President Obama is nearing the end of his time in office and he s taking stock of everything that has happened since his first election   including a very special message to the people who refused to vote for him based solely on the color of his skin.Back in Illinois to celebrate the ninth anniversary of his entry into national politics, Obama sat down for fascinating interview with Christi Parsons, along with several of Obama s former political mentors. As usual, the President was adamant that the only way forward for America is to end the kind of political partisanship that hampers any progress. Nobody knows this better than he does. The challenges Obama faced as president often came not from natural disasters, hostile enemies, or unforeseen economic setbacks, but simple sabotage from lawmakers who were hoping to score a few cheap political points at the expense of America.This was, after all, the president who dealt with a Congress whose senate leader claimed early into Obama s first term that his number one objective was ensuring Obama lost his next election.But while Obama was characteristically optimistic that America could be better than the ugliness he had seen, it was when the conversation turned to racism that he really delivered the knockout punch. The group was skeptical of whether Obama was the victim of merely partisan bickering or if there was another factor going on. I think they were afraid of you, more so than anybody else. It s one thing   like with George Bush or anybody else, they may think, well, we might suffer through him for two years   or two terms, but I think they were actually afraid of you. They were afraid of you for a couple of reasons. Number one, you were black. And I talk to my Republican friends   and I ve got a lot of them   and that s all they could ever talk about, was the race card, the race. You know,  he s a nice guy,  he s this, he s that, but he s black. Well, get over it. For anyone who has been paying any attention to the way Obama has been treated during his time in office, this should be a familiar story. It s no coincidence that this president is the only one in history to have to deal with years of  serious  reporters on  respected  news networks like Fox (fair and balanced, remember?) suggesting that he might not be from the United States. It s no coincidence that Obama is often depicted at Tea Party rallies in highly racist iconography. Sadly, it may be the 21st century but many Americans still have a HUGE hang up about race.Obama seems aware of all of this, but he turns the tables on the depressing narrative in a brilliant way. Look, I ve always said this, that I have no doubt that there are people who voted against me because of race, or didn t approve of my agenda because of race. I also suspect there were a bunch of people who were excited and voted for me, or I got political benefits because of the notion of the first African American President. So those things cut both ways.I think that a lot of proof that we are a lot further along than we were is I got reelected. So it would be one thing if the first time that it was just an accident. The second time, I won again. And each time I got more votes in consecutive terms. So despite the racism facing him, Obama really has proven just how far America has come. During his first election, nobody knew whether an African-American could successfully be elected. He was. The second election, an unquestionable trouncing of Whitest Guy On Earth Mitt Romney, just proved that things had only gotten better.Obama concludes: So although there s no doubt that there are pockets of the country where some dog whistles blow and there s underlying racial fears that may be exploited, overall, what s more the case I think is just the straight, hardball politics of running against an incumbent and beating the heck out of them and softening them up. Because if a whole bunch of stuff gets done, he s going to get the credit. In other words, after his first election Obama knew that it was time to put up or shut up. The best way to combat the  racial fears  and  dog whistles  was to succeed. It s clear that this strategy has been vindicated. Racism is by no means dead, but Obama s presidency will be defined not in  black and white  terms, but from a long list of victories and accomplishments.No doubt this is rage-inducing for the most racist Americans who had hoped to see the first black president fail. Instead, he proved them wrong and hastened their inevitable extinction. Not bad, Mr. President.Check out the full interview via the LA Times here.Featured image via The White House