Obama Criticizes Coronavirus Response & Talks Ahmaud Arbery Shooting at Commencement Address

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Former President Barack Obama offered a rare rebuke of the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic and pointed to the Ahmaud Arbery shooting as an example of racial injustice during a college commencement speech on Saturday.

“You’re being asked to find your way in a world in the middle of a devastating pandemic and a terrible recession. The timing is not ideal,” Obama said according to the Washington Post. “And let’s be honest: A disease like this just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country. We see it in the disproportionate impact of covid-19 on our communities, just as we see it when a black man goes for a jog, and some folks feel like they can stop and question and shoot him if he doesn’t submit to their questioning.”

“Injustice like this isn’t new. What is new is that so much of your generation has woken up to the fact that the status quo needs fixing; that the old ways of doing things don’t work; that it doesn’t matter how much money you make if everyone around you is hungry and sick; that our society, and our democracy, only works when we think not just about ourselves, but about each other.”

Obama also touched upon the governments efforts to counter the pandemic noting that leaders “aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

“More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing. A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.”

Later Saturday, Obama is expected give a commencement speech honoring  more than 3 million high school seniors in the U.S. at 8/7c.