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.
Like most blacks, the Obamas are incapable of seeing how foolish and weak they sound while whining about their pathetically petty race experiences. Obama is already a laughingstock around the world, and this adds a few guffaws to the derision.
...”the press is wasting resources on this crap.”
Back in the day, there were respected journalists, then their were the “rags,’ the “rumor mongers,” the “yellow journalists.” A person knew who was which. Now, they all present the same.
All of them wallowing in the dung heap grasping at whatever minutiae they can fling like chimpanzees throw their feces.
Repulsive and intriguing at the same time.
By the way, when I started my student teaching I was all of 5 foot. If I stretched. That with a fine boned face and tiny hands and feet led the school lunch lady to think I was one of the students in the lunch line.
She kept trying to give me back change for a student lunch when I was trying to buy the faculty lunch. It was a 5th grade line and some of them were already taller than me. Mistaken for a child!
Oh the humanity! (Heavy sarcasm)
.
The woman obviously mistook michelle for a human being. It was probably more heightism than racism.
Well at least the Mooch combats racial stereotypes in a real sensible way:
She stuffs herself with Lobster and Wagyu beef with arugula, instead of fried chicken and collard greens.
On the other hand, she does it on the taxpayers dollars, so maybe it isn’t as non-stereotypical as I originally thought.
Barack 'Brick House' Obama misses 20 out of 22 shots on White House basketball court
There are pictures of her at Target. She was not dressed anything like the employees.
Although I must say, I was mistaken for an employee of Target once and I wasn’t dressed like the employees either.
In defense of the press, this “news” originally appeared in People Magazine. That’s not exactly a hard news outlet.
You must have felt like a victim of racism when someone mistook you for an employee at Target.
Same with me. Im at the supermarket and some short person, usually a senior citizen, asks me to help her get something off a top shelf that is out of his/her reach.
So I tell them, go find someone who cares.
Kidding.
I actually help the person and it makes me feel good for such a small gesture.
You know that the Michelle story is a lie because she wasn’t wearing a red shirt like a Target employee. She was wearing a flowered shirt and a hat! No one ever mistook her for an employee. Someon probably just didn’t recognize her and asked her a question. The story reminds me of that song, “ You’re so vain.”
In defense of the press, this “news” originally appeared in People Magazine. That’s not exactly a hard news outlet.
Yes, it was. However, I stand by my assessment that it is becoming harder to tell the difference between the “rags” and the hard news outlets. Especially through the social media end.
It’s all entertainment and propaganda all the time everywhere. There are a few of the talented hard line reporters out there; but they are going the way of the Dodo.
They live in a white house don’t they? And what Secret Service agent would let anyone get near Moochgelle in a Target?
Let’s see here:
Black mans’ racial problems:
“I was mistook for a valet. I have trouble hailing a cab. People follow me around stores thinking I might shoplift.”
White mans’ racial problems:
“I can’t walk through certain neighborhoods or I will be beaten, robbed and possibly killed because of the color of my skin.”
“I have been mistaken on various occasons for a plain clothes cop...”
Yeah, every time I try to buy drugs from a brother. Damn racists!
/sarc
I used to do a little street racing on E 14th once upon a time.
That had to be a while ago Im betting.
the worst episode I had to put up with as a cabbie in Oakland for the WHOLE WEEK.... was one guy who exited my cab and went into a bar....to Get Some Money” to pay his fare.
He had assured me he was a cool guy..... regaling me with stories about his being Jackie WIlson’s cousin.
I think he MAY have been Al Sharpton’s cousin.
It’s funny how someone can be both “elite” and a “victim” at the same time.
That was my thought. She went to Target for a photo op, probably to improve her cold image. There’s no way the secret service let her wander around the store without multiple agents following her. Everyone there had to know Michelle Obama was in the store and there’s no way the secret service would have let a random wander up to her.
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