The former president enumerated the ways in which Black people’s lives were collectively improved under his administration. “By the time I left office, you had seen 20 million African Americans that have healthcare that didn’t have it before. You had seen the incarceration rate — the number of Black folks in prison — drop for the first time in years. You had seen the juvenile correction system, 30 percent fewer people in there. You had seen Black poverty to its lowest level since 1968. You had seen Black businesses rise. You had seen Black income go up.”
He added, “So I could just look at the data and say millions of Black folks were better off at the time I left office than when I came in.”
Barack pointed specifically to Obamacare and how some Black Americans could feel like there wasn’t a change if they are among the 10 million Americans who were left uninsured due to republicans “blocking him from doing everything he wanted to do” with Obamacare.
Listen to the interview in its totality below:
