Speaking from Poland Saturday, President Obama addressed fears that the nation was slipping back into the racial turbulence of the 1960s, stressing that "Americans of all races" were "rightly outraged" by the police killings in Dallas last week. Reuters reports:
“First of all, as painful as this week has been, I firmly believe that America is not as divided as some have suggested,” Obama said.
“Americans of all races and all backgrounds are rightly outraged by the inexcusable attacks on police, whether it’s in Dallas or any place else,” he said, speaking at a news conference during a trip to Poland. “That includes protesters. It includes family members who have grave concerns about police conduct, and they have said that this is unacceptable.” [...]
“The demented individual who carried out those attacks in Dallas, he’s no more representative of African-Americans than the shooter in Charleston was representative of white Americans or the shooter in Orlando or San Bernardino were representative of Muslim-Americans,” Obama said, referring to a string of mass shootings in the past year.
“We cannot let the actions of a few define all of us,” he added.
Obama repeatedly addressed last week's violence while attending a NATO summit in Warsaw, first in the wake of videos showing the shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile and then again following the shootings of five Dallas police officers during a Black Lives Matter protest.