Prática de Shadowing: Barack Obama shares personal stories & experiences: Family, leadership, sports & marriage |The Pivot - Aprenda a falar inglês com vídeo

My stepmom, when we did Gayle King, she called me and she was like, y'all have hit the top.

Y'all can't get anyone else bigger than Gayle King.

So, I'm gonna call her this weekend and say, hey, check out Tuesday.

Chento.

Limitless, take a stomach cap pin in it I fought a

head to witness it Got my people feeling militant Where I'm feeling get me up Since we started the pivot, we've always been asked what's our Mount Rushmore of guests?

And there'll still be Michael Jordan Lev and Dave Chappelle and Denzel Washington.

After today, one of those will be off.

Some people call him Michelle's husband, Malia and Sasha's father, philanthropist,

author, fashionisto, what most people call him is the 44th president of the United States of America.

So today, the pivot knocks off one of those Mount Rushmore guests with President Barack Obama.

Gentlemen.

Oh, my goodness.

Gentlemen.

President Obama, it's a pleasure.

How you doing?

Good to see you.

We see you as well.

Pleasure to see you as well.

How you doing, sir?

I'm doing well.

Good to see you.

It's an honor, brother.

How you doing?

Good to see you, Chan.

Yes, sir, man.

So before we start, I got two questions.

I know you're supposed to be asking the questions.

The first is, does RC have a twin?

Because I see him in the morning, then I see him at night.

He got this thing, he got that thing.

You're working hard, brother.

I do work hard.

I don't have a twin, though.

Although I would have sent him to work today because I'm actually supposed to be there right now.

I told him, I was like, it's a very special occasion.

You know, I have to leave.

And so also, too, before we start, I normally split the room later.

Okay.

But I know you've always been about being everybody's president.

So we have to include them.

So I always split the room by people who have celebrated a Super Bowl.

A lot of times it's because the other guy sitting with us has won.

Or maybe it's an NBA championship.

Because only one of us have that experience.

You know, you've celebrated a lot of Super Bowls.

Matter of fact, the first one you celebrated was with us.

Was with you.

It was with us, you know.

That's right.

And I don't know where y'all were.

He was scared to walk over to you because you were going to call him fella You didn't know who he was.

RC, this is the one time you get a pass on the split in the room thing.

You get a pass on that, but you'll be showing up.

They were talking about it earlier, and he was like, yeah, did you get a picture?

And I was like, no, because I didn't want to walk up on him.

And he was like, hey, guy.

We got 53 of them, Chad.

We didn't get a picture?

We did not.

I was way on it.

Well, we're going to get one today.

I sure appreciate it.

Now, my second question is, RC got his own style, doesn't he?

Yeah.

I mean, you're Taylor.

I could not pull off what you pull off, man, but it's looking good on you.

I just wanted to let you know.

I was gonna wear the tan suit.

You were gonna wear the tan suit?

The tan suit, just in honor.

I was thinking about wearing one of those split ones where it's like...

Where it's like...

...wrap around the whole thing.

That's ridiculous, ain't it?

I can get you one.

His fashion sometimes is embarrassing.

You be looking good, but sometimes...

I can get you one now.

Andre, do your special.

I'll get you right.

You can pull off the double breast?

You know, it's been a while since I did the double breast.

I think when you run for office, double-breast kind of sends a message, like you some sort of highfalutin', you know?

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

It's bad enough wearing a suit every day.

I, you know, I just go with the basics.

Did he just call me highfalutin'?

Yeah.

I wear a lot of them.

I mean, look at you, man.

You guys are your own personalized, you know, jewelry and whatnot.

I see you, man.

He tries to show out.

He didn't even tell you this for years.

That's my point.

You know how many people gonna watch this?

You're dang great.

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But welcome to The Pivot.

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Thank you.

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It is good to be here.

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You guys are doing great.

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Been enjoying the show.

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Thank you so much.

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Fred Taylor, Channing Crowder, I'm Ryan Clark, The Pivot, a part of Fanatics.

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Thank you for pivoting with us.

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So this is a question I have.

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I know 1985 Bears will always be special to you.

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But you've been around to see so many things change in football since that time.

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That's right.

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You know, you got to watch, what was it, January 31st, 1988, Doug Williams was first black quarterback to win the Super Bowl.

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And you fast-forward that to now, February 11th, 2024, Patrick Mahomes wins.

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He got three.

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He got three of them.

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How have you seen the perception of the black quarterback change throughout your fandom of the sport?

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Well, you guys are a lot younger than me, so I'm thinking back to folks like Warren Moon, Vince Evans.

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It was still a rarity when I was a young fan, so that any time there was a black quarterback, it didn't matter what team,

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you were rooting for them, just because it felt like they were representing everybody.

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And there was still so much bias against black quarterbacks.

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Then you start getting that generation of Donovan McNabb, Randall Cunningham.

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It wasn't a rarity, but I think the burden of proof was still on the black quarterback can you execute?

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What's great today is that people don't even think about it anymore, right?

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And I think part of it has to do with the change in the quarterback itself in the NFL,

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because you had great black quarterbacks in college who, because of their athleticism, a lot of times were running,

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and they'd be in formations where they weren't going to be the classic pocket passer.

