Was President Obama Ever Racially Profiled?

[kpete]

.................

One small, as-yet-unreported example: in the Fall of 2004, then-state sen. Barack Obama was his party’s nominee for the U.S. Senate seat and an emerging national figure because of his rousing speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

But there he stood, at a country buffet in Western Illinois, fielding a question from a white customer as if he worked there.

As recalled by a campaign staffer from that time, Obama was standing with three staffers, waiting for their table, when a white man came in and asked for a table for him and his three friends.

“The woman is about to seat me and my party of four, so I imagine you’ll be next,” the President said, trying to defuse any embarrassment by playing it off.

..............
more:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/07/was-president-obama-ever-racially-profiled.html

[merh]

1. I would venture to guess that episode is not the only episode.

[rurallib]

2. I wondered that also

I remember when there was the silly story that he wasn't "black enough" (not directly descended from slaves) he said something like 'if i am am driving in the wrong neighborhood after midnight I get treated like any other black' (not a true quote.)

[WeDidIt]

3. He lived and worked in Chicago for years

I guarantee cabs passed him by on numerous occasions.

[Kahuna]

4. For a black man (or woman) it's a near 100% probability. I've been

followed into the parking lot of my apartment building where a I had to show proof that I lived there. I was pissed off and asked for his badge number. There was nothing that me or my companion did that should have made that cop go there. Another time I was followed by a cop as I was walking through the shopping district in an all white town where I worked. I had to prove to the cop that I was in that town because I WORKED there. Luckily I had a paystub with me. I was a well dressed, well groomed, professional looking black woman. There was never any reason for me to be suspected of anything.

On edit: That's my picture in my avatar. Anybody scared of THAT???? :crazy:

[iamjoy]

8. I Believe It

I (white woman) was working in a Department Store and I was talking with a customer when one of our African-American store detectives (plain clothes) bolted past. Well, the customer asked if I was going to call security and I told her that he was security. So then she says, "Oh, well you know how it is when you see a black man running." To which I replied, "No, I don't."

The truth is, I knew EXACTLY what she meant. She assumed that because the man was black and doing something out of the ordinary (running in a store) he must be a criminal. I think a lot of people have that little prejudice in them, even if they don't always recognize it or admit it.

[Number23]

44. Hi, Kahuna!

Please come join us and hang out with us in AAIG! http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=258 :hi:

[Kahuna]

49. Thanks for the invite. I'll give it another try. When that forum first came

up, I got into it with some of the younger posters who don't have the same frame of reference as us older posters. So,I gave it up rather than have to get nasty with them. :hi:

[Number23]

60. Yikes! I had no idea!

Yes, please give it another try. The group was dead for months, maybe even a year but we're getting it going again. It has definitely become an oasis in the sea of foolishness that can be DU sometimes.

[tavalon]

5. Bad example

I must always look like I'm working because I get asked questions in the grocery store often. And always when I'm in a hospital. I guess after 20 years as a nurse, I just look at home in a hospital, any hospital.

[Buzz Clik]

6. That's a fairly broad interpretation of racial profiling.

I have been confused for being an airline employee because I was wearing a navy blue jacket and tie while standing next to the ticket counter. My wife was once confused for being a hostess at an Olive Garden because of how she was dressed.

I was approached a university administrator with an important question because I confused him with someone with a soul.

It happens.

[Morning Dew]

13. No matter where it is, I look like I work there.

I can be wearing a green shirt in Target and people approach me with merchandise questions.

[KittyWampus]

51. I'm a white 45 year old woman who ALWAYS gets asked questions in plant nurseries

and gardening centers.

But then, I worked for one in years and also had my own gardening business.

Maybe I just exude a certain authority/comfort level or something?

[Karenina]

52. Kitty, maybe we can get somewhere here...

I'll try my best to communicate this. "Maybe I just exude a certain authority/comfort level or something?" The larger part of communication is non-verbal. You knew where you were and what you were looking at and likely displayed some body language that others picked up on. What Solomon and I are ranting about in this thread is that our APPEARANCE negates that perception in white people. MUCH TOO OFTEN. ON A REGULAR BASIS. I hope you will read them and comment.

Another anecdote:

Walking up to the teenie rink-rat-in-charge in Menlo Park, I asked "The session starts at 10, right?" He replied, "Yeah." His buddy came over and asked, "What's SHE doing here?" He replied, "She's a dancer, asshole. Now shut up." I was Mama Rat at my home rink (the kids presented me with a "guard" jacket when I moved abroad). That I approached him immediately upon entering and seemed to KNOW he was the right person to ask triggered HIS perception that I was on familiar ground. My colour did not interfere with his perception.

