Obama Attacks Inequalities in Education

Partially in an early attempt to seek votes for his reelection in 2012 and partially as a minority himself, President Barack Obama spoke about inequalities in education and to inspire more and greater achievements by African-Americans and other minority parties at the 20th anniversary Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network. Helene Cooper highlights the important points of the president's speech in her article in the New York Times entitled "Obama Takes Aim at Inequality in Education." 

“Too many of our kids are dropping out of schools,” Mr. Obama told a mostly black audience in the ballroom of the Sheraton New York Hotel in Manhattan. “That’s not a white, black or brown problem. That’s everybody’s problem.”

Despite what he said, Obama's speech at the event was primarily focused on gathering and unifying his African-American base for his reelection campaign for 2012. African-Americans represent a large portion of the country's population, and Obama needs to get back in touch with them in order to garner their support. Obama also emphasized education and achievement in his speech in order to establish that he wants to equalize the generally African-American graduation rates with those of other populations of people in America who tend to have higher graduation, success and achievement rates.