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And so when they went to the NFL, they didn't have as much reps doing that.

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And then the teams would just discount them.

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And what's happened in the NFL, you guys know this better than I do, everybody understands if you don't have a mobile quarterback these days, you're going to have problems.

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But look, there are still preconceptions.

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Think about Lamar, who right now is playing better than just about anybody.

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MVP.

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And is a two-time MVP.

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Might win it again this year.

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And the fact that there were still, as recently as four or five years ago, folks saying, well, maybe we should change him into a receiver.

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Yeah.

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So some of those old habits die hard.

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But I think with Patrick,

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with Lamar, with Stroud, now I think it is a given who is the best player.

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And the way that the NFL has changed, you know, you want somebody who's a dual threat.

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And if you get somebody like that, you look at your LSU man, Daniels, even though he's hurt right now.

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But, you know, that's a guy who shows you right off the bat, you know, what that means to have somebody who can,

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you know, throw the ball 60 yards, but then might also take off for a 50-yard run.

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It's the same thing that happens in coaching, right?

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I mean, you know, we're now getting to the point where it's not unusual to have African-American coaches,

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and they're even getting second chances, which never used to happen, right?

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The problem it used to be wasn't that there weren't black coaches.

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It was they have one losing season and then they're gone.

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And then other folks would get recycled.

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Didn't matter how many times they lost, right?

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Just because they were a known commodity.

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So I think the NFL reflects society generally.

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We have made progress.

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And when I talk to young people, I always say, you know, don't say nothing's changed.

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Because, you know, when I was born in 1961, you know, the South was still basically Jim Crow.

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Maybe not legally, but operationally, that's how it was.

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So things have improved, things have changed.

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We wouldn't be sitting here if they hadn't.

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But that doesn't mean things haven't.

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When you're talking about change, I want to talk about your life change, because we're sitting here today, all four of us, we're the only two dimes up here.

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Oh, Lord.

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Me and you.

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But when I got drafted in the NFL, I got to look cuter.

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This is what we do.

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You know what I'm saying?

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And you're in the world's sexiest man talks and all that.

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You know what I'm saying?

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At a mature age, you know?

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Like, that transition, that attention, that just, you know, I don't know, the women be hollering at you and stuff because of the fact that you're a good-looking dude,

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but now you're president good-looking dude.

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You know what?

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So, first of all, I don't know if Michelle's gonna be watching this, so I'm gonna...

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I'm gonna...

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I'm scared of Michelle.

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Yeah, you should be.

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Okay.

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Um...

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You know, the truth is, you guys, as NFL players, and athletes generally, I think it's a lot like musicians,

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you all get famous early.

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You all get famous young, at a time when the attention that you're talking about about maybe flattering,

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fun, what have you.

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By the time people really knew who I was, I was 43 years old.

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I was married, had two kids,

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had gone grocery shopping, had washed my car.

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I was a regular guy in that sense.

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And so that kind of attention, by the time I got it.

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I was not tripping on him.

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There are times where women have acted in somewhat inappropriate ways.

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There are pictures in the internet of, like, women grabbing my butt.

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And I was president at the time, and I'm like, what?

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Why?

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Why?

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Well, you know, it's like old ladies and stuff.

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So, I mean, they're not gonna wrestle him down on the ground.

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My wife is such an extraordinary woman, such an amazing partner, that you just try to stay focused,

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stay on the straight and narrow, you know, and also, look, kids change your life.

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The idea of disappointing your kids, and, you know, is something that, you know, that, that, that, yeah.

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I ain't going there.

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That's about as far as I'm going with your question.

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As long as you tell him, you say, I appreciate the offer, but I'm not gonna take advantage of this at the current time.

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Well, there you go.

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At the current time.

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At the current time.

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That's a dot, dot, dot, Channing.

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Yeah, it is a dot.

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What did you say at the current time?

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It'll leave dot, dot, dots.

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Channing definitely, he's the crazy one.

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Yeah, he's easy.

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I'm pretty sure.

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He's trying to stir something up.

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I caught that.

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Yeah, well, I'll bring it back because Just those thoughts, you were talking about Michelle and the girls,

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family, you know, being a leader of the world, balancing being a leader of the world as well as being a leader at home.

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How were you able to balance those moments?

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It wasn't always balanced.

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And this I'm sure you guys can relate to, right?

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If you wanna be excellent at anything,

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sports, music, business, politics, There are gonna be times in your life where you're out of balance, where you're just working and you're single-minded.

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And for me, when I was running for president, I think I went about a year and a half where I was maybe hope on weekends

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and the kids were still small, Michelle was working, we weren't rich, so it wasn't like Michelle could quit her job.

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You know, so she was carrying a huge load during that time, which she reminds me continuously.

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And rightfully so, because she made a lot of sacrifices.

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Interestingly, by the time I got to the White House, it was actually better.

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Because the thing about being in the White House is people come to you instead of you going to them.

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I mean, and you live above the store, right?

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It was literally a 30 second commute.

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So I set up a rule where I'd have dinner with the family every night at 6.30.

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And even if I had to go back to work, go back down to the office, I'd come up, spend time with the kids, spend time with Michelle, and then go back down.

