Take a look at the picture of first lady Michelle Obama attached to this blog post.
It shows her shopping at Target in 2011. She’s dressed casually, with a ball cap and sunglasses. The first lady said during a “highly publicized” shopping excursion, the only person who talked to her was a woman who asked her to take something off a shelf.
The first lady used that encounter as an example of the racism she and her husband, the president, have experienced over many years.
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/12/17/michelle-obama-i-was-asked-to-get-something-off-the-shelf-at-target/
I guess my confusion is rooted in a single question: Would I have recognized this woman as the first lady of the United States had I seen her pushing a shopping cart through a mid-level department store?
I’m not so sure.
The only giveaway that she is a very important person would be the presence of security personnel wearing ear pieces, dark suits and perhaps handguns bulging from the side of their jackets.
Yeah, that would tip me off that she’s the first lady.
There can be zero doubt that President and Mrs. Obama have felt slights — large and small — growing up in the United States. They are laying some of that experience out in a lengthy People magazine interview. It is wrong for it to haveĀ happened in any context … ever!
However, I am a bit puzzled by the example cited by the first lady.
The only thing I can figure is that the Secret Service agents were keeping a considerable distance away when the woman asked the first lady for some help.
Am I wrong to think this?
“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, adding that, yes, it had happened to him.
Wow, if poor valet service and someone treating the first lady like just another person are the examples of racism they come up with, I think we can officially declare race a non-issue. #ProblemsOfThePriviliged