--- title: Dallas Shooting: President Obama Says U.S. 'Not as Divided' description: President Obama cautioned Saturday that "America is not as divided as some have suggested," while acknowledging a week plagued by violence canonical: https://time.com/4399947/president-obama-u-s-division-dallas/ author: Katie Reilly article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-09T19:46:19.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:09:02.862Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama: America 'Not as Divided as Some Have Suggested' og:description: "We cannot eliminate all racial tension in our country overnight" og:url: https://time.com/4399947/president-obama-u-s-division-dallas/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1febeb6fdcb683ff/69889b54fb4eacf4ca88e3c3/barack-obama-dallas-shooting-divided.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: NATO Holds Warsaw Summit og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama: America 'Not as Divided as Some Have Suggested' twitter:description: "We cannot eliminate all racial tension in our country overnight" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1febeb6fdcb683ff/69889b54fb4eacf4ca88e3c3/barack-obama-dallas-shooting-divided.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # President Obama: America 'Not as Divided as Some Have Suggested'  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 9, 2016 7:46 PM UTC  U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to speak to the media at the conclusion of the Warsaw NATO Summit on July 9, 2016 in Warsaw, Poland. U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to speak to the media at the conclusion of the Warsaw NATO Summit on July 9, 2016 in Warsaw, Poland.Sean Gallup/Getty Images  by [Katie Reilly](https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Jul 9, 2016 7:46 PM UTC President Barack Obama on Saturday cautioned that “America is not as divided as some have suggested,” while acknowledging a week plagued by deadly violence involving law enforcement in the U.S. “Americans of all races and all backgrounds are rightly outraged by the inexcusable attacks on police, whether it’s in Dallas or anyplace else,” Obama said, referring to an [attack by a lone gunman Thursday](http://time.com/4399803/dallas-shootings-police-deaths/?xid=homepage) that left [five police officers dead](http://time.com/4397911/dallas-police-shooting-victims-sniper/) and seven wounded, the Associated Press reported. “That includes protesters,” Obama said, speaking from Warsaw, where he attended the NATO Summit. “It includes family members who have grave concerns about police conduct, and they’ve said that this is unacceptable. There’s no division there.” **Read more:** [Read President Obama’s Remarks About the Dallas Police Shooting](http://time.com/4398185/barack-obama-remarks-dallas-police-shooting/) The Dallas attack came during a peaceful protest over the [shooting deaths of two black men](http://time.com/4396220/philando-castile-minnesota-shooting/) by police officers earlier this week, fueling a national debate over [use of force by police](http://time.com/4394802/alton-sterling-police-shooting-baton-rouge/?xid=homepage) and racial disparities in the criminal justice system. But Obama rejected the idea that a dark era of U.S. history is repeating itself, saying Saturday that “we cannot eliminate all racial tension in our country overnight.” **Read more:** [Read President Obama’s Remarks On the Alton Sterling and Philando Castile Police Shootings](http://time.com/4397600/obama-alton-sterling-philando-castile-speech-transcript/) “You’re not seeing riots and you’re not seeing police going after people who are protesting peacefully,” he said, according to the AP. “You’ve seen almost uniformly peaceful protests and you’ve seen, uniformly, police handling those protests with professionalism.” Obama will cut his European trip short by one day and visit Dallas early next week. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4399947/president-obama-u-s-division-dallas/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4399947/president-obama-u-s-division-dallas/"},"headline":"President Obama: America 'Not as Divided as Some Have Suggested'","datePublished":"2016-07-09T19:46:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:09:02.862Z","description":"\"We cannot eliminate all racial tension in our country overnight\"","url":"https://time.com/4399947/president-obama-u-s-division-dallas/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","Crime","police","Dallas"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1febeb6fdcb683ff/69889b54fb4eacf4ca88e3c3/barack-obama-dallas-shooting-divided.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1febeb6fdcb683ff/69889b54fb4eacf4ca88e3c3/barack-obama-dallas-shooting-divided.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"NATO Holds Warsaw Summit","caption":"NATO Holds Warsaw Summit","creditText":"Sean Gallup/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4399947/president-obama-u-s-division-dallas/","name":"President Obama: America 'Not as Divided as Some Have Suggested'"}}]}] ```