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But, you know, what you start realizing is that they ground you and they give you perspective, and over time that makes you better.

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Right?

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So I'd be down dealing with some legislative issue,

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trying to pass Obamacare or trying to deal with some international issue, Iraq, Afghanistan.

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Then I'd come up, and my girls, they don't want to hear anything about that.

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You know, so I'm sitting there eating dinner and they're talking about, you know, this teacher who,

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you know, is kind of cross-eyed or some kid who, you know, acting a fool.

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And they've got their own stories.

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And it gives you some sense of reality and perspective.

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And that, I think, for me at least, was a good way of getting out of my own head.

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Right.

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And, you know, I was lucky that Michelle was such an extraordinary mother and the girls,

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I think, naturally were just happy spirits that, you know, they still love me after all I've put them through.

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And I will always be grateful for that.

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Right.

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Love it.

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Yeah.

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But it's not easy, you know?

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And sometimes Michelle and I, when we're talking to young people, and we talk about, you know,

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their careers, It's still different, unfortunately, for men and women.

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I think women who want to pursue professional careers,

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it's still harder because people still feel as if the lion's share of the work still falls on them.

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But in both cases, what we try to say is you can have it all, but you can't have it all at once.

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You have to recognize there may be times in your life where you are going to be busy, and then the other person has to pick up the slack.

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You have to be willing to do that for the other person as well, and try to create some kind of equity inside the family.

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And I haven't always gotten that perfect, but, you know, I keep trying, though.

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I keep trying.

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We all have children.

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My son plays at Notre Dame.

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And recently, I read a story about him, and they asked him about being my son.

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And he said, well, when I was younger, I used to run from it.

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He said, because kids would say, I only got this opportunity because of my father.

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And he said, now that I'm older, I embrace it because I understand what it means to represent that name.

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You know, you talked about kind of getting that fame at 43.

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Maybe then, if you had the girls, it wouldn't have been President Obama's daughter or Michelle Obama's daughter.

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But now it is.

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When you're having these conversations about life with your girls,

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how much do you impress upon them about making sure they make their own way.

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The challenge for us is letting us give them any help at all.

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I mean, they're very sensitive about this stuff.

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They're very stubborn about it.

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Malia, she's making movies.

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So she made her first movie.

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And I'll be a dad, I'll brag a little bit.

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She went to, right, she's working with Donald.

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And her first film went to Sundance and all these fancy film festivals.

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And she didn't use Obama as director on the credits.

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It said, Malia Ann.

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She used her middle name.

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Didn't put Obama on that.

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I was all like, you do know they'll know who you are.

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And she's all like, you know what?

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I want them to watch it that first time and not in any way have that association.

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So I think our daughters go out of their way to not try to leverage that.

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And, you know, growing up, the press was pretty good.

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You know, I basically made a deal with the press pool, the White House press corps.

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I said, you can follow me around.

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You can talk about me.

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You do whatever you need to do.

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Leave my children alone because they have the right to grow up.

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They didn't choose this, right?

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Let them grow up.

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And to the credit of the press, they did leave them alone.

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Now, as they've gotten older, there's been some paparazzi stuff going on.

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And it drives them nuts, you know, because their attitude is, we're not looking for all that.

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So they're grounded.

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When Michelle and I were talking about me running, our biggest concern was, will our kids end up weird?

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Right?

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Yeah.

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Because it's a weird situation.

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But I've talked about this.

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One of the great blessings was, A, we brought my mother-in-law,

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who recently passed and who was just an amazing woman I loved and she was the most down to earth, you know, south side, you know, straight up.

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Like if the kids misbehaved, she'd be like, y'all know you haven't done anything, right?

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You know, your parents have.

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Don't you guys start acting entitled.

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And so everybody was on watch to make sure

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that they both had a normal childhood and that they did not feel as if they got something that they hadn't earned.

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They've turned out amazing.

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I can't brag about them enough.

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To that point, though, you...

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It's weird or, you know, normal, you say.

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Yeah.

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You can't live, they can't live, Michelle can't live normal forever.

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Like, honestly, like...

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We've seen these.

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You know, we've seen these big bastards walk in when you walked in.

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Like, yeah, if I get up right now, they're gonna jump on me.

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Like, that thought of that you can...

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You can't go run and grab something to eat if you want it.

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No. You can't just go on vacation, like...

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It's different.

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But is it worth it that the rest of your life is what it's gonna be?

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You know, I talked about this the other day, because somebody asked me, what do you miss most?

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Or what would you like to do?

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And the thing I miss is just walking around and nobody knowing who you are.

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Like, you don't realize how.. what a benefit that is until,

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you know, you try it and suddenly you got 100 people asking you for selfies and all that.

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But I also have to remind myself that's a high class problem to have, right?

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A guy who's been famous, more famous than me for a long time was Bruce Springsteen.

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And I've gotten to know him because he's been really supportive around a lot of issues and campaigns.

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And he said to me one time when I mentioned this,

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he said, Barack, that's the price you pay for living your dreams. And he's right, right?

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I mean, you know, you pursue something, you end up achieving what you want to achieve, and there are going to be some trade-offs.

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But I do miss it.

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I was joking the other day about there have been times where I thought about, yeah, we'll Try a disguise, you know, put some dreadlocks on,

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you know, get a beard, mustache, walk around.

