Former President Barack Obama long ago surpassed the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton as America's most influential race hustler. The country got a reminder when Obama spoke at Jackson's funeral even though Jackson's son urged the speakers "not to bring their politics" to the service.

Obama said: "Every day you wake up to things you just didn't think were possible. Each day, we're told by those in high office to fear each other, and to turn on each other. And that some Americans count more than others." Same old Obama.

In his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech, he famously declared, "There is not a Black America and a White America and Latino America and Asian America — there's the United States of America." It was the line that launched him and made millions across party lines believe he could bridge divides.

Obama won the presidency with just over 52% of the popular vote, but he entered the Oval Office in January 2009 with a nearly 70% approval rating. Polls in late 2008 and early 2009 showed both Black and white Americans believed race relations would improve under his leadership. By the time he left office in 2017, polls showed majorities or pluralities of both Blacks and whites thought race relations had gotten worse.

In Obama's eight years as president, he repeatedly whipped out the race card, injecting racial division into matters large and small while maintaining the image of a racial unifier who would heal America's deepest wounds.

In 2009, at the beginning of his presidency, he declared that the Cambridge police "acted stupidly" in arresting Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. Obama turned a cop-just-doing-his-job encounter with the belligerent Gates into a national "teachable moment" about alleged racial profiling by cops against blacks.

In 2012, about a young black man shot and killed by a self-described neighborhood Florida watchman, Obama said, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon." A jury found the man who shot Trayvon Martin not guilty, and jurors who spoke publicly said race had nothing to do with the encounter.

In a 2014 speech before the United Nations, Obama invoked the case of Ferguson, Missouri, to enlighten the world about America's supposed deep-seated problems with race relations. Later, the "hands up, don't shoot" narrative about Michael Brown's death turned out to be a complete lie, and the officer was exonerated.

Obama embraced Black Lives Matter's police-are-out-to-get-blacks rhetoric, despite evidence that, if anything, cops are more hesitant to pull the trigger on a black suspect than a white one.

In 2015, he proclaimed racism is in America's "DNA." Although the media for the most part fawned over Obama, first lady Michelle Obama insisted her husband suffered from unfair media coverage because of racism.

Obama invited fellow race hustler Sharpton to the White House over 70 times, more than any other "civil rights" figure. And, for good measure, Obama even argued that "a theoretical case" could be made for slavery reparations to be paid by non-slave owners and to non-slaves.

From the beginning of his presidency until its end, Obama stoked resentment, divided Americans by skin color and kept the race grievance industry alive and well oiled. The man Americans hired to unite us became the victicrat-in-chief, a title his Jackson eulogy shows he retains.

Trump-hating media still gives Obama a pass no Republican could ever dream of receiving. Imagine a Republican president doing even half of what Obama did: routinely injecting race into controversies, cozying up to a white Sharpton-like figure and rapping his arms around a toxic "movement" called White Lives Matter. The outrage would be endless, the headlines relentless — and rightfully so.

Obama's real legacy on race? Blacks are eternal victims — distressed, oppressed and suppressed by "The Man" — and trapped in a system rigged against them from birth to death. His own extraordinary rise, of course, contradicts this counterproductive message. Yet he persists in selling it to willing buyers.

Obama is still relatively young. So, he has decades ahead to remain a loud voice in the public square — and he possesses a warehouse full of race cards ready to be played. What a waste.

Larry Elder is a bestselling author and nationally syndicated radio talk-show host. To find out more about Larry Elder, or become an "Elderado," visit www.LarryElder.com. Follow Larry on X @larryelder. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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