If You are Black You are more likely to be mistaken for Valet or Waiter, says Obama

By Staff Reporter - 17 Dec '14 10:58AM
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Life as an African American is not easy in the United States. Even the Obamas have had their share of being racially profiled.

In an interview with People Magazine President Barack Obama said, "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,"  reports the Associated Press. That happened to him too.

According to Michelle Obama, her husband was mistaken for a waiter at a black-tie do once. The incident was described  in a Wall Street Journal article in 2008. Even as a first lady she was once asked to get something off a shelf in Target.

She said that before moving to the White House they were living as ordinary black  people in Chicago, with all that it entails. The couple talked about race relations in the aftermath of Michael  Brown In Ferguson and Eric Garner in State Island, New York. President Obama said things were definitely better than a generation before.

"The small irritations or indignities that we experience are nothing compared to what a previous generation experienced," Obama said. "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."

The Obamas also talked about raising their daughters, stereotyping and the Potus Party dance list.

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