Obama: “No Black Male My Age” Hasn't Been Mistaken for a Valet

"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," said the president.

As it turns out, even the Leader of the Free World isn’t immune to racial prejudice.

In a Dec. 10 interview with People magazine, President Barack Obama discussed being mistaken for a valet and a waiter before becoming President.

"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," said the president, also confirming that he has dealt with the experience.

The first lady discussed another incident: "He was wearing a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner, and somebody asked him to get coffee."

"I think people forget that we've lived in the White House for six years," Michelle Obama said to the magazine. "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 also revealed her own experience with racial prejudice.

“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,” Michelle Obama said. “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."

The president said the injustices he and his wife has faced still don't compare to those faced by previous generations, but there is still progress to be made.

"It's one thing for me to be mistaken for a waiter at a gala," the president said. "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 interview appears in the issue on newsstands Friday. 

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