President Obama and Misty Copeland Open Up About Race

From the time she was a young girl, Copeland says her mother warned her that being biracial could impede her ballet career. "She made it very clear to me that yes, you're Italian and you're German and you are black, but you are going to be viewed by the world and by society as a black woman and you should be prepared for that," Copeland says. "It doesn't matter if you're a ballet dancer, if you're an attorney, whatever it is you're trying to do, you're going to be faced with these obstacles."

President Obama says while many people thought his presidency would shift racial views and subdue racial tension throughout the country, he never believed it could. "I remember people talking about how somehow this was going to solve all of our racial problems, and I wasn't one of those who subscribed to that notion," Obama says.

Rather, he says, "My view is that the strength of having been a minority on the receiving end of discrimination is that it should make you that much more attuned toward anybody who is vulnerable—and that includes being concerned with the struggles whites have in this society." After all, he points out, "when you look at how social change has happened throughout history, including in our country, it's been because we can project ourselves into the circumstances of other people."

Both President Obama and his wife, Michelle, try to impress upon their two daughters that racism and racial discrimination persists. "What I try to always transmit to my kids is that issues of race, discrimination, tragic history of slavery and Jim Crow, all those things are real," he says. "You have to understand them and be knowledgeable about them. And recognize that they didn't stop overnight. Certainly not just when I was elected."

You can read the full transcript of the revealing interview here.