Barack Obama urges youth to feel 'hopeful', says 'you have power to change things'

Former US President Barack Obama on June 3 in an online Town Hall address urged young people to feel hopeful even as they may feel angry. Obama was speaking in a 'My Brother’s Keeper' event organised by the Obama Foundation on Wednesday, where he said the younger people in the country have the power to change things as they have communicated a sense of urgency among citizens that he says is as 'powerful and as transformative' as anything that he has ever seen. 

Read: Barack Obama Says It Is Time To Bring 'real Change'; Tells Youth 'your Lives Matter'

"There is something different here. You look at those protests and that was a far more representative cross-section of America out on the streets, peacefully protesting, who felt moved to do something because of the injustices that they have seen. That didn't exist back in the 1960s, that kind of broad collation," Obama said during the event. 

Read: Barack Obama Issues Statement On George Floyd's Death After Protests Rock United States

This is not the first time Obama has spoken on the killing of George Floyd. The United States' first black president issued a statement on May 29, where he said, "It’s natural to wish for life 'to just get back to normal' as a pandemic and economic crisis upend everything around us. But we have to remember that for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly 'normal' — whether it's while dealing with the health care system, or interacting with the criminal justice system or jogging down the street, or just watching birds in a park."

Read: "Probably The Only Thing Obama & I Have In Common...": Trump Counters 'Mad Dog' Attack

US protests

The United States is currently rattled by protests that erupted across the country over the killing of an African-American man George Floyd by a Caucasian police officer who choked him to death by pinning him on the ground with his knee. Several states have imposed a curfew and called in the National Guard to take control of the situation. Looting and vandalising continued for the seventh straight day in several cities with luxury stores and other properties destroyed and some burnt to ashes.

Read: Trump To Abandon Decades-long White House Portrait Ceremony With Obama: Report

(Image Credit: AP)