Minutes after the nation’s 45th president took the oath of office— mired in controversy, awash in financial conflict, and loathed by broad swaths of the electorate—his predecessor boarded a decommissioned Air Force One with one of the strongest approval ratings of any other outgoing commander-in-chief in the modern era. The first black president will go down in history as one of the most profoundly gracious and brilliant men to inhabit the office.
However, in matters most closely associated with systemic racial inequities—despite near fanatical support among African Americans—it is difficult to ascertain measureable and sustainable impacts from his eight years in office. Notwithstanding the immensely powerful symbolism of an Obama presidency, there remain reasonable questions about whether he acted with enough intention when it came to decidedly black issues.