Obama opens up about being mistaken for valet, waiter
President Obama revealed how he was mistaken for a valet and a waiter before he became ...
New York Daily News - 7 hours ago
Obama opens up about being mistaken for valet, waiter
President Obama and the First Lady spoke to People magazine about the state of race relations in the U.S.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, December 17, 2014, 7:59 AM
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BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGESObama, pictured in December, was mistaken for a waiter when he was wearing a tuxedo at a black-tie function before he became President.
President Obama revealed how he was mistaken for a valet and a waiter before he became President in a deeply personal interview on race relations in the U.S.
"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," the President told People magazine, confirming that he had experienced being taken for a valet.
The President was joined by the First Lady for the magazine interview, "How We Deal with Our Own Racist Experiences."
Michelle Obama also remembered that when he was a guest at a black-tie dinner, “somebody asked him to get coffee.”
Before the family moved into the White House in 2009 and Obama became commander-in-chief, “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.
Former Wall Street Journal reporter Katie Rosman had previously shared how she witnessed Obama on the receiving end of discrimination at a New York City book party hosted by Tina Brown in 2003.
JOSHUA ROBERTS/REUTERSThe First Lady said Obama, pictured in September, was once asked to fetch coffee for a guest at a gala event before he became President.
Rosman had been chatting with Obama at the soiree and when they finished their conversation, a fellow guest inquired after the man's identity, admitting that he had mistaken him for the wait staff.
"I was approached by another guest, an established author. He asked about the man I had been talking to. Sheepishly he told me he didn’t know that Obama was a guest at the party, and had asked him to fetch him a drink. In less than six years, Obama has gone from being mistaken for a waiter among the New York media elite, to the president-elect," Rosman wrote.
Despite the incidents in his past, the President told People that racial relations have gotten better, but more progress is needed.
He says the small indignities they have experienced pale in comparison to young men who have been mistaken for criminals just for being "dressed the way teenagers dress."
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