What we are talking about is ALL OF THOSE CLUES being summarily and instantaneously discarded as the ASSumptions are being projected.

It is NOT the same experience you have, Kitty. Yours doesn't include INVALIDATION or an insistence that you are somehow NOT who you are.

[KittyWampus]

55. I understand what you're saying... I was just kind of going off topic. I'm sorry.

:blush:

Someone posted a news story that quoted some blacks from the Cambridge force and they said basically- Yes, we profile but based on more subtle cues like does the person wear a doo-rag. One could also include gang colors etc. Just read that Long Island has a growing problem with gangs. Again, sorry to go off topic.

So there are a bunch of cues we can use to try and assess a person's intent.

[Karenina]

59. Oh dear, dear KW...

My intent was to enlist your gravitas, certainly not to embarrass. :pals:

[Karenina]

15. See, there you both go again.

It just can't have anything to do with race cause look what happened to ME, and I'M WHITE!!! :crazy:

[izquierdista]

16. Stereotyping is not ALWAYS about race

But if you are wearing khaki pants and a red shirt to a Target store, be prepared to get asked a lot of questions.

I've been stereotyped as a gabacho who doesn't understand any Spanish. I get a lot of surprised looks when it turns out I do know the border vernacular. I also seem to get asked directions a lot, even if it's my first day visiting a city. Maybe i just look like I know where I am going. :shrug:

[Solomon]

19. And I get confused with somebody "black" because I

have black skin. Happens all the time. We are all white supremacists no matter what our color because we are awash in it.

It's the thousand cuts that get to you. Standing at the counter and having the clerk turn around and look at the white person standing behind you and say "can I help you" or "who's next"? That one kills me more than anything.

Once I had a manager of a store keep me waiting at the counter for a good twenty minutes while he's in the back, his assistant embarrassingly muttering over and over "he'll be out in a minute". Then a white man enters the store and, bam, the guy comes out looks at the white guy and says, "who's next"? But wait it gets worse, this time I decide fuck, I'm not going to just silently take this shit anymore, how can I call myself a man if I keep letting even the smallest things go? I say to the guy, "what?, you really don't see me standing here do you?" He replies, "just 'cause you standing there don't mean anything"?

I couldn't believe it, I was so angry I stormed out. This happens more than white people could ever know. And it's not just white clerks or salespersons who do this, even black ones do it too. We are all taught in white supremacy that white is more important. You deniers can say all you want. It's not your fault. It's not anybody's fault. It's the system we live in, and that is just a reality. And that's why it's easy for people to get confused about the color problem. Color is a state of mind. That's why the deniers can confuse people by pointing things out like, even the black cab drivers pass black males by.

I guess I shold have been thankful that a white customer came into the store or the supervisor would have taken his sweet time coming out.

I am an attorney, well dressed, successful, yet whenever I had to take a cab from my office, in the high rent district of DC, I had to pick a corner where a white person was not trying to hail a cab to even hope to get one. And what really pisses you off, is when you get a corner, you been trying to get one for ten minutes or so, then a white person bounces right out of a door, and bam! the cab pulls up. Really pisses you the fuck off.

All this shit before your day even gets started.

Now one last thing before I finish this rant. I won't get into encounters with the police, others are doing that. I had several. But the small cuts... I gotta tell you. The thing that gets me even hotter than the clerks who immediately seek to serve white people even when it's your turn, are the white people who accept it and go ahead of you. Arrrrrrrghghh! I can count on three fingers the number of times a white person has said, "no, he was here first". But on the other hand, when it does happen, that really makes my day. You guys would never understand how big a simple thing like that is. The simple humanity of it does more than anything. I guess you would call it respect.

[tabatha]

22. Yup, I have seen that and understand the hurt.

I would have been one of those persons saying someone else was first when they were - actually, regardless of skin color, because I don't see skin color.

[Karenina]

31. I LOVED the examples above:

'I was DRESSED SIMILARLY to the staff and was mistaken as one of them. SEE!!! THAT DISPROVES YOUR EXPERIENCE.'

How about NOT being dressed like the staff? How about waiting for a cab in front of a 5 star hotel in an Armani suit, high-end briefcase, Rolex , the works and having someone THRUST THEIR KEYS into your hand and threatening you with that tone of voice that they better not find any scratches when they return? (A cab pulled up at that moment and boyfriend heaved the keys across the driveway into a thicket as he took his leave. :rofl: )

How about standing in a club, horn in hand, reed in mouth and being asked 5 TIMES "What are you going to sing?" Or digging in a bag for a club card revealing $1K worth of equipment while wearing a jacket with patches from rinks all over the world and being asked "But can you skate?"
Or being hassled by security at a venue WHEN YOUR PICTURE IS ON THE DAMN BILLBOARD?

