Originally posted by the Voice of America. Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America, a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in the public domain. For Obama, an Evolving, Intensifying Focus on Racial Inequality by Aru Pande When President Barack Obama arrived in Poland early Friday morning, he did not retire to his hotel as scheduled ahead of the NATO summit. Instead, the American leader stood in front of a podium at the Warsaw Marriott and spoke for 16 minutes on the deaths of Alton Sperling in Lousiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota. "All of us as Americans should be troubled by the news. These are not isolated incidents. They are symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities that exist in our criminal justice system," Obama said. The president went on to cite statistics. "Last year, African-Americans were shot by police at more than twice the rate of whites," Obama noted. "African-Americans are arrested at twice the rate of whites." Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and now Sperling and Castile. The latest deaths of two African-American men at the hands of police compelled this president to go in front of cameras and speak out once again as hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in cities across the United States where it was still Thursday evening. While acknowledging the "heroic work" of law enforcement and the need to build trust between police and communities, he emphasized bias in the criminal justice system cannot be dismissed. "When incidents like this occur, there's a big chunk of fellow citizenry that feels as if because of the color of their skin, they are not being treated the same," the president said. "This is not just a black issue. This is not just a Hispanic issue. This is an American issue that we should all care about." Navigating ''race and politics It's hard to imagine Obama making a similar lengthy statement on racial disparity during his first term as the first African American to hold the U.S. presidency. "I think we have seen an evolution, and we have seen an intensifying focus on race and civil rights issues during the course of his presidency," Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law President Kristen Clarke said. "He has not been shy in the latter part of his tenure about really trying to tackle these issues and speak to these issues directly." But it took some time. Obama's initial time in office was consumed with other issues. "I think people forget everything that was happening at the beginning of the administration, the biggest thing being the country being on the brink of economic collapse. It wouldn't surprise me that having open, frank conversations about race relations wasn't at the top of the agenda at the very beginning," Center for American Progress' Daniella Leger said. When he did speak out, Obama seemed hesitant to directly use the words that some civil rights activists wanted to hear. "There is an added layer of things you think about before you do things, the way the things he does will be interpreted differently," Leger noted. In a 2012 interview with [1]Black Enterprise when asked to respond to criticism that his administration has not done enough to support black businesses, Obama said "I want all Americans to have opportunity. I'm not the president of black America. I'm the president of the United States of America." Obama, at times, receiving criticism from all sides - civil rights groups calling for the administration to do more to address police misconduct, the opportunity gap and other racial issues, while some conservatives calling programs like My [2]Brother's Keeper "government-sponsored discrimination." But with the killing of 17-year-old African American Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman just months into Obama's second term, the public saw a president get personal when reacting to Zimmerman's acquittal. ''"When Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago," Obama told reporters at the White House in July of 2013. Tackling racial disparity, an Obama legacy? In his second term, Obama has launched the My Brother's Keeper initiative aimed at narrowing the opportunity gap for boys and young men of color, including through increasing high school graduation and employment rates. Last May, he announced a spin-off of the initiative - the corporate-backed nonprofit My Brother's Keeper Alliance - an organization and a mission Obama said he would remain vested in after leaving office. Following the 2014 deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner in Staten Island, New York, the president signed an executive order in December of that year creating the Task Force on 21st Century Policing. The task force brings together law enforcement, community leaders and others aimed at identifying best practices and building trust between police and the public. "It's never too late, I feel like he is ending with a bang," Clarke said. "It's heartening to see some of the issues he has taken on squarely and directly in the latter years of his tenure, from the launching of the task force to his more recent efforts to open up opportunities for people with criminal histories who are seeking to reintegrate into their home communities." Still, Clarke notes gains made under Obama are fragile and could easily be undone when he leaves office. Center for American Progress' Leger remains hopeful and says historians will look back on Obama's presidency as transformative. "My hope is the work that he has started doing around criminal justice reform will continue in the next administration and spur some real change," Leger says. "So when people are looking back and saying `where did this start from?' They will say it started under President Barack Obama." __________________________________________________________________ [3]http://www.voanews.com/content/for-pbama-an-evolving-intensifying-fo cus-on-racial-inequality/3410458.html References 1. http://www.blackenterprise.com/mag/president-obama-interview-small-business-unemployment-exclusive/ 2. http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/372111/my-brothers-keeper-and-government-sponsored-discrimination-roger-clegg 3. http://www.voanews.com/content/for-pbama-an-evolving-intensifying-focus-on-racial-inequality/3410458.html