While his presidency has often been described as post-racial, events have sometimes occurred that forced President Barack Obama to speak directly on race, with varying degrees of elegance and success. On Thursday, however, Obama purposefully announced an intensely personal initiative he called "My Brother's Keeper."

Obama's project has the goal of helping young Black and Hispanic men to succeed, and the president announced the initiative surrounded by young men from the Becoming a Man (BAM) counseling program for kids growing up in dangerous and underprivileged Chicago neighborhoods.

After an introduction from one of BAM's kids whom Obama met with last February and subsequently invited to the White House, Obama spoke in personal detail about his upbringing and how he identifies with young at-risk minorities today.

"I made bad choices. I got high, not always thinking about the harm it could do. I didn't always take school as seriously as I should have," said Obama at the White House press event today. "I made excuses," he continued, "Sometimes I sold myself short." Obama also recounted that when he recounted those details to the BAM group, one of the boys asked if the president was really talking about himself (or rather describing their challenges).

To "start a different cycle," as the president described it, according to the AP, Obama's My Brother's Keeper initiative will involve businesses, non-profits, and community groups to help create more programs like BAM. "If we help these wonderful young men become better husbands and fathers and well-educated, hardworking, good citizens," said Obama, "then not only will they contribute to the growth and prosperity of this country, but they will pass those lessons on to their children, on to their grandchildren."

According to the White House, programs fostered by My Brother's Keeper will focus on reducing violence, helping students stay in school, and cultivating career opportunities for young Latino and Black men.

As part of the initiative, Obama is issuing a Presidential Memorandum that establishes an interagency task force that will assess "what public and private efforts are working and how to expand upon them, how the Federal Government's own policies and programs can better support these efforts, and how to better involve State and local officials, the private sector, and the philanthropic community in these efforts."

The ultimate goal of the task force is to discover and strategically recommend innovative "best practices" for the non-profits and at-risk programs, coordinating efforts across the community. The initiative has already gained $150 million in support from a network of foundations and businesses, with another $200 investment over the next five years.

The My Brother's Keeper initiative comes at a time after Obama's 2014 State of the Union address, when the president indicated that he would find ways to pursue his initiatives, with or without Congressional legislation. The White House said that data shows young Latino and Black men are disproportionately at risk during their formative years, citing as an example reading proficiency statistics that show that over 80 percent of minority boys read below their grade level by the fourth grade, compared to 58 percent of white boys. It also cited the swelling criminal justice system's drag on state budgets, arguing, "The effort launched today is focused on unlocking the full potential of boys and young men of color -- something that will not only benefit them, but all Americans."