They do not comprehend the CONSTANT invalidation that they may indeed not mean maliciously, day in, day out, year in, year out. They don't get that OUR understanding is a carefully cultivated survival skill, while their misunderstanding has no significant consequences.

[Number23]

42. Solomon, make sure that you add this post to your journal.

This one is a keeper.

[AspenRose]

57. Oh, man....

"Standing at the counter and having the clerk turn around and look at the white person standing behind you and say "can I help you" or "who's next"? That one kills me more than anything."

That one gets to me, too. BIG TIME. It's like you don't exist.

"The thing that gets me even hotter than the clerks who immediately seek to serve white people even when it's your turn, are the white people who accept it and go ahead of you. Arrrrrrrghghh! I can count on three fingers the number of times a white person has said, "no, he was here first". But on the other hand, when it does happen, that really makes my day. You guys would never understand how big a simple thing like that is. The simple humanity of it does more than anything. I guess you would call it respect."

And then if you DARE to say anything to defend yourself, such as *ahem* "Excuse me, I was here first...." then you get the eyes rolling and the assumption that you're an "angry black woman."


:hug:

[Karenina]

58. When that happened to me on my last trip to the states

I vowed to stay away. It was ENOUGH.

[Spazito]

61. Superb post!

This is one of the few times I do wish one could recommend a post. Thank you for writing this.

[Buzz Clik]

20. I was speaking of this specific interpretation of racial profiling.

I refuse to defend myself ten times a day on this board. Not everything bad that happens to people is based on raced. That doesn't mean that racism isn't rampant or that racial profiling doesn't exist; it simply means that in this specific instance to which I was replying, it was a very broad interpretation of racial profiling. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Karenina]

23. I refer you to denem's astute observations

denem (1000+ posts) Fri Jul-24-09 02:17 PM
Original message Edited on Fri Jul-24-09 02:32 PM by denem


DU is funny. When a case comes up touching on racism, sexism, LGBT discrimation,

or poverty, not to mention race hatred, misogyny, homophobia, the oppressed nor hate crimes in general, there will be those playing defense attorney, carefully dissecting the known facts and conjectures, seeking and expressing counter argument and doubt.

While not beyond interest in itself, what is striking is the stident denials of, or at best lip service to, the wider context, let alone the deep bigotry and hatred that runs beneath the ripples of polite conversation. 'Yes, there MAY be racism, sexism or LGBT discrimination in America but THIS case is NOT one of them'. And neither is the Next nor the Next.

Some 'stick to the facts attorneys' here denounce ANY discussion of wider, darker realities. They're not AT ALL relevant to THIS case, and perhaps not that relevant in general.

So controversial and noteworthy cases become opportunities to decry accounts and analysis of hatred, bigotry and the reality of the mean streets. Don't talk with the passion of personal experience about the obscenities of injustice, nor, above all, the fault lines in society. It's not relevant. In this case. On these facts. So STFU.

The music changes but the dance steps don't.

[Buzz Clik]

24. So, anyone who DARES to suggest that racism might not be at the core of every bad thing that happens

... fits that description? Do you every think? Do you bother to try to understand people before you launch off on this bullshit?

Racism exists. Homophobia exists. Hatred for trivial, ignorant reasons exists. But not everything bad that happens to people belonging to some minority group can be ascribed to bigotry.

Period.

A young Barack Obama being mistaken for a maitre d' might have been racism. To say it absolutely was racism is pure hysteria.

Man, I'd love to bleed for every member of DU who thinks that they have been oh, so down trodden and it goes on 24/7, but I can't. I've seen complete meltdowns first hand by people who were absolutely convinced that they were being abused and subject to discrimination, and they were dead wrong. Mot just once or twice, but dozens of times. I've also seen dozens of bigoted assholes claiming to be purely innocent of wrongdoing when they clearly acted out of hate and ignorance.

So, what's the verdict? Just as I have stated repeatedly: not every bad thing that happens to people is the result of bigotry. It happens -- a lot! -- but not every time.

[clear eye]

36. You make those sorts of ignorant comments 10x's a day!! n/t

[havocmom]

7. Had to chuckle whenever GOP tried to paint Michelle as 'an angry black woman'.

Laughed at them because it was their guilty consciouses talking. Somewhere in their collective unconscious, they know there are plenty of reasons for a black woman (or man) in America to be angry.

