Obama calls for continued talks about race

President Obama on Saturday said the national debate over race must continue even when it becomes painful.

“We have to be able to talk about these things, honestly and openly, not just in the comfort of our own circles, but with folks who look differently and think differently than we do,” he said in his weekly address. 

“Otherwise we’ll never break this dangerous cycle,” Obama added.  “And that’s what America’s all about.

{mosads}“Not just finding policies that work — but forging consensus, fighting cynicism and finding the political will to keep changing the country for the better. That’s what America gives us — all of us — the capacity to change.”

Obama said voters must not become discouraged by recent shootings highlighting tensions between law enforcement and minority communities.

“It’s been a challenging couple of weeks,” he said. “The shootings in Minnesota and Baton Rouge; the protests; the targeting and murder of police in Dallas – it’s all left us struggling to make sense of things at times.

“Now, I know that for many, it can feel like the deepest fault lines of our democracy have suddenly been exposed, and even widened. But the America I know – the America I saw this week – is just not as divided as some folks try to insist.”

Obama said improving race relations nationwide requires great investments of time and energy.

“It won’t happen overnight,” he said. “The issues we’re grappling with go back decades, even centuries.

“But if we can open our hearts to try and see ourselves in one another; if we can worry less about which side has been wronged, and worry more about joining sides to do right, as equal parts of one American family — then I’m confident that together, we will lead our country to a better day.”

National protests erupted last week after the fatal shootings of two black men in separate encounters with police.

Five police officers were then killed and nine more were wounded when a sniper opened fire on such a demonstration in Dallas on July 7.

Shooter Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, died when police detonated a bomb near him that was attached to a robot.