President Barack Obama admitted in a recent interview that he’s no stranger to getting racially profiled, and at least once was mistaken for a valet.

President Barack Obama On Racial Profiling

In a joint interview with First Lady Michelle Obama, the president tackled the uncomfortable reality of racial profiling in the aftermath of two high-profile grand jury decisions that saw cops avoid indictment for ending the lives of black men – Michael Brown and Eric Garner.

“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,” Obama told People magazine.

The FLOTUS pointed out, “I think people forget that we’ve lived in the White House for six years. Before that, Barack Obama was a black man that lived on the South Side of Chicago, who had his share of troubles catching cabs.” The First Lady added that one time her husband “was wearing a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner, and somebody asked him to get coffee.”

President Obama went on to note that though such slights and instances of subtle prejudice drive home the point that there is still work to be done, it can’t be ignored that much progress has been made over the decades in regards to race relations.

“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.”

 

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