Obama cites racism building up over time

After a week of racially charged protests in Baltimore, President Barack Obama on Monday said that the residual effects of racism have built up over time and created inequality.

Speaking on one of the final episodes of the “Late Show With David Letterman,” Obama said the effects of slavery, Jim Crow laws and discrimination in American history have left minority communities at a disadvantage.

“We don’t have to accuse everybody of racism today to acknowledge that as part of our past. And if we want to get past that, everybody has to make a little bit of extra effort,” Obama said.

Earlier in the day, Obama spoke at Lehman College in the Bronx where he announced the launch of My Brother’s Keeper Alliance, a nonprofit organization that is a spinoff of a White House initiative to increase opportunities for young minority men. a spokeswoman said Monday.

Kerry will be in Riyadh on Wednesday and Thursday to meet with Saudi leaders to discuss regional security issues, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. Saudi Arabia has been leading a coalition conducting airstrikes on Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

After Riyadh, Kerry will go to Paris to meet with foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council nations to discuss security and other regional issues.

On Monday, Kerry was in Nairobi for a meeting with Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta. They discussed ways to counter the threat from the al-Shabab militant group.