US President Barack Obama Says Race Relations Have Improved, But There Is Still Work To Be Done

U.S. President Barack Obama said in a commencement speech Saturday that race relations have improved during the past three decades, but that significant work still needs to be done. “I tell you this not to lull you into complacency but to stir you into action because there’s still so much work to do,” Obama told about 2,300 Howard University graduates in Washington.

The U.S. has a racial gap in economic opportunities, Obama said, noting that the overall unemployment rate is about 5 percent and that the comparable rate among African-Americans is almost 9 percent.