Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) said Thursday at the Democratic presidential debate that he would be better at improving race relations in America than President Barack Obama.

Sanders said he thought the African-American community in particular had been gravely affected by the financial crisis.

“We are looking at an economy in which the rich get richer and the poor get poorer,” Sanders said. “And sadly in America today, in our economy, a whole lot of those poor people are African-American.”

Debate moderator Judy Woodruff asked Sanders to clarify whether he thought race relations would be better under a Sanders presidency “than they’ve been.” (Previously, she’d asked Hillary Clinton why she thought race relations would be better if she were President).

“Absolutely,” Sanders responded.

“Because what we will do is say, instead of giving tax breaks to billionaires, we are going to create millions of jobs for low-income kids so they’re not hanging out on street corners,” he explained. “We’re going to make sure that those kids stay in school or are able to get a college education. And I think when you give low-income kids, African-American, white, Latino kids the opportunities to get their lives together, they are not going to end up in jail. They’re going to end up in the productive economy, which is where we want them.”