Every time someone tried to assign that label on Michelle, I figured they were putting a different label on their own coats:

Hi, my name is:
Racist Running Scared of Black People because I have treated them badly

[annabanana]

10. You can practically imaging the thought bubble over their heads:

"OMFG the President is a N----. He's gonna try and kill me."

[Solomon]

9. LOL He's being racially profiled now.

Has been since the campaign.

[undeterred]

11. I know someone who had to wear a poweder blue tuxedo

to stand up in someones wedding, and the minister asked him if he was in the band (scheduled to play at the reception).

[Pool Hall Ace]

30. Oh wow, powder blue tuxedos at weddings

I imagine them and I can hear "We've Only Just Begun" in the background. :D

[undeterred]

32. Yeah, those seventies.

The bride made the groom wear powder blue also. Makes for the kind of pix you can look back at and laugh really hard.

[kath]

12. Probably only about a brazillion times.

At least.

[MrScorpio]

14. He's being racially profiled this very minute

What do you think that this whole "birther" movement is about?

If he were white of Irish or Polish decent, do you think it would be happening?

[etherealtruth]

17. He's black and lives in the US

... I have no doubt he's been "racially profiled" just about every day of his life here :(

[Kahuna]

18. I'm black. I'm 55. I don't know a black person who has never been profiled or

discriminated against. I just don't.

[etherealtruth]

26. I'm white. I'm 47 and I don't know a black person ....

... or really a person of color that has not been profiled; I am inclined to say that the profiling is more consistent and more open with people who are black

As a white person I can't really know first hand what its like .... what I do know is that this is all I've heard from people that I love and respect. This is what i've observed.

I was married to a very dark complected Indian man. He's a big guy and wears his hair closely cropped ... no one could tell what ethnicity he is ... Let me assure you, in the decade I was married to him, we spent an inordinate amount of time pulled over by the police ... often for really vague traffic violations.

I am astounded by those that deny this happens. its not helpful and impedes change.

[Buzz Clik]

28. Is there anyone on DU who actually denies that racially profiling happens?

The argument is more along the lines of claiming racial profiling every time something odd or negative happens.

[etherealtruth]

35. I think there is a denial that ....

... it is as pervasive as it is.

[Karenina]

38. Often the denial is worse than the experience.

[clear eye]

37. I get a tiny glimmer of the experience when a person who's just found out I'm Jewish

starts to ask me for financial advice. (I'm no stockbroker.)

Or when I was in that 40 - 55 yo mother age bracket and clerks at store counters would continually wait on others first (including black people), because somehow women in that not young but not really old group seem to be invisible.

It's just enough to be able to picture what it must feel like each time it happens to someone perceived as black, but not to know what the accumulation of having it happen every day for a lifetime must feel like, except for worse.

At least I was free to get huffy. If you're black you know that the ingrained racist who just profiled you will just escalate the stereotype if you express even mild annoyance. Three cheers for the upscale guy spoken about in a post upthread who mentally said, "What the heck," and tossed those keys in the bushes when solely due to racism he was mistaken for a valet.

I'm boggled to read people on this board posting that Obama being seen as an employee while waiting with other guests and presumably dressed similarly to them is the same as the few times the poster was casually dressed and alone in a store aisle and mistaken for a clerk. What willful blindness!

[DefenseLawyer]

21. "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice." n/t

[ismnotwasm]

25. Fuck yes

I still see it here on DU.

And there are still plenty of folks everywhere else who don't even care. Racial profiling is a no win situation for President Obama and it goes in all kind of directions. Remember "Barack the Magic Negro" article that a certain segment of the population found so amusing a parody song was written for it? The one saying President Obama isn't a "real" black man because he's not from the "hood"?

[Odin2005]

27. Of course. What do you think the Birther BS is?

[Iggo]

29. Is he black?

[undeterred]

33. Cab drivers in Chicago would pass by a black man

and pick me (white female) up. I shook my head in disbelief when this happened. But one time the cab driver (who was middle eastern) got all flustered when I told him I wanted to go to Hyde Park, the same racially mixed neighborhood Obama lived in. He told me he didn't think Allah wanted him to go there. So he said he would pray to Allah about it and he did. While he was praying an empty cab with a black driver came by and he flagged it over and asked him if he wanted a fare to Hyde Park and he did. I went home in the other cab.

So it was even more complicated than I expected. Both cabbies obviously felt I was a safe passenger. The middle eastern cabbie didn't want to go to the south side. Yeah, its illegal to pass up a rider but it happens all the time. He may have been afraid of the neighborhood or not known where to find a fare to go back downtown. There can be lots of reasons why people behave the way they do. There is usually some kind of fear involved, rational or not.

