Jimmy Carter: America is more racist now than when I was president

Jimmy Carter
(Image credit: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images)

Jimmy Carter left office more than 30 years ago, but the former president thinks many of the problems facing the United States then are as prevalent as ever. In a wide-ranging interview with The Atlantic, the man from Plains, Georgia, says he is "prouder today" of being a Southerner following South Carolina's removal of the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds in Columbia. Still, he says he worries that "obvious, extreme racism" is even more of a problem now in the United States than it was in the 1970s:

After the civil rights movement was successful — about 100 years after the end of the War Between the States, the Civil War — there was a general feeling in this country that the main elements of racism, of white superiority, had finally been overcome. With the news media showing the police abuse toward black people in some places, and the terrible events in Charleston, South Carolina, maybe we've been awakened to say that we've still got a long way to go. [The Atlantic]

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Sarah Eberspacher

Sarah Eberspacher is an associate editor at TheWeek.com. She has previously worked as a sports reporter at The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus and The Arizona Republic. She graduated from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.