In what the press is praising as a "deeply personal response" to the rash of riots and protests across the country, President Obama said Monday that there's "no dispute" that minorities are racially discriminated against by law enforcement and said, "There are consequences to indifference."

Obama made the remarks while promoting a new foundation intended to help young minorities to overcome what he described as a feeling of "unfairness and powerlessness" due to lack of opportunity and resources. Obama repeatedly affirmed the outrage of "Black Lives Matters" movement in a series of appearances during his visit to New York, including a speech at Lehman College in the Bronx, an event with major Democratic Party fundraisers in Manhattan, and an appearance on David Letterman.

"[Minorities] experience being treated differently by law enforcement — in stops and in arrests, and in charges and incarcerations," Obama said. "The statistics are clear, up and down the criminal justice system. There's no dispute."

"For far too long, for decades, we have a situation where too many communities don't have a relationship of trust with the police," Obama told Letterman, adding that the minority men need to know we are going to "invest" in them "before you have problems with the police."

Obama did note during his remarks at Lehman college that police are placed in a difficult position when they are forced to go into communities that have "no hope."

"We ask police to go into communities where there is no hope," he said. "Eventually, something happens because of the tension between society and these communities, and the police are just on the front lines of that."

That hopelessness, he argued, was due to economics and education (and apparently has nothing to do with political leaders who repeatedly tell minorities they have no chance to succeed without them).

The president personalized the cause by noting his own experience growing up with a father. "I grew up without a dad," he said. "I grew up lost sometimes and adrift, not having a sense of a clear path." But, he said, he was lucky enough to have people who cared for him. 

The new foundation, My Brother's Keeper Alliance, was formed out of the My Brother's Keeper program, which attempted to provide education and job opportunities to minorities by acquiring federal grants and lobbying to change policy. Obama said the foundation was trying to "help to change those odds" for minorities. 

AP notes that the foundation might be a "building block for Obama's post-presidential pursuits." Amid the scandals surrounding the Clinton Foundation, Obama's new organization is currently trying to be circumspect in its donation policy.

"The White House will not be involved in determining what their fundraising policies should be," explained WH spokesman Josh Earnest, who noted that "transparency" is the president's priority. 

Video via AP.