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But even then, my daughters and my wife remind me, because sometimes we'll walk in some quiet places,

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and they'll say, don't talk now.

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Because it's true, if they hear me, you know.

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The other thing is the ears, they're too big.

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You know, I got to put on a hoodie or a cap or something.

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Because folks say, man, I've seen those ears before.

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The difference in, you know, your children's upbringing as to yours were they had both you and your wife in the home.

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That wasn't your experience.

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That wasn't the case for me.

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You know, and you said I've grown up Indonesian, Hawaiian, black, white.

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How have all those different perspectives and experiences shaped you to be who you are now?

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You know, it's interesting because, you know, I don't know if you guys have been to Hawaii.

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It is a blessed place to grow up as a kid because you're outside all the time.

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It's safe.

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And there are people from all different parts of the world.

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You know, everybody's mixed up.

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So as a kid, when I was young, it was just great because you're not thinking about it.

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When I became a teenager, it was more challenging because back then, there wasn't a big black population in Hawaii.

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There is now because a lot of the military bases, folks get stationed there, they look around and say, well, I might just stay here.

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And so now you've got a big black population.

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When I was a kid, though, like, just trying to get a haircut, trying to find a barber was tough, right?

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And to get the fro-right.

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Yeah, yeah.

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And so you're thinking about it, you're thinking, all right, what does it mean to be a black man?

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You're, you know, a lot of how I define myself came from sports, right?

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It came from basketball, came from, it came from movies, you know, you're watching Shaft and Superfly, you know.

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And it wasn't until I moved to mainland that I think, you know, being in a community where I was in the majority all the time,

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I think makes you feel like, all right, you can take a breath and just be you.

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But I think now, once I became an adult,

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the main thing it did was it made me just recognize how people are people.

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Everybody's got different experiences, right?

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So we have, as African Americans, we have a specific culture.

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We have gone through specific things we can relate to certain experiences,

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food, music, parties, right, that are just different because of that specific culture.

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But one thing I've come to see and recognize, because one of the great things being a president is you go everywhere,

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you meet people from all walks of life, you see everybody.

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And what you realize is, you know, the basic stuff about people wanting respect, wanting to be seen, people wanting to support their families,

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people wanting to, their children do better than them, that kind of stuff is more universal than you think, right?

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It may play out in different ways.

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But you know, I remember when I first started campaigning in like Iowa, and we're in the middle of the cornfields

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and we'd go into some counties and it's 95 percent white

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and my name is Barack Hussein Obama and you know I'm from Chicago

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and some of my team or staff were worried about how would these people react.

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And then you go into somebody's house and they got like the Jell-O mold

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and they got the you know the Ritz crackers with the cheese whiz

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and you know they got the doilies and the little figurines, and it's like, oh, that's my grandmother.

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You know, oh, that's Michelle.

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We talk about her family, who I love.

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You know, these are folks originally from South Carolina,

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come to Chicago, Southside, never really left their little place.

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But the way they interacted, how important family was, what they cared about, really wasn't that different from those folks in downstate Illinois.

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That people, you'd think there's nothing in common, but actually there's a lot in common.

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And that's the kind of politics I tried to present, right?

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Which is, look, we've all got different experiences and things aren't always fair, and let's be honest about that.

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I will come to you believing that I can understand where you're coming from and what your life's like, and I expect you to be able to understand me.

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I'm not gonna assume that we have to be divided, or that we're not gonna be able to somehow find common ground.

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You know, and finding common ground, it's, I just, I remember the night you won.

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And the older people in my life legitimately shedding tears because I'm sure you've heard it.

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I never thought I'd live long enough to see a black man be elected president.

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And also part of that feeling is you weren't just electing a black man, you were electing this great man.

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And sometimes you put these great men on pedestals that make them hard to touch, tough to reach.

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And so now that you've moved out of that presidency

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and now you're trying to connect with these different communities

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and teach them different things and sort of hit them to what's going on.

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Right.

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Tell me why it is that the black community now, the young black men now, should feel that Barack Obama who can't walk into a store,

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who can't go grocery shop or cut his grass anymore, how could we relate to him?

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I think one of the blessings of being an African American, I'm not saying it's unique to us,

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but I do think it's true for black folks who've been successful, is you got somebody in your family who's not.

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Yeah.

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Right?

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So that's true for everybody, all of us here, right?

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And so when we have a barbecue or a Thanksgiving at our house,

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we got folk from all walks of life and friends that we,

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you know, go back 40 years and who are still struggling, still trying to pay the bills,

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still dealing with, you know, the rent.

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And so in that sense, I'm lucky.

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Michelle and I, we didn't come from privilege.

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And so there's no doubt our lives now are different.

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But our memories and our relationships have not changed that much, right?

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If I'm talking to my barber, you know, that's somebody I've known for a long time.

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You remember when I could only afford to cut my hair once a month and it looked raggedy.

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But $20, that was like dinner for like, you know, a while.

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And so you don't forget that kind of stuff.

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But look, what I think I try to do, whether it's during political season like now, where I'm trying to give people information,

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or with our foundation, the Obama Foundation, where really our mission is to coach and develop the next generation of leaders.

