'The Filter ... Is Powerful': Obama on Race, Media, and What It Took to Win
In “My President Was Black,” The Atlantic’s Ta-Nehisi Coates examined Barack Obama’s tenure in office, and his legacy. The story was built, in part, around a series of conversations he had with the president. This is a transcript of the first of those three encounters, which took place on September 27, 2016. Valerie Jarrett, the senior adviser to the president, was also present. You can find responses to the story, and to these conversations, here.
Barack Obama: All right, where do you want to start.
Ta-Nehisi Coates: You know, I was thinking about something today that I heard, and I wanted to see if you could confirm it, and if you could, whether you could talk about it. I was told that the night of the inauguration it was a huge, huge party here. Is that correct?
Obama: [Chuckles] That would be correct.
Valerie Jarrett: The second inauguration …
Obama: You’re talking about the second inauguration?
Coates: Was it the second? Celebrities, maybe Stevie Wonder and Usher?
Obama: First inauguration we had—you know, this is a good example of when you first arrive, you don’t know what you’re supposed to do. So there are all these state balls that take place, and we sort of assumed—we were told—well, you should go to all the balls. So …
Coates: Did you try that? Did you try to go to all of them?
Obama: We went to all of them. And you do a dance at each one.
Coates: Fifty?
Obama: No, no, not every state has one, but we went to 10 or 12. And by the time we were done, it was like 1 o’clock, so we had Wynton Marsalis here playing, and people had been hanging out, but by the time we got back Michelle’s feet were all hurting and swollen up, and I was exhausted, and we hung out here probably for half an hour, and went to bed. Now, the second inauguration, we had it a little more figured out. So we did, like, three balls and then got back here and had a DJ and, yeah, Usher and Stevie.
Coates: How late did you go?
Obama: Three-thirty? Four o’clock?
Coates: Was the second one more joyous for you—
Obama: Yes.
Coates: It’s one thing you’re the first black president, but it’s like “Wow, this really—”
Obama: Yeah. I think the way to think about it is the first inauguration is like your wedding in the sense that it is a joyous moment and occasion, but you’re so busy and kind of stressed making sure that Aunt Such-and-Such and Uncle So-and-So and cousins are getting tickets that it ends up going by without you even really knowing what’s happening. The second one you could savor. But partly, as you indicated, for political reasons as well. Because we had gone through four of the toughest years this country has gone through since the ’30s. And to be able to win a majority of the vote the second time indicated that we had worked with a broad cross section of the country and they trusted what we were trying to do. And it wasn’t just a singular feel-good moment; it was an affirmation that people thought we had done a good job.
Coates: I think for those of us—and I certainly threw myself in this camp—I was telling Valerie the other day, the idea of a black president was a joke, in every black stand-up comic routine everywhere—
Obama: Right. A friend of mine gave me Head of State—remember [Chris Rock] and Bernie Mac?—when we were still running. Said, “Man, you got to see Head of State.” [Laughter]
Coates: Yeah, this was like a laugh-fest. But I think one of the things that did distinguish you was the ability to see it and to have the vision that, yes, this could happen, and then to have it again. I’m speaking specifically in terms of race … There were those of us who said, “It’s no way.” And to see it the first and second time must have really reaffirmed a lot of what you thought.
As I said, the second time, people had seen me work. They had seen me have victories, they had seen me have defeats, they had seen me
