Obama on Race: Interview with The View

The View is a daytime talkshow on American TV. It features a panel of women discussing current events and conducting interviews. US President Barack Obama appeared on this show today. The Guardian's Richard Adams blogged on the episode as he watched. In the course of the interview with the panelists, President Obama made a number of statements concerning race that I find to be both bold and honest. Is that the sound of a little nuke going off in the offices of Fox I can hear?

11.20am ET: "Your mother was white," asks Barbara, "why don't you describe yourself as bi-racial?" "When I was young, I wrote a whole book about this," says Obama, gently.

"The thing about African Americans in this country, we are actually a mongrel people," says Obama. "Yeah," says Whoopi in agreement. "And that's true of white people in this country too," says Obama.

11.16am: Sherri now raises racial problems in America, specifically the Shirley Sherrod controversy. "Do you think America is still racist?" she asks.

Again, Obama blames the media for "generating a phony controversy. A lot of people overacted, including in my administration".

Whoopi now brings up a scene from Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, and quotes a line. "Who are we?" asks Whoopi. "We are Americans," says Obama, "Everyone here is connected."

But "there's a reptilian side of our brain" says Obama, and we have to fight against that. "There's nobody in America who doesn't have to think about their own racial attitudes."

Not sure about the reptilian reference though ...