In an upcoming article in People Magazine, Barack and Michelle Obama discuss their experiences with racism and racial profiling. According to an advanced excerpt from the article that was received and reported on by IJReview, Michelle describes an instance of racism that apparently left a lasting impression on her:
The protective bubble that comes with the presidency – the armored limo, the Secret Service detail, the White House – shields Barack and Michelle Obama from a lot of unpleasantness. But their encounters with racial prejudice aren’t as far in the past as one might expect. And they obviously still sting.
“I think people forget that we’ve lived in the White House for six years,” the first lady told PEOPLE, laughing wryly, along with her husband, at the assumption that the first family has been largely insulated from coming face-to-face with racism.
“Before that, Barack Obama was a black man that lived on the South Side of Chicago, who had his share of troubles catching cabs.
“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.”
Oh, the humanity! Somebody asked you for help? That bigot! Have race relations really sunk so low? Clearly, by explaining “…it isn’t anything new,” during a conversation about racism, the inference is that the unnamed woman asked her for help because Obama was black.
Interestingly, however, the Target story was modified a bit (we’ll say “modified” – far be it for me to imply an Obama would lie…) when she told it to David Letterman. In that interview, she explained:
“No one knew that was me. Because a woman actually walked up to me, right? I was in the detergent aisle, and she said — I kid you not — she said, ‘Excuse me, I just have to ask you something.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, cover’s blown.’ She said, ‘Can you reach on that shelf and hand me the detergent?’ I kid you not. And the only thing she said — I reached up, because she was short, and I reached up, pulled it down. She said, ‘Well, you didn’t have to make it look so easy.’ That was my interaction. I felt so good.”
So, you were asked for help because you were tall, and not because you were black, and it gave you a good feeling?
In the face of deteriorating race relations across the country, we can learn any one or all of the following lessons by combining Michelle’s two interviews:
- Asking a black person for help is tantamount to banishing them to the back of the bus
- Black people are discriminated against regularly, but for some reason, actually feel good about it
- Tall black women are more discriminated against than everyone else
- Target’s shelves are very, very high
- Race-baiting presidents and their wives can manipulate otherwise innocent stories depending on who their audience is and the purpose for which they’re telling it
Not long ago, I was in Michael’s, the craft store, buying wicker baskets to help organize my daughter’s toys. A woman came up to me and asked if I worked there. Why? Because I was the only guy in store filled with women? That’s sexism in the worst degree! Get the protesters ready, and find me the number of my local ACLU office – I’ve had enough!
Yes, indeed. We should all feel like we’ve had enough.
