Barack Obama’s Eight-Year Balancing Act

Being the first black President is a hard job, Congressman Keith Ellison said last week, at The New Yorker Festival. This makes analyzing President Obama’s two terms in office an especially delicate endeavor. Ellison joined Jelani Cobb, Alicia Garza, Margo Jefferson, and Khalil Gibran Muhammad for a panel discussion that looked back on the Obama years, weighing his accomplishments and failures against the challenges he faced because of his race.