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Who's the Barack Obama out there or the Michelle Obama out there right now, not just here in the United States, but in other parts of the world,

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who are doing amazing things on health care or education?

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And we'll bring them together and coach them and give them a platform, lift them up, create networks for them.

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But I, what I'm constantly trying to do is to expose them to how stuff works

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and let them know that they've got power and they've got agency.

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And so any person and any young man that I meet, my message to them is,

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look, I was raised by a single mom.

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I was paying off student loans until I was 40,

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because nobody was there to pay for my college education.

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We were scrapping and scraping together enough money to buy that first condo after we were married.

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And so I have some sense of the challenges involved.

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But what I also want folks to know is that you have power.

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And the question is then how can you use it?

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Because we've all had this experience.

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This isn't unique to me.

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And Michelle and I, we always talk about this when we are mentoring young people.

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We always tell them, do not let people think you do not belong.

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Because I promise you, once you sit at these tables, at these fancy places, with folks with fancy titles,

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and they got a big bank account, and you talk to them, and you go, oh.

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They ain't all that.

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Yeah.

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Right?

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This idea that somehow they are so special, they're so smart, they're so sophisticated, not really.

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They've been exposed.

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They've been given the confidence of feeling like they belong.

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But if you sit down and talk to them, turns out, hmm, they just folk.

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Yep, normal people.

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Normal people.

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Yeah.

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What'd you always say about if you could speak English?

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We could talk to anybody that speaks English.

454

Like, I don't care where you at, what, you know, what money you have, what you own, what this, what that.

455

If you speak English, I could sit down and talk with you.

456

That's my point benefit for Michelle and me because we came up, you know, and at each stage,

457

you know, you, you, you go to Harvard and wow, it's Harvard.

458

And then you find out, oh, Harvard's full of some fools and people that you would not put in charge of anything, but they're there.

459

And there's some really amazing, brilliant people too.

460

And then you go to, uh, you know, the U.S.

461

Senate And you look around and, you know, everybody's represented.

462

Smart people and dumb people.

463

Good people and bad people.

464

And then you now suddenly you're meeting at the group of,

465

you know, seven world leaders are all in a room, or the United Nations.

466

And, oh, same thing.

467

You know, it turns out that there's some really smart,

468

amazing world leaders and there's some foes you know running countries

469

and and so part of what I try to do with I think the young men

470

that I talked to is just to try to be honest

471

with them about the struggles I went through the fact that

472

when I was a teenager I was messing up I remember

473

meeting with a group of high school boys one time

474

and they were shocked when I started telling them yeah man I was getting high

475

and screwing around not doing what I was supposed to to do and they're sitting there because,

476

you know, there's a picture of me in their classroom when they were in elementary school.

477

And so for them to hear the fact that, no, I went through the same things you did.

478

That's the message that I want.

479

And then to say to them, but you know what, you've got the power to make choices

480

and to move in a direction where there's no reason why you can't achieve, you can't empower yourself, you can't pursue the dreams you want.

481

politics is part of that and voting is part of that

482

and you know that that's your birthright as a citizen don't give it away.

483

Right I brought my book well actually your book The Audacity of Hope.

484

Reclaiming the American Dream.

485

I left it in a hotel so I was going to ask for all of that.

486

You're going to send it to me and I'm going to sign it.

487

Thank you I appreciate it.

488

But you spoke to all people in the book.

489

You spoke about optimism, call to action and really just believing in the people.

490

To us, how can you describe to us the urgency in this election as black men?

491

So I'll be honest.

492

I do not think that Democrats have a monopoly on wisdom,

493

and I don't want Democrats to ever take black folks for granted.

494

And I respect every person evaluating both sides in any election, any debate.

495

You should get to know what does this candidate stand for, what does that candidate stand for.

496

The truth is, historically, initially the Republican Party was the party of Abraham Lincoln in freeing the slaves.

497

And for a long time, Democrats, their base was in the South, and the Dixiecrats, they were pro-Jim Crow.

498

And then it flipped during the Civil Rights Movement after Lyndon Johnson signed that law for voting rights and civil rights,

499

that changed and a lot of the South moved into the Republican Party.

500

So my point is that no one party you should take for granted.

501

I will say this.

502

Right now, that the candidate that I'm campaigning for,

503

Kamala Harris, I think stands for the kinds of inclusive opportunity,

504

treating everybody with respect, believing that we have some obligations to each other, believing that if there's poor children,

505

whether they're in inner city or in a rural community,

506

that they deserve the same kinds of opportunities and good education and a chance to get a good job as anybody else.

507

I think Kamala Harris believes in the idea that we don't want to have people out there who don't have health care, so that if they get sick,

508

suddenly they'll be losing their house or they can't look after their children.

509

I think she believes that the criminal justice system should treat everybody the same, and that we should try to eliminate bias from our criminal justice system.

510

And so she's proved that whether it's, you know, supporting Obamacare and expanding it,

511

making sure that we're providing entrepreneurial opportunities for small businesses,

512

and part Part of her platform is to build new housing so that we can make housing more affordable.

513

She's proved time and time again that that's, her orientation is, this is how we can help communities.

514

Donald Trump, he's got the opposite orientation.

