President Obama has weighed in on the latest outbreak of protests following the Eric Garner decision. Speaking to the network BET, Obama referenced his recent meeting with Ferguson activists to say that “deeply rooted” racism will take a long time to defeat.

President Obama: “What I told the young people who I met with — you know, we’re going to have more conversations like this over the coming months — is, this isn’t going to be solved overnight. This is something that is deeply rooted in our society, it’s deeply rooted in our history. When you’re dealing with something as deeply rooted as racism or bias in any society, you’ve got to have vigilance, but you have to recognize that it’s going to take some time, and you just have to be steady, so that you don’t give up when we don’t get all the way there.”

Protests are expected to continue throughout the week, including a national march on the White House this Saturday.