Obama was America's first mixed race president of European and African descent, His Mother was American and was born in Kansas and was a mix of English, Welsh, German, Swiss and Irish. Obamas Father was from Kenya. He served as the 44th President of the United States from 2009-2017 after previously serving as a US Senator for Illinois from 2005-2008 and the state senator from 1997 to 2004. Ending his term, one year prior to the movies release. Obama would end up openly discussing racial issues from 2014 and condemned the acquittal of George Zimmerman following the killing of Trayvon Martin, stating that 35 years ago, it could have been him who was shot. Obama has been criticised for stirring racial division and worsening racial relations by openly opposing the police for incidents leading to the deaths of African-Americans, alternatively Obama was also criticised by Racial Activists for expressions of empathy for the police. In a March 2016 Gallup Poll, nearly a third of all Americans claimed they were significantly worried about race relations, a higher figure than in any previous Gallup poll since 2001. Obama temporarily reduced employment rates as they fell to 9.7 percent in the first quarter of 2010 and then down to 9.6 percent in the second quarter and eventually falling to 6.3 percent in the first quarter of 2014 after reaching its peak of 10 percent in 2009 and increasing again by 0.8 percent in late 2010, a higher amount than on average during comparable periods. Obama also increased incomes with the economy expanding at a rate of 2.9 percent in 2010 and increased employment by 12.1 million, however this was across all races and didn't provide specific help for minority groups.
During the presidency, Trump vowed to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act and expressed a desire to let Obamacare fail, His administration rolled back key parts of Obama's workplace protections against LGBTQ discrimination. Trump's attempt to rollback anti-discrimination protections for transgender patients was halted by a federal judge after Supreme Court ruling extended employees civil rights. Trump took an anti-marijuana position, so it revoked Obama-era policies which provided protection for state-legalised marijuana. Trump reduced the budget for funding for research conducted on renewable energy by 40 percent and would reverse policies aimed at reducing climate change introduced during the Obama presidency.
Trump withdrew from the Paris agreement, which caused the U.S to be the only nation to not ratify it. Trump also withdrew the U.S from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
The Black Lives Matter campaign was formed in 2013 as a response to the killings of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Rekia Boyd. Trayvon Martin was a 17 year-old African American from Florida who was killed by a fatal gun shot wound in a self of act defense when he attacked neighbourhood watch officer George Zimmerman who is a multi-racial man who identifies as Hispanic. Trayvon was unarmed and meeting with his Father, his Father accompanied him to visit his Fathers fiancée at her house at the retreat at twin lakes in Sanford, Zimmerman became suspicious of Martin and called the police after he was seen walking back to the fiancées house from a nearby convenience store, at the 7-Eleven Martin had bought a bag of skittles and an Arizona watermelon drink, afterwards Martin attacked him and was shot by a pistol George was licensed to carry, in the chest. Michael Brown was killed in an incident, where he attacked police officer Darren Wilson and was shot, claims were made that Brown held up his hands and said don't shoot, which protestors would later use as a slogan, this event inspired a mixture of protest and violent rioting in Ferguson. Michael who was 18 years old, was with his friend Dorian Johnson, who was 22-years old at the time, Michael attacked Wilson for control of Wilson’s service pistol, causing the altercation. Eric Garner was approached on suspicion of selling single cigarettes from packs without proper taxation, Garner expressed he was tired of being harassed by police and refuted the claim he was selling cigarettes, the officers attempted to arrest Garner, when Pantaleo placed his hand on Garner, Garner pulled it away, Pantaleo then placed his arms around his neck and wrestled him to the ground. After multiple officers pinned him down, Garner repeated the phrase, ‘I can’t breathe’ whilst he was laying face down on the concrete, after losing consciousness seven minutes passed whilst the police officers waited for an ambulance to arrive. An hour later, he was pronounced dead at a hospital area. Rekia Boyd was killed by an off-duty police officer named Dante Servin, who had drove his car to the west-side of Chicago after calling the police to make a noise complaint. After approaching a group of four who had been partying at the park, he had a verbal altercation. One of the victims of the shooting Antonio cross believed Dante Servin was looking for a drug dealer, so told Servin to get his ‘crackhead ass’ out of there. Servin responded by shooting at the group as one of the members was holding a cellphone he believed to be a gun, which hit Antonio in the hand and Rekia Boyd in the head. Black Lives Matter would protest against police brutality and racism with a mix of protests and violent riots.
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