During a town-hall style event on London on Saturday, President Barack Obama offered an indirect critique of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The president also encouraged activists to engage with the political process and cautioned them that social change can be a slow and incremental process.
“Once you’ve highlighted an issue and brought it to people’s attention and shined a spotlight, and elected officials or people who are in a position to start bringing about change are ready to sit down with you, then you can’t just keep on yelling at them,” he said.
The New York Times reports the president made the remarks at a meeting with young people on the second day of his visit to Europe during which he championed a new trade deal between the United States and the European Union.
The president also praised the movement as being “really effective in bringing attention to problems.”
He went on to say that solving a problem sometimes means accepting a series of partial solutions.
“You then have a responsibility to prepare an agenda that is achievable, that can institutionalize the changes you seek, and to engage the other side, and occasionally to take half a loaf that will advance the gains that you seek, understanding that there’s going to be more work to do, but this is what is achievable at this moment.”
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