DESCRIPTION:
In a new ¡°Soul of a Nation¡± special on ABC News, Obama sat down with
¡°GMA¡¯s¡± Michael Strahan ahead of Juneteenth to talk about its significance
while looking toward the future.
TRANSCRIPT:
And now to Michael¡¯s one-on-one with former president Barack Obama talking
about race resilience and finding hope again it's all part of ABC's Juneteenth
special take a look president Obama happy June team it is good to see you
happy Juneteenth to you thank you i remember being in school and they had
all the presidents and they had every president up there you would look at that
list and you would say I want to be president but I don't think you could believe
it now when they look at that your face is up there right and a lot of people will
look and say it signifies since you've been elected president that that we've
moved on from the issue of race what do you say to that well I think that's
never been the case that by virtue of my election somehow we entered into
a post-racial world it wasn't something i believed uh at the time and i certainly
don't believe it now the fact is that a lot of barriers still exist for a whole lot of
folks when you look at that list of presidents we still haven't seen a woman
and the notion that women somehow are not qualified to you know the fact is
at least in my Household the women are smarter more insightful more caring
better looking more talented we live in the same house that's my point so
something's happening in our society that prevents them from ascending to
the highest office in the land the same is true for African Americans the same
is true for Latinos and the first Americans native Americans the odds are stacked
in ways that prevent a lot of young people from realizing their potential and we
can do something about it in the promised land you talk about hope the country
is built on hope pioneers abolitionists civil rights workers right you ran on hope
we are choosing hope over fear and sending a powerful message that change
is coming to America we're now in 2021 and we have the pandemic the
insurrection um racial reckoning a lot of people feel like they've lost hope how
can people get that hope back you get hope back from for me at least taking
the long View and recognizing that resilience uh determination the ability to deal
with setbacks and disappointments and keep going uh yeah that those are
qualities that can carry us forward and no one has exhibited that more historically
in this country than African Americans the march on Washington happened during
my lifetime that's not ancient history in big parts of the country segregation was
still operative when i was alive what seems like stuff we now take for Granted
that's just a generation old there's so many people out there who idea the
American dream they can't visualize they can't see it anymore so what is it going
to take for people to be able to realize and envision the American dream again
well look historically the American dream has been a reality for some and a myth
for others we're in a community Anacostia in Washington dc that's representative
of a lot of communities around the country where the kids who grow up here may
formally be free but structurally because of poverty because of schools that aren't
working because of substandard housing it requires so much more effort for them
to live out that American dream and so our job is to make sure that it's not a myth
and right now for too many it still is. I¡¯m Michael Strachan in Washington D.C. and
our thanks to Michael for that Juneteenth together we triumph a soul of a nation
special event premieres tonight at 9 eastern on ABC and then starting at 3 p.m.
eastern you can join ABC¡¯s clubhouse conversation with the creators of soul of
a nation as we celebrate Juneteenth well hey there GMA fans Robin Roberts here
thanks for checking out our YouTube channel lots of great stuff here so go on click
the subscribe button right over right over here to get more of awesome videos and
content from GMA. Every day anytime we thank you for watching and we'll see
you in the Morning on GMA
QUESTIONS:
1. What are some little known facts about Barack Obama?
2. State your opinion regarding the former president speech about race,
resilience and hope.
3. What is Juneteenth? Why is that day being celebrated?