President Barack Obama has waded again into the fractious issue of race relations in America, this time to tamp down a firestorm over remarks by his top law enforcement officer. "Im not somebody who believes that constantly talking about race somehow solves racial tensions," the president said in an interview with The New York Times published Sunday.
"I think what solves racial tensions is fixing the economy, putting people to work, making sure that people have health care, ensuring that every kid is learning out there. "I think if we do that, then well probably have more fruitful conversations," Obama said.
His comments came in response to a speech last month by US Attorney General Eric Holder, the first African-American to hold the post, chiding Americans for being "cowards on race."
"I think its fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language," Obama said. When asked whether he agreed with Holders remarks, the president hesitated for five seconds, the daily said, before giving his most extensive comments on Americas racial disharmony since his own long discourse on the subject last year.
Obamas March 2008 speech on the history of US race relations followed a contretemps over incendiary remarks made by his former minister Jeremiah Wright.
Speaking to US Justice Department employees, Holder said that "though this nation has proudly thought of itself as an ethnic melting pot, in things racial, we have always been and we, I believe, continue to be in too many ways essentially a nation of cowards." Obama tried to soften those comments somewhat. "Were oftentimes uncomfortable with talking about race until theres some sort of racial flare-up or conflict," he told the Times.
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