Posted on 12/17/2014 10:39:33 AM PST by LeoMcNeil
The President and Mrs. Obama took to People Magazine to whine about alleged racist slights they’ve received over the years. The President complains that he used to have trouble hailing a cab and was mistaken for a valet. The First Lady whines that at Target someone asked for help getting something off a shelf. The Obama’s apparently believe this constitutes racism, likely of the mythical white privilege variety. In reality none of these events constitute racism, they only constitute common mistakes people make. In the cast of the lady at Target, she made the mistake of asking someone as arrogant as Michelle Obama for help reaching something on a shelf.
Mrs. Obama alleges the Target incident occurred during her 2011 shopping photo op. Her story doesn’t even sound plausible. We’re to believe the Secret Service allowed a random stranger to get close enough to the First Lady to ask her for help reaching for something on a shelf. We’re further to believe that no one else at the store was interested in the hoard of press Secret Service agents surrounding a woman who looked exactly like the First Lady. Press reports from the Target excursion indicated that Mrs. Obama had a great time shopping, none of them mention a racist woman who dared ask for help. Let’s say the incident did happen though, why would anyone presume racism played a role? People ask strangers for help all the time, I’ve been asked to help get things off of shelves at the grocery store on any number of occasions. Rather than behave in a Christ-like manner and joyfully help someone, Mrs. Obama assumes racism with the attitude of Marie Antoinette. You can almost hear her say “don’t you know who I am” while refusing to help someone out.
The incidents the President alleges are racist sound more plausible, though one wonders why anyone would read racism into them. He alleges that while living in Chicago he had trouble hailing a taxi. Around 60% of taxi drivers in Chicago are foreign born, with large numbers from Pakistan and South Asia. They enter their jobs without an intimate knowledge of American racial issues. Yet they won’t stop to pick up a black man. Why might that be? Walter Williams opines it might be because black people want to be driven to dangerous neighborhoods or may fear being the victim of robbery. When taxi drivers believe a black man might rob them it isn’t because of some inbred form of white privilege, these people are largely foreign born or black. They don’t pick up black people because they have experienced being robbed or taken to dangerous neighborhoods. If you are a cab driver, the last place you want to be taken is a dangerous neighborhood. Not only do you risk being robbed but you’re unlikely to find another customer who will return you to more lucrative destinations such as the airport or downtown. It isn’t racism, it’s experience.
The President complains that he has been mistaken for a valet and a waiter. In Chicago many of the valets are black men dressed nicely in tuxedos or suits. Likewise at nice hotels and restaurants a lot of waiters are black, again wearing tuxedos. The only reason why Obama is being mistaken is because he looks like the valet who parked the car or the waiter who took away a salad plate. Are people not allowed to notice the valet or waiter or mistake that person for Barack Obama circa 2000? The assumption isn’t that all black men look like valets but when a black man wearing a tux is standing at the valet parking stand and the valet who parked your car looks the same it’s safe to assume he’s the valet. If Obama was mistaken as a valet, all he had to do is say that he isn’t the valet and move on with life. Instead, he holds a grudge as though some terribly racist event has taken place. In reality, he looked like the valet or the waiter. Had the valet or waiter been white or a woman then people might mistake others for being the valet or waiter.
The Obama’s are complaining about absolutely nothing. People make mistakes, they assume someone is the valet when he’s really a guess. It’s not the result of racism, it’s at worst the result of not paying attention. I’ve been mistaken for other people before, it’s not a big deal. All you have to do is correct the person making the mistake, they’re usually embarassed to have made it. If the worst example of “racism” Obama can come up with is this, it suggests to me that we don’t have a racism problem in America. The biggest mistake anyone can make though is asking Michelle Obama to help them with anything. Apparently the Queen isn’t to be asked to do anything and if she is she’ll cry racism. There’s a little bit of arrogance behind Mrs. Obama’s complaints, as though she’s to good or important to help a lady get something off a shelf. For Christians such a position must be opposed. Jesus Christ came to Earth as a servant. If he isn’t to good to help someone get something off a shelf, neither is Michelle Obama.
Once Upon a TIme I drove a Cab ..on the night shift....in Oakland California...
OH the stories I could tell
I think her Tar-gette story is a crock. But IF it should happen to be true, I’d almost pay money to see how she was dressed that day.
Nothing says white privilege like being lectured to by a multi millionaire POTUS who has never served a day in uniform or held a real job in his privileged life.
The great shame of being mistaken of someone who works for a living.
Call the wahhhmbulance.
It’s all about me!!!!
They’re lying anyway, that’s their single best skill.
I think there are pictures of her target outing, it was a big photo op. As I recall she dressed down. Even so, don’t Target employees all wear a red shirt with the Target logo prominently displayed? No one would have assumed she worked there, she didn’t look like an employee. Plus having a half dozen secret service agents surrounding someone is usually a dead giveaway that person doesn’t work at Target.
Is it churlish of me to complain about the author’s use of the apostrophe?
Two or more people with the surname Obama are the Obamas, not the Obama’s.
People ask me to get stuff off the shelves all the time. It’s not racist. I’m just tall.
BS.
Who has not been mistaken for someone else?
I have been mistaken on various occasons for a plain clothes cop, a store clerk, a business owner, a corporate pilot.....
And I am white.
Poor Michelle has been mistaken for someone else1
What a disgusting display of self importance.
She probably got asked to take something from that shelf because she is a foot taller than the person who asked for help.
What a crock that with the economy in an uproar, amnesty, the Constitution in shreds, etc., the press is wasting resources on this crap.
I drove a yellow cab in New York city for 10 years and you know why cabs don't pick up blacks? Because they don't pay. It's as simple as that. Black drivers do not pick up blacks, so there goes the "racism" argument right out the window. I can't even count the amount of times blacks either 1. Ran away without paying or 2. Short changed me, meaning if the fare was $5 they would give me $3 and take off. And tips? ha ha ha ha. Tips do not exist when it comes to blacks. Ask any waiter, food delivery guy, anything that involves tips who tips the least, ALL of them will tell you blacks every-single-time. Probably the worst I ever got ripped off was driving a black guy from Manhattan to Baldwin Long Island, it came to something like $105 and he told me "wait right here while I get the money" and zooom, he ran behind a house and that was the last I saw of him. This is on top of all the other blacks I drove to Brooklyn or the Bronx who also skipped out on $20, $30 even $60 dollar fares. The $60 one was a guy I drove from Brooklyn to North Bronx who gave me a crumpled up bunch of bills and as I was taking them apart he took off. $3 dollars. He crumpled up $3 dollars. And of course it's ALL racism by the drivers isn't it! Not the fact that blacks have absolutely NO respect when it comes to people who work in the service industry.
You don't need a picture to tell you that Michelle Antoinette was dressed in something garish and totally lacking in taste.
Obama says he was mistaken for a valet, when
we all recognized him for a varlet from the first.
The Obama’s are inherently petty people, so their complaints are petty. They are, after all, black. Oh the horror of it! How could this happen to a couple so envious of whites? It is so unfair.
Oh, baloney. I am short and I ask any tall person for help in a store if I need it. She sure is a whiner. Poor thing.
How true! ROR!
It’s not true and there are pictures of how she dressed for the PR stunt: like a tourist
I posted later that I ask for help from taller people. I ask nicely and have never been turned down. Guess It is because I am such a sweet great grandmother. I may have asked you so thanks.
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