8 Things We Learned From Barack Obama on The Breakfast Club

Source: The Breakfast Club / Power 105

The election of Joe Biden to be the 46^th President of The United States brought a collective sigh of relief to the world and as ecstatic as we are about a return to normal, we still can’t help but miss good old number 44, Barack Obama.

With his memoire, A Promised Land, hitting bookshelves across the board, the last real American President we’ve had sat down in a socially distanced setting with The Breakfast Club to talk politics, racism and life, with your favorite morning trio.

Taking the time to explain why he wasn’t able to “do more for Black people” to Michelle not totally being on board with his Presidential dreams, our favorite President in history elegantly breaks down all kinds of aspects of his life as only he can.

Here are the 8 things we learned from Barack Obama on The Breakfast Club.

Even before cancel culture became a thing on the internet, Barack Obama caught a lot of heat for his connection to the “controversial” Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Still, even in today’s political climate and the backlash one might get for standing next to someone who said “God is damning America,” Obama wouldn’t let people’s perception scare him away from attending Reverend Wright’s “amazing sermons.”

Barack Obama admits that there were times Michelle Obama didn’t think “things were going to work” and “there were episodes” that threatened their relationship his Presidential aspirations weren’t exactly compatible with what Michelle wanted out of life. Luckily it worked out in the end but Obama says he’s still working that debt off to her. Trump on the other hand seems to be headed straight for divorce now that Melania knows about his porn star payoffs.

Our first “ballin’” President reveals that part of his workout routine would be basketball games between himself and people in his cabinet.

Obama says he was “inspired” by the response of the people to the death of George Floyd as he saw people from all walks of life (including white folks) protesting racial inequality. It’s about time they (as in more of them) came along and joined this righteous fight.

The women in Obama’s cabinet complained that the men on his team were intimidating and passing off their ideas as their own. It got to the point they didn’t even want to speak anymore and that’s something Obama had to address within his team. “Part of what had to happen was the women had to bring it to me, then we all had to talk about it,” Obama said. “I had to get educated on what was happening because a lot of times this wasn’t happening in front of me… the guys would be on their best behavior a lot of times in front of me, but in meetings that I wasn’t in suddenly you had some of these macho attitudes coming up.”

For those who say Obama “didn’t do enough for Black people,” Barack says “I understand it” but explained, “there’s no way in 8 years to make up for 200 years.” Though there were all kinds of hopes and expectations with his election to the highest office in the land, the Presidency isn’t a monarchy and he couldn’t just snap his fingers and get whatever he wanted done as a Republican senate kept him from getting things done (vote every two years, not just four). Still, he points at the rise of millions of Black people with medical insurance and decline in Black poverty and incarceration rate as some statistics he can hang his hat on. “I can just look at the data and I can say millions of Black folks were better off at the time I left office than when I came in.” He’s right.

Obama admits that if the US relied on the popular vote instead of the electoral college to choose Presidents, “that would help.” He points to the U.S. Senate as an example explaining “The U.S. senate is basically hugely skewed towards some of these lower population, more rural, much whiter states than the big coastal states. That’s a big difference towards getting stuff done.” Expect right-wingers to go nuts with this comment right here.

Obama feels that Democrats, Republicans and America owe Black people “justice and fairness.” He feels that for Black America, justice has been “half-baked” and “insufficient” up to this point and it’s way past due. That being said, Barack thinks the Joe and Kamala presidency will get more resistance trying to accomplish such goals in this divided as f*ck social-political climate. Still, he has hope. Fitting being that that’s exactly how the legend of Barack Obama started.