President Barack Obama, and First Lady Michelle Obama, have opened up about their personal experiences with racism and prejudice in a candid interview with People magazine, on newsstands tomorrow, joining a national discussion about race following the failure of two separate grand juries to indict white police officers responsible for the deaths of two unarmed black men. Said Michelle Obama;
“He was wearing a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner, and somebody asked him to get coffee.”
Obama said that this very indignity has happened to him.
“There’s no black male my age, who’s a professional, who hasn’t come out of a restaurant and is waiting for their car and somebody didn’t hand them their car keys.”
Not even the benefits of two Ivy League degrees and being married to the most powerful man on earth have always protected Michelle Obama from being treated like help. She tells a story about her much talked about visit to Target as First Lady;
“I tell this story — I mean, even as the first lady — during that wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target, not highly disguised, the only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf. Because she didn’t see me as the first lady, she saw me as someone who could help her. Those kinds of things happen in life. So, it isn’t anything new.”
They admit that they’re still blessed: The Obamas tell People they’re grateful that most of these slights have been merely insulting, rather than dangerous. The President said;
“The small irritations or indignities that we experience are nothing compared to what a previous generation experienced. It’s one thing for me to be mistaken for a waiter at a gala. It’s another thing for my son to be mistaken for a robber and to be handcuffed, or worse, if he happens to be walking down the street and is dressed the way teenagers dress.”
Obama continued, echoing a now iconic previous speech following the verdict in the death of Trayvon Martin stating that the dead teenager “could have been me 35 years ago.” (via People)
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