[CakeGrrl]

39. Obama used this example in a 60 Minutes interview

He and the interviewer were driving through Chicago, and he was asked if he felt he was treated differently because of his mixed-race heritage, and he said "When I try to get a cab, there's no confusion."

[PatSeg]

34. I can't imagine that there is a black man in this country

who hasn't been racially profiled, unless he was a total recluse. That was the first thing that popped in my head when Obama answered Sweet's question in a way that was uncharacteristic of him.

As I read the Cambridge police report, I realized that the professor's very angry reaction to the officer was the result of a lifetime of unwarranted profiling and encountering it at his own home was the last straw. It is probably a good thing that this is being brought to light through the words of our first African-American president, making our society aware that such profiling still exists even if it is often unconscious.

[Kahuna]

40. Women too! This one upscale town in NJ that I passed thru to get

to work in another upscale town, I used to always see middle-age black women pulled over for traffic stops. C'mon now. Only middle-age black women are poor drivers. It's hard for me to believe they weren't specifically targeted.

[PatSeg]

41. Yeah, that's rather bizarre to me

I personally can't think of any stereotype for "middle-age black women", other than perhaps more hardworking than most people. Maybe bully cops find them easy to harass.

[Kahuna]

48. They're an easy and unsuspecting target to help fill the municipal coffers. nt

[PatSeg]

50. That makes sense

How pathetic

[Number23]

43. There was a post from a DUer last year where he said that he was willing to bet that

"Obama had never been discriminated against" or "had never felt discrimination." I almost dislocated my jaw, it hit my keyboard so hard.

And you know what was so bad, that post had almost two hundred different responses from people and I think that I was the ONLY person who questioned him about that. It was absolutely unbelievable.

This excerpt from this article:

"Continued the president: "I know what it's like to have people tell me I can't do something because of my color, and I know the bitter swill of swallowed-back anger. I know as well that Michelle and I must be continually vigilant against some of the debilitating story lines that our daughters may absorb from TV and music and friends and the streets about who the world thinks they are, and what the world imagines they should be."

should put to rest any of those questions. This man KNOWS discrimination personally as does his wife, despite their level of intelligence, education, work ethic, physical beauty etc.

[FrenchieCat]

45. He wrote about it in "Dreams from my Father".....

I can't look it up now, but he discusses being stopped by the police, and other incidents.

[DoctorMyEyes]

46. If he's black in America he's been racially profiled

That's a lock. But, not EVERY incident that may seem like it could be racial profiling actually is. People of every race sometimes make mistakes - and those mistakes can be erroneously lumped in with the very real incidents.


I'm a white woman who was raised in a mostly black family, married a black man and had mixed race children. My children are all grown now and two of my sons have married black women. My grand-daughters are black. I've seen many incidents of how my family members were treated differently than I was when I wasn't with them. I am aware of my white privilege. I know how I'm treated alone and when I'm with my family. I've seen the alarm in peoples faces when my teenage boys ran up to me a little too quickly in the mall to ask for more money. Like I was about to be mugged or something.

I work in Loss Prevention. I can easily pick out store security following my sons.

I'm quite accustomed to getting looks when I take my grand-daughters out alone without their parents. My oldest grand-daughter is dark skinned and quite obviously not my child. I think most (not all) of the looks just stem from natural curiosity. But once when we were out and she was about two, and dressed in one of her princess costumes (you know - cause she was two and that's what she wanted to wear and who am I to argue?), I had to take her into the ladies room upon entering a store and after we came out and started shopping I noticed I was getting a LOT of looks. I started getting uncomfortable wondering if we'd wandered into some kind of particularly racist stronghold or something. Then I got a glimpse of myself in the window as we left. I was wearing her teeny tiny princess crown! At some point while I was bent over her in the restroom she'd taken her crown off and put it on me and I didn't feel it or notice it missing from her head. It wasn't just some little plastic tiara thing either - it was gold lamee with fake white fur trim and little black dots.

I was mistaken. It wasn't our race that was turning so many heads - it was my headgear!

[Karenina]

47. And no one giggled at you?

:silly:

[4lbs]

53. I experienced it second-hand when I was a passenger in a car driven by a black friend of mine.

He was a well-off professional, driving a Lexus, and we got pulled over by the LAPD several times in one day.

I don't recall any moving violations ever being cited, the officer just wanted to check his license and registration.

Yes, a black man driving a luxury car will arise suspicion even in this day and age, even in parts of the country where you think it would no longer exist.

[mudplanet]

54. a black man driving a luxury car will arise suspicion

There wasn't any suspicion in this case. It's just harassment.

[Taverner]

56. Yes - by 32,145,325 voters