Barack Obama offered an analysis of why conservatives oppose social movements such as Black Lives Matter and policy changes, including gay and transgender rights.
The former president, wearing a black suit jacket over a black shirt, spoke during a virtual grassroots fundraiser with his former vice president, Joe Biden, on Tuesday. Obama brought up mass social movements sparked in part by the death of black Minneapolis man George Floyd after being held under the knee of a white police officer.
“The degree to which those young people are now forcing a real reflection on the part of their parents and their grandparents — I think that all makes me optimistic,” the former vice president said.
But he warned that the “energy” in the social movements does not necessarily translate to victory, and he saw opposition to cultural changes during his own presidency.
“There’s a backlash that is fierce against change, against demographic change,” Obama said, and now, “understanding what’s happening with respect to African Americans, or women or the LGBT community or others just asking for a seat at the table.”
He provided a theory about the source of the anger.
”Some of that’s prompted by legitimate fears about economic uncertainty and the sense that there’s not enough to go around for everybody, and so it’s a zero-sum game between some Americans and other Americans,” Obama said, adding that Trump “exploits those divisions, and there’s a whole megaphone of conservative media that has ramped that up.”
Because of the backlash, Obama warned that the 175,000 grassroots donors who attended the fundraiser cannot be “complacent.”
“We got to do some serious work,” he said.
