In his first public remarks since protests over the death of George Floyd alighted cities coast to coast, the nation’s first African American president described the events of the last week “as profound as anything that I’ve seen in my lifetime.”

Yet, observing the protests, Obama said he sees an awakening in the country to the challenges and fears black Americans endure. The confluence of the coronavirus pandemic’s disparate effect on black communities and the killing of Floyd, a black man, by a police officer, who is white, has exposed America’s systemic racial injustices, he said.

Obama said he’s been heartened by the young people mobilizing these demonstrations, noting that youth have led nearly every major social change in the country. He noted that unlike the 1960s civil rights movement when African Americans mostly marched alone, the protesters now represent a cross section of races.

And he said he’s encouraged that a majority of Americans, despite the attention on “a tiny minority that engaged in violence” still believe the protesters are justified.

“That wouldn’t have existed 30, 40, 50 years ago. There is a change in mind-set that’s taking place, a greater recognition that we can do better,” Obama said.

Obama made his remarks during a virtual town hall hosted by his nonprofit, My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, created to address gaps in opportunity for young black men and boys.

He focused most of his comments on the need for policing reforms, imploring local leaders to implement policies devised by a task force the Obama administration created after the unrest in 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, after the killing of another black man, Michael Brown, by a white police officer.

Obama did not weigh in on the political tensions of the moment or the current White House’s response to the protests. The closest he came was at the end of the event when he said that those criticizing the protests should remember that America was founded on protest.

“And every step of progress in this country, every expansion of freedom, every expression of our deepest ideals has won through efforts that made the status quo uncomfortable,” he said.

Shortly before Obama’s event, former president Jimmy Carter released a statement on the “immorality of racial discrimination.

“We need a government as good as its people, and we are better than this,” Carter said.

Both former presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have also put out statements.

Obama also spoke directly to young black people, telling them, “I want you to know that you matter. I want you to know that your lives matter, that your dreams matter.”

“So I hope that you also feel hopeful, even as you may feel angry, because you have the power to make things better,” Obama continued, “and you have helped to make the entire country feel as if this is something that’s got to change.”