Obama’s unique racial heritage -- his mother was a white American, while his father was Kenyan -- and experience growing up in a number of far-flung locales including the American Midwest, Hawaii, and Indonesia have afforded him a unique vantage point in the continued discussion of race in the United States. He is convinced that although great progress has been made in the achievement of racial equality and the eradication of institutionalized discrimination, the daily experiences of people of color are still highly influenced by more subtle forms of prejudice. Some of this prejudice, he contends, is not fundamentally race-based, but rather, is the result of unfamiliarity and ignorance. In order to remove the vestiges of the shameful legacy of racism that persist, Obama exhorts Americans to respond to instances of racism with clear disapproval. At the same time, he calls on people of colorto give up the mantle of victimhood and persecution that, he believes, limits their ability to reach their full potential.
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