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By Sara Fischer, CNN

updated 7:52 PM EST, Mon December 8, 2014

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Washington (CNN) -- President Barack Obama delivered a poignant personal promise to the American people Monday, vowing to continue to fight to improve racial tensions in America, given the "particular experiences" he brings to the office.

"I'm going to stay on this," the President said Monday in an interview with BET, a network that reaches a predominately young African-American audience. "Not only am I going to stay on it ... but hopefully the entire society says, 'Let's finally try to make some real progress on this.'"

Once criticized for shying away from the topic of race early on in his presidency, Obama has recently taken a more active role in sharing how his personal experiences help him to empathize with all kinds of people affected by the recent protests on racial tensions -- from protesters, to victims, to law enforcement officers, to families, and most importantly, to black youth.

In his interview with BET's "106 & Park," the President cited a meeting he had with nonviolent protesters Monday -- between ages 18-25. For him, he says, listening to young African-Americans describe their own experiences of being stopped for no reason, or being unjustly labeled as suspicious, strikes a personal chord.

"My mind went back to what it was like for me when I was 17, 18, 20," the President said. "As I told them, not only do I hear the pain and frustration of being subjected to that kind of constant suspicion, part of the reason I got into politics was to figure out how can I bridge some of those gaps and understandings so that the larger country understands this is not just a black problem or a brown problem, this is an American problem."

The President also made a point to invoke Attorney General Eric Holder's race and civil rights record, saying, "He's got a similar set of stories and experiences he can share."

While most of the protests across the country have been relatively peaceful, many of the gatherings have caused traffic delays and street closures. According the President, those are small prices to pay in order to achieve the larger goal of ending racial tensions in America.

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Obama gets personal