515

And this is somebody who has a history of looking down and disparaging people who are not like him.

516

And this is not, this is well documented, right?

517

I mean, his father built a business not renting two black people

518

and was very explicit about it and was sued for it.

519

And when Donald Trump wasn't even in politics, you have the case of the Central Park Five,

520

where five young black kids,

521

teenagers, are accused of beating a woman in Central Park.

522

And he's taking out full-page ads saying they should be put to death.

523

Turns out they were innocent.

524

When I was president, you know, he essentially got his political lift by suggesting I wasn't born in this country.

525

Didn't matter what birth certificates we have.

526

So you start from the premise that I'm not going to vote for somebody who does not see me as an equal.

527

How is he going to represent me if he does not think

528

that I am worthy of the same kind of representation as his kids are?

529

And then from there you look at specific issues and you say to yourself, well, you know, this This is not a guy who has ever shown

530

that he is particularly interested in communities outside of rich folks and members of his golf country club.

531

And so I say that not just to black men.

532

I'd say that to working people.

533

Here's a guy who built his business where he wouldn't pay workers who built his building.

534

And he'd stiff them, knowing that if they tried to sue for their wages, that he'd just throw a bunch of lawyers at them.

535

They couldn't do nothing about it.

536

That's his orientation.

537

That's his starting point.

538

And so now, what I'll hear from some brothers is, well, you know, I got a check during the pandemic.

539

And then I've got to explain to them, well, actually, you got a check from Biden, too, during the pandemic.

540

He didn't put his name on it.

541

He wasn't self-promoting.

542

During the financial crisis in 2008, 2009, I gave you guys relief, and I just didn't put my name on it.

543

So sometimes it's necessary to clear up information.

544

People will say, well, prices went up.

545

I remember those first two years when Trump was president, it seemed like prices were lower, and so I had more money in my pocket.

546

And I've got to say, yeah, the economy was good, because that was my economy that I just handed off to him.

547

So the first two years, he was benefiting from all the work we had done for eight years, cleaning things up.

548

So don't be fooled by that.

549

So it's a combination of specific issues.

550

But maybe more important is, what are the values and the character of the people who are running?

551

And if Kamala Harris knows you, knows your life, went to an HBCU,

552

has, you know, just like we were talking about earlier, family who is middle class,

553

working class, who struggled, who knows how sometimes opportunities are blocked through no fault of the people involved just

554

because they haven't had a chance, and wants to do the work to help those folks.

555

And you've got another person who looks down on you and disregards you.

556

Well, you know, to me, that should not be a tough choice.

557

And I'm sure you guys hear this from friends of yours, you know, maybe your kids are starting to get to the age where they vote.

558

I think sometimes you also hear folks say, you know what, this just isn't going to make much of a difference.

559

Because everything seems like it's the same.

560

It doesn't matter who's up in there.

561

And part of what I try to say to them is, real talk, whoever's president's not going to solve every problem.

562

No president, I was president for eight years.

563

I didn't eliminate racism.

564

I didn't solve poverty.

565

I said, that's not the way to think about it.

566

The way to think about it is who's going to make things a little better for you or a little bit worse?

567

So when I was president, we passed a health care bill that gave 50 million people health care.

568

And Kamala, as part of the Biden administration, helped to make medicine cheaper for seniors.

569

So that's making your family's life a little better.

570

Doesn't solve every problem, it solves some of it.

571

And the flip side is, you have a president who doesn't care about you, it can make things worse.

572

So I've been using the example during COVID.

573

We had a whole plan before COVID had happened, when I was still president.

574

We anticipated there was gonna be a pandemic.

575

We put together a whole playbook, Big, thick book.

576

Here's what you do if there's a pandemic.

577

We practiced it, had all our agencies practice it.

578

Here's how you deal with the schools.

579

Here's how you deal with public health agencies to minimize the disruption.

580

Now, whoever was president, COVID was going to be a dose.

581

People were going to die.

582

Businesses were going to close.

583

It was going to be a problem.

584

It hadn't happened in 100 years.

585

But Canada had a 60% lower death rate than America.

586

60%.

587

A million people died in the United States.

588

If we had done a better job, that's 600,000 people who might be alive.

589

Disproportionately African American, black people and brown people.

590

Well, you know what?

591

If 100,000, 200,000 of our grandparents,

592

aunties, uncles were alive, that's why you vote.

593

Yeah.

594

Because things can get worse or they can get better.

595

And I think right now we've got a real stark choice.

596

And I think Kamala Harris will be an excellent president.

597

And I think Donald Trump has already proven he was not a very good president.

598

And that should be enough.

599

And I always tell folks, it takes half an hour.

600

Y'all voting on American Idol.

601

Yeah.

602

Y'all talking...

603

Y'all voting on the NBA All-Star game.

604

You can't take half an hour?

605

They for sure voting on the Pro Bowl.

606

I know that's right.

607

You know, that brings up something very interesting, because the one thing, even though, you know, we asked the question about black men and voting,

608

you don't get to be just the black president.

609

And I think a lot of times there were people in our community

610

that held a grudge against you because you weren't just the black president.

611

We always...

612

We had Rex Ryan on, and he talked about he wished the world was like a locker room.

613

Right.

