‘I Suffered Racism In Office’- Outgoing US President Barack Obama Reveals

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Outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama has disclosed that he ‘absolutely’ suffered racism in office, adding Americans’ ‘primary concern about me has been that I seem foreign’.

“The concept of race in America is not just genetic, otherwise the one-drop rule wouldn’t have made sense”.

“It’s cultural. It’s this notion of a people who look different than the mainstream, suffering terrible oppression.

“But somehow being able to make out of that a music and a language and a faith and a patriotism,” Obama said, in a special looking back on his legacy with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

“I think there’s a reason why attitudes about my presidency among whites in Northern states are very different from whites in Southern states.

“Are there folks whose primary concern about me has been that I seem foreign, the other? Are those who champion the ‘birther’ movement feeding off of bias? Absolutely.”

Obama said the colour of his skin had ‘absolutely’ contributed to white Americans’ negative perceptions of his time in office.

The president said: “I think there’s a reason why attitudes about my presidency among whites in Northern states are very different from whites in Southern states”.

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