The US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama have opened up about their encounters with racism.
The 50-year-old first lady said that she thinks people forget that they've lived in the White House for six years, before which, Barack Obama was a black man that lived on the South Side of Chicago, who had his share of troubles catching cabs, People Magazine reported.
Mrs. Obama added that even as the first lady, during that wonderfully publicized trip she took to Target, not highly disguised, the only person who came up to her in the store was a woman who asked her to help her take something off a shelf because she didn't see her as the first lady, she saw her as someone who could help her.
Mrs. Obama continued that those kinds of things happen in life, so it isn't anything new.
The president, who too has faced racism, said that there's no black male his 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.
Mrs. Obama recalled another incident, in which her husband was wearing a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner, and somebody asked him to get coffee.
President Obama added that the small irritations or indignities that they experience are nothing compared to what a previous generation experienced and it's one thing for him to be mistaken for a waiter at a gala and it's another thing for his 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.