614

Right, that everybody came together with all their differences because they understood we had one goal.

615

One mission.

616

How would you advise any president, any leader, to learn to be our president, our leader?

617

Look, it starts from what we were just talking about, was what's your values?

618

And I'm always going to have an affinity for the black community.

619

I've got a black wife, black children, black family.

620

And so I'm going to be sensitive to the particular challenges of my community.

621

But I can't forget that everybody else, they've got their own challenges.

622

There are a bunch of white folks out there struggling.

623

There are a bunch of Hispanic folks struggling.

624

And so part of how I'm thinking about it is, how can I make sure that all those folks who are struggling feel a common cause

625

so we can all solve the problem, right?

626

We can all be on one team combating a lack of health care, combating poverty, combating low wages,

627

combating, you know, rents too high.

628

And I was always trying to find those areas where I can find some common interest

629

and build a majority to get stuff done.

630

Now, that doesn't mean that I, as president, I wasn't paying some attention to the particular challenges of some groups.

631

Eric Holder was my attorney general.

632

And he and I talked about the fact that most criminal law is actually at the state level, but federal level, you know,

633

we've got folks in jail mostly for drug stuff.

634

And I said to him, how are we thinking about prosecuting nonviolent drug offenses?

635

And it turned out that when we came into office, every U.S attorney was instructed, go for the maximum sentence, no matter what.

636

What Eric and I talked about was, why don't we give people an incentive?

637

Go for the just and proportional sentence rather than just the maximum.

638

And as a consequence during my presidency,

639

crime went down and the number of people in federal prisons also went down at the same time.

640

And so that's disproportionately affecting African Americans because we are disproportionately incarcerated.

641

But we didn't think about that as a, you know, racial issue per se.

642

We were just saying, let's use some common sense when it comes to how we're dealing with combating drugs.

643

And I think that ended up a lot of times being our strategy.

644

There are times where folks wanted me to be more the activist rather than the president.

645

And you know, part of what I always used to explain to folks is, you know what, we all have a different role to play.

646

You know, the prophetic leader, somebody like a Malcolm X, has a role to play from the outside.

647

But you also want folks on the inside who have a different role to play in terms of moving progress forward.

648

And as long as, and I like to think

649

that over the eight years I proved that I was moving us in the right direction,

650

there's always going to be some folks who want you to do more of this or more than that.

651

And being in politics, look, what y'all do in football is a whole different kind of thing. But in politics,

652

you do get toughened up just like y'all do in football where you just get used to taking some hits.

653

If you're going to play this game, you're going to take some hits.

654

We used to call folks who weren't on the field of battle on a daily basis civilians.

655

You know, somebody hurt their feelings because somebody tweeted something.

656

I was all like, dude, I got a thousand tweets, death threats.

657

Somebody's going to talk about me every day.

658

And you just get a thick skin the same way you guys, you know.

659

If I got hit one time the way you guys got hit, I'd be crying and...

660

That's why they always, every time you play basketball, they just let you score.

661

I've seen every video.

662

No defense.

663

I know that's not true.

664

Listen, I have a...

665

It is.

666

I have a photograph of a split lip.

667

I got 12 stitches right before I was about to speak.

668

I'll show it to you right now.

669

That was Michelle.

670

He get over all this deep.

671

No, you know what it was?

672

I might have gotten a black eye after the split lip, because she saw.. she came in, why are you still playing basketball?

673

You.. you got to be president.

674

You're a fool.

675

She was mad at me, because I walked in, I was all like...

676

She's all like, why are you covering your mouth like that?

677

I was like, sorry, honey.

678

And the question, the name of the show is The Pivot.

679

Everybody has to make pivots in life.

680

That's right.

681

Your biggest pivot in life, that moment, that situation, that decision you made that made you who you are today?

682

You know, biggest pivot for me in life was probably around the age of 19, 20.

683

I told you, yeah, I didn't know my dad.

684

And in high school, I, you know, I was a good-hearted kid,

685

but I was chasing girls and partying and playing basketball.

686

Didn't take my work that seriously.

687

And I remember my first, and that continued my freshman year of college.

688

My sophomore year in college, I remember two things happened.

689

What one is, my father passed away,

690

and I never really knew him. And the second thing

691

that happened was the African National Congress sent a couple of young guys from South Africa to represent their fight against apartheid.

692

And they came to the college campus and they spoke.

693

And I remember watching them and I remember thinking, these guys aren't that much older than me.

694

And they are battling so that the majority of people in their country have just basic rights.

695

And I remember thinking to myself,

696

you know what, I need to make my life count a little bit more than just enjoying myself.

697

I got to have some purpose.

698

And so I transferred schools and I got probably too serious.

699

I started like, you know, I lived in this little walk up and had one plate and one fork, one towel.

700

You know, I was like fasting on Sundays and I was reading books all the time.

701

Didn't go out.

702

I was no fun for like two years.

703

But I kind of had to go through that,

704

kind of swing in the opposite direction and just get real strict about my life just to reorient myself.

705

And that was probably the biggest break in my life, the biggest pivot, where I just said, you know what, you're in charge of your life.

706

You can do more than you're doing.

707

And let's see where it takes you.

708

Yeah, like I said, I went a little too far.

