President Barack Obama gave his last press conference in the White House briefing room on Wednesday as reporters crammed into the room for a final farewell to the president.
After he was asked about race relations, Obama appeared frustrated by people who repeatedly cite concerns of voter fraud, lecturing the press about it.
“This whole notion of voting fraud — this is something that constantly has been disproved, this is fake news,” he said.
Obama referred specifically to the “ugly history” of slavery and race segregation in America and stood up for voting rights.
“We’ve got to do more work on race,” he said, but specified that “It is simply not true that things have gotten worse — they’re better.”
Obama added that racism was not simply about black and white but included Hispanics and Asians as well.
“We’ve got this stew that’s bubbling up from people everywhere, and we have to make sure that we, in our own lives and families and work places, do a better job of treating everybody with basic respect,” he said.
Obama suggested that the media was focusing on information that made racism worse in America.
“When we’re just fed information that encourages some of our worst instincts, we tend to fall back into some of the old racial fears, and racial divisions, and racial stereotypes, and it’s very hard for us to break out of those and to listen and to think about people as people.”
Obama out! pic.twitter.com/i8jKNv4pfs
— Charlie Spiering (@charliespiering) January 18, 2017
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