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Obamas Recall Being Mistaken for Help

President was mistaken for a butler.

The President and the First Lady said they are not exempt from racial biases even as White House residents. Michelle Obama recalled to People magazine that during one her trips to Target, “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,” she said. “She didn't see me as the First Lady, she saw me as someone who could help her. It isn't anything new." She also recalled a time when her husband was wearing a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner “and somebody asked him to get coffee." However, Obama qualified their experiences. "The small irritations or indignities that we experience are nothing compared to what a previous generation experienced," he said. "It's one thing for me to be mistaken for a waiter at a gala. It's another thing for my son to be mistaken for a robber and to be handcuffed, or worse."