Obama to Donald Trump: Black Communities Are Not in 'Worst Shape' Ever

President Obama criticized Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump's African-American outreach Friday on "Good Morning America," strongly rebutting the claim that black people in the United States are struggling more now than ever before.

"I think even most 8-year-olds will tell you that whole slavery thing wasn't very good for black people," the president said.

"Jim Crow wasn't very good for black people," he continued. "What we have to do is use our history to propel us to make even more progress in the future."

Trump has recently focused more of his rhetoric on the issues facing racial minorities, even while addressing mostly white audiences.

"Our African-American communities are absolutely in the worst shape that they've ever been in before. Ever. Ever. Ever," Trump said in speech Tuesday in Kenansville, North Carolina, that clearly drew the president's attention.

By mid-summer, multiple polls suggested Trump was performing quite poorly among racial minorities. Many polls even had his standing with black voters near 0 percent.

In trying to draw their support, Trump has repeatedly emphasized the struggles of African-Americans. However, some of his attempts to build bridges fell flat.

"You're living in poverty, your schools are no good, you have no jobs, 58 percent of your youth is unemployed — what the hell do you have to lose?" he said at an August rally in Michigan, which many interpreted as condescending, misinformed and overly broad.

Politifact rates the claim of 58 percent black youth unemployment as "mostly false."

In addition to the obvious counterexamples Obama cited, data on child poverty certainly suggests the black communities are not doing worse than ever before. While the percentage of black children in poverty was in the mid-40s at its highest in the '90s, it's been in the high 3os in recent years.

However, the data also suggest there's much room for society to improve. Black child poverty has remained stable, while other groups have seen improvement in recent years, and it is significantly higher than its lowest point around 30 percent in 2001.

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