After eight years in the White House, the Obamas certainly have accomplished a lot.
But, in the October issue of Essence magazine, President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama said that it’s the impact they’ve had on black and brown kids that they consider among their proudest achievements.
The cover story, which includes stunning pictures of the couple, highlights the most notable moments Obama’s eight-year term. The first lady also shared what she feels the couple has done to to inspire black and brown kids.
“I think when it comes to Black kids, it means something for them to have spent most of their life seeing the family in the White House look like them. It matters,” FLOTUS told ESSENCE. “All the future work that Barack talked about, I think over these last few years we’ve kind of knocked the ceiling of limitation off the roofs of many young kids’ imaginations of what’s possible for them.”
The power of representation is certainly not lost on POTUS either. In 2014, Obama launched “My Brother’s Keeper,” an initiative that aims to provide mentorship and guidance to young men of color. It’s a move he sees as one of his most notable achievements, and one he hopes will live on long after he’s gone.
“For me, things like My Brother’s Keeper… that’s something I’m confident we’ll be continuing after we leave,” Obama said.
Yet, Obama acknowledged that there’s still plenty of progress to be made.
“On a host of issues, we’ve made real progress. And I can unequivocally say that America is better off now than we were when we came into office,” Obama said. “By almost every economic measure, we’ve better off. But having said that, we still have a lot of work to do.”
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