Jerald Podair

This is the most emotion an American president has ever shown on camera, i can almost guarantee that when there is some sort of collage shown of this president's presidency, this one moment will be in there.

When he cries very movingly on camera, and he's crying over white children, he is now the father-in-chief, they are his children. He is clearly shedding tears over white children who he considers his children as well. It's a major moment.

He's not 'The Other' anymore, he's us, and in many ways, that's O... by Jerald Podair

He's not 'The Other' anymore, he's us, and in many ways, that's Obama's greatest triumph.

Most presidents put their stamp culturally on their times, they tell people, 'This is how to be a man. This is how to dress. This is how to act.'.

There is some sort of huge perceptual chasm between the police and the policed in most American cities, when you get that kind of perceptual gulf -- when you're looking at the same incident and you're interpreting it in different ways -- that's a recipe for total division and complete disunity in our society.

That is one of the single most disturbing statistics I think I've... by Jerald Podair

That is one of the single most disturbing statistics I think I've heard.

You could draw a line from the antebellum South to the economics of the South today, from the time of the Southern plantation owners, there have been a small group of people in the South who hold the power economically and they don't really distribute the wealth that's created in a democratic way.

You're going to have a state government apparatus that is going to be providing less and less to people, there's no better example than looking at Southern states like Mississippi. The quality of life for the average citizens in these states is lower.

In a feudal society -- and the South was in many ways just that well into the 20th century -- labor is controlled, it cannot be free or the entire social structure will collapse. There are still residues of this even in the South today.