--- title: Obama: ‘No Black Male My Age’ Hasn’t Been Mistaken for a Valet description: The President and First Lady opened up in a recent interview about racial prejudices they've experienced canonical: https://time.com/3637412/obama-racism-interview-michelle-barack/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-17T13:10:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T02:55:54.033Z article:section: Politics og:title: Obama: ‘No Black Male My Age’ Hasn’t Been Mistaken for a Valet og:description: The President and First Lady opened up in a recent interview about racial prejudices they've experienced og:url: https://time.com/3637412/obama-racism-interview-michelle-barack/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt82e4fffc6e2fd521/69876f4d5f570fc8bcb1443a/president-barack-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Obama og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Obama: ‘No Black Male My Age’ Hasn’t Been Mistaken for a Valet twitter:description: The President and First Lady opened up in a recent interview about racial prejudices they've experienced twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt82e4fffc6e2fd521/69876f4d5f570fc8bcb1443a/president-barack-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Obama: 'No Black Male My Age' Hasn't Been Mistaken for a Valet > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Dec 17, 2014 1:10 PM UTC  Presiden Obama at the White House Dec. 12, 2014 in Washington, DC. Presiden Obama at the White House Dec. 12, 2014 in Washington, DC. Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Dec 17, 2014 1:10 PM UTC The Obamas opened up about their experiences with racial prejudice in an [interview with People magazine](http://www.people.com/article/barack-obama-michelle-obama-ferguson-racism-racial-profiling-interview). “There’s no black male my 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,” President Barack Obama said in an excerpt released Wednesday. He said that it had happened to him, too. First lady Michelle Obama said that another time her husband “was wearing a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner, and somebody asked him to get coffee.” The president said that the indignities that the first couple… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/obama-no-black-male-my-age-hasnt-been-mistaken-valet-n269881) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3637412/obama-racism-interview-michelle-barack/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3637412/obama-racism-interview-michelle-barack/"},"headline":"Obama: 'No Black Male My Age' Hasn't Been Mistaken for a Valet","datePublished":"2014-12-17T13:10:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T02:55:54.033Z","description":"The President and First Lady opened up in a recent interview about racial prejudices they've experienced","url":"https://time.com/3637412/obama-racism-interview-michelle-barack/","keywords":["White House","Michelle Obama","Racism","President Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt82e4fffc6e2fd521/69876f4d5f570fc8bcb1443a/president-barack-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt82e4fffc6e2fd521/69876f4d5f570fc8bcb1443a/president-barack-obama.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Obama","caption":"Presiden Obama at the White House Dec. 12, 2014 in Washington, DC.","creditText":"Brendan Smialowski—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3637412/obama-racism-interview-michelle-barack/","name":"Obama: 'No Black Male My Age' Hasn't Been Mistaken for a Valet"}}]}] ```