Obama: 'It's The Best Of Times, Worst Of Times For African-Americans'

OBAMA: The other thing is, obviously, to reflect on where we’ve made progress and where we are still falling short. And you know, I think these are both the best of times and the worst of times for large portions of the African American community. I think if you work hard and you have opportunity, and you’re able to take advantage of it, the sky is the limit for African Americans in our country in a way that just wasn’t true a generation ago.

On the other hand, the lingering effects of the great recession means there are whole lot of communities and whole lot people who are still out of work, still struggling and that’s why some of initiatives I talked about at the State of the Union are so important.

We’ve got to make sure that as a society that we are creating ladders of opportunity for every child, not just a few.