In his first public remarks since a national wave of civil unrest over the deaths of black people at the hands of law enforcement, former President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that the protests—as well as the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic disaster—have “thrown into high relief” the structural and societal challenges faced by people of color in the United States. But, Obama said during a livestream hosted by the Obama Foundation’s My Brother’s Keeper Alliance for young black men, “as tragic as these past few weeks have been, as difficult and scary and uncertain as they’ve been, they’ve also been an incredible opportunity for people to be awakened to some of these underlying trends.”

Obama, who did not mention President Donald Trump by name in his roughly 15-minute remarks, said that he was inspired by the demographics of the protesters who have taken to the streets of cities across the nation since the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police last week. “Although I was very young when you had riots and protests and assassinations and discord [of the 1960s], I know enough about that history to say, there is something different here,” Obama said. “That’s a direct result of the activities and the organizing and mobilizing and engagement of so many young people across the country who put themselves on the line to make a difference.”