709

By the time I met Michelle, you know, she started talking about the fact that I only had one pair of shoes.

710

And she's all like, man, you need an upgrade.

711

Yeah, I'm...

712

You did, and also, too, you know, I'm sure people know, but it takes a lot of heart and gumption to pursue your supervisor at work.

713

You know what?

714

So just for your viewers who don't know the story, so I'm three years older than Michelle,

715

but I had worked as a community organizer in Chicago before I went to law school.

716

So Michelle had gone straight from college to law school.

717

So she had graduated when I started law school.

718

And so I went to work at this firm as a summer employee, summer associate.

719

And so they assigned her as my summer advisor.

720

She wasn't supervising nothing.

721

She was showing me where the Xerox machine was.

722

She was showing me, you know, how to keep your time sheets.

723

And she was taking me out to lunch, because they were trying to recruit me.

724

And so we'd do it on the firm's dime.

725

So it wasn't that hard.

726

I asked her out after knowing her about two weeks.

727

And she's all like, no, I can't, because I'm your supervisor.

728

I said, you're not supervising anything.

729

I said, you know what, I'll quit my job, and then you go out with me.

730

There we go.

731

And she said, no, I'm not doing that.

732

You know, I'm tired.

733

I'm not concentrating on men right now anyway, because y'all are trifling.

734

And, uh, but I was just charming.

735

And you still are.

736

So I'm just saying, I broke that.

737

I broke her down after a couple of weeks.

738

It was.

739

We are so grateful for your time.

740

We know how busy you are.

741

We said it before we got here.

742

This has always been a goal of ours.

743

And for you to make that happen and for all of the people to work with you to do that, it means the world to us.

744

Listen, man, I'm fans of you guys.

745

I mean it.

746

I think you guys do a great job.

747

I think these kinds of conversations are the kinds of conversations folks need to have.

748

And you guys, you know, sometimes you all acting silly.

749

But there's a seriousness to it.

750

You were mentioning men before.

751

One of the things I see is a lot of our men have gotten more isolated.

752

We're not having the same kinds of conversations we used to.

753

Everybody's on their phones.

754

Everybody's playing video games.

755

Sports, you know, I talk to basketball players.

756

They say the locker room's not the same as it used to be.

757

Folks aren't playing cards and stuff.

758

Everybody's just got their headphones on.

759

And I think having these kinds of conversations is helpful because,

760

you know, it helps us sort through what it means for us to, you know, try to do right by the people we love and by our communities.

761

And you guys are representing.

762

You're doing a good job.

763

Just don't work too hard now.

764

I'm gonna try not to.

765

We can't help.

766

Thank you so much.

767

Appreciate you, man.

768

That was great.

769

Appreciate you.

770

Yes, sir.

771

Thank you, man.

772

Appreciate you guys.

773

Man, it's an honor, brother.

774

Yes, sir.

775

They definitely was giving you over-office defense, though.

776

Man, I see us, like, ain't no way he that silky.

777

Everybody play off?

778

Yeah.

779

He ain't got dribbles like that.

780

You know what?

781

I have hung up my sneakers, but I might play you.

782

Oh, I wish.

783

Although the only thing is, football players, y'all don't know how to play.

784

We foul.

785

So all you do is you foul.

786

You basically just bang.

787

Yeah, I don't see a lot of finesse coming from RC.

788

And then we're gonna have everybody...

789

How about we share with you?

790

We can share with you, Matt.

791

Okay.

792

That's all right.

793

You got nervous too, huh?

794

Nah, he's...

795

Never seen him before.

796

Arms are sweaty.

797

Hands are sweaty.

798

Yeah, hands are sweaty.

799

Knees weak.

800

You just came out, you just gave him out there.

801

Yeah, he just gave him.

802

We good?

803

We got it?

804

Yeah, we good.

805

Come on, bro.

806

Get everybody in.

807

Let me say hi to everybody.

808

Oh, I'm sorry.

809

You're good.

810

Three, two, one.

811

Thank you.

812

Introduce me to everybody.

813

What's your name?

814

Kayade, sir.

815

Kayade.

816

Where are you from, Coyote?

817

Nigeria.

818

Nigeria.

819

Good to see you, brother.

820

He said his whole name.

821

Nice to meet you.

822

Good to see you, brother.

823

So it's KK to everybody else.

824

What's your name?

825

You meet the president, you give me your real name?

826

Hey, come on, man.

827

Hit the middle.

828

My father here to witness it, got my people feeling militant Way I'm feeling get me up, on a mission get me up

O que é a Técnica de Shadowing?

Shadowing é uma técnica de aprendizado de idiomas com base científica, originalmente desenvolvida para o treinamento de intérpretes profissionais. O método é simples, mas poderoso: você ouve áudio em inglês nativo e repete imediatamente em voz alta — como uma sombra seguindo o falante com 1-2 segundos de atraso. Pesquisas mostram melhora significativa na precisão da pronúncia, entonação, ritmo, sons conectados, compreensão auditiva e fluência na fala.

Prática de Shadowing: Barack Obama shares personal stories & experiences: Family, leadership, sports & marriage |The Pivot - Aprenda a falar inglês com vídeo

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O que é a Técnica de Shadowing?