In an interview published Monday, Time sat down to talk race and gender with two biracial people excelling in their respective fields — President Obama and ballerina Misty Copeland. The two found they had a lot in common when it comes to how they think and talk about the challenges of navigating white-dominated professions.
Obama got to talking about what he strives to relay to his daughters Sasha and Malia about growing up as members of a minority group:
What I always try to transmit to my kids is that issues of race, discrimination, tragic history of slavery and Jim Crow, all those things are real. And you have to understand them and you have to be knowledgeable about them. And recognize that they didn't stop overnight. Certainly not just when I was elected. I remember people talking about how somehow this was going to solve all our racial problems. I wasn't one of those who subscribed to that notion. And, but what I want them to draw from it is a sense of justice for everybody. My view is that the strength of having been a minority on the receiving end of discrimination is that it should make you that much more attuned and empathetic towards anybody who's vulnerable. Towards anybody who's being locked out. [Time]
Elsewhere in the interview, the president was disappointed to learn he and Copeland weren't brought together by Time because they're both incredible dancers. Watch the rest of their chat below. Julie Kliegman
The Week
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