with several young men from the New York area.
“If you have any doubt about the incredible promise of America — you need to get to know these young men, they are examples of intelligence, hard work and street smarts,” Obama said.
Obama said for him, Legend and Mourning, the issue is deeply personal.
“We see ourselves in these young men,” he said. “I grew up without a dad. I grew up lost sometimes and adrift…the only difference is, I grew up in an environment that was a little more forgiving.”
He also touted the work of the Task Force on Community Policing that he created last year after the death of Michael Brown and the riots in Ferguson, Mo. Unlike other blue-ribbon Washington panels that only study issues, he said the community policing task force came up with “concrete” proposals” that “if implemented would help rebuild trust and help law enforcement officers do their jobs even better and keep their communities even safer.”
The majority of police officers across the country, he pointed out, are “honest and fair” and “put their lives on the line every day to keep us safe.”
He specifically mentioned Brian Moore, a New York police officer who was shot over the weekend in the line of duty and died earlier Monday.
“The NYPD deserves our gratitude — not just today but every day,” he said. “They have a tough job, which is why addressing the issues in Baltimore or Ferguson or New York…that if we’re just looking at policing, we’re looking at it too narrowly.”
