On the network’s popular "Daily Show," host Trevor Noah asked the first African-American President of the United States how he broaches the sensitive subject of race to the American public, and how he manages to "skirt that line between speaking your mind and sharing your true opinions on race whilst, at the same time, not being seen to alienate some of the people you are talking to."
Obama replied, that although the US has "by no means overcome the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow and colonialism and racism…the progress we've made has been real and extraordinary."
The 44th President added, "If I'm communicating my genuine belief that those who are not subject to racism can sometimes have blind spots or lack of appreciation of what it feels to be on the receiving end of that, but that doesn't mean that they're not open to learning and caring about equality and justice and that I can win them over because there is goodness in the majority of people."
Later in the interview Obama criticized the media for overemphasizing the email scandal that dogged the Hillary Clinton campaign during the presidential election. The incumbent suggested that news outlets made a mountain out of a molehill.
"I think what everybody has to reflect on is what is it about our political ecosystem, what is it about the state of our democracy where the leaks of what were frankly not very interesting emails, that didn't have any explosive information in them… ended up being an obsession," he said.
"The real question that I think we all have to reflect on," Obama added, "is what's happened to our political system where some emails that were hacked and released ended up being the overwhelming story and the constant source of coverage, breathless coverage that was depicted as somehow damning in all sorts of ways, when the truth of the matter was it was fairly routine stuff."
Obama commented on the incoming Republican administration’s deeply critical attitude toward the Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare," saying, "It will be interesting to watch Republicans who now actually have to produce come up with a replacement that works better."
