Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen joined forces for their new podcast, Renegades: Born in the USA, where the topic of reparations was brought up.
Springsteen asked Obama if he thinks America is at a place to consider reparations, and the former president responded, stating that "theoretically" he agrees that "there's not much question" as to whether there should be reparations for African Americans. He explained that "there's not much question that the wealth of this country, the power of this country was built in significant part, not exclusively, maybe not even the majority of it, but a large portion of it was built on the backs of slaves."
Obama then stated, "And what I saw during my presidency was the politics of white resistance and resentment. The talk of "welfare queens' and the talk of the 'undeserving poor.' And the backlash against affirmative action." He added, "All that made the prospect of actually proposing any kind of coherent, meaningful reparations program struck me as, politically, not only a nonstarter but potentially counterproductive."
