Flashback: Obama Mistaken For Waiter, Asked To Fetch Drink At 2003 Party

[babylonsister]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/19/obama-mistaken-for-waiter_n_3625289.html?ncid=edlinkusaolp00000009

Obama Mistaken For Waiter, Asked To Fetch Drink At 2003 Party

The Huffington Post | By Nick Wing Posted: 07/19/2013 5:16 pm EDT | Updated: 07/19/2013 5:43 pm


In the midst of his impromptu speech on Friday about the Trayvon Martin case and broader issues of race in the nation, President Barack Obama recalled his own past encounters with racial bias and profiling. Long before he had a Secret Service detail to shadow him, the president remembered, he was followed as he perused department stores. His remarks led Katie Rosman of the Wall Street Journal to recall an occasion when Obama was mistaken for a waiter at a swanky party in 2003.

Then a little-known Illinois state senator who'd only recently embarked on a U.S. Senate campaign, Obama had looked out of place at the gathering of prominent journalists, Rosman wrote in 2008, noting that he was "one of a few black people in attendance."

Rosman approached Obama and spoke with him for a while about his political career, not knowing that the man would one day go on to win his Senate election and eventually his race for the nation's highest office. She said what struck her most, however, was what a fellow party-goer told her after her conversation with Obama:

But what I will always remember is as I was leaving that party in 2003, I was approached by another guest, an established author. He asked about the man I had been talking to. Sheepishly he told me he didn’t know that Obama was a guest at the party, and had asked him to fetch him a drink. In less than six years, Obama has gone from being mistaken for a waiter among the New York media elite, to the president-elect.

What a country.

Read Rosman's entire account in the Wall Street Journal.

[uppityperson]

1. k&r

[Cha]

2. I would like to have been a spidey on the wall and

have heard what then State Senator Obama had to say? He might have gotten him one!

From the wsj link..

"We spoke at length about his campaign. He was charismatic in a quiet, solemn way. I told him I wanted to pitch a profile of him to a national magazine. (The magazine later rejected my proposal.)"

Mahalo, babylonsistah~

[demosincebirth]

3. I've been mistaken for one of my gardeners a couple of times by some white folk driving around the

neighborhood looking for an address.

[Link Speed]

14. Same here

I live on a street of $1M+ homes. I also have really long hair, a beard and I generally dress like a homeless person.

A family recently bought a house on our block. A few days after they moved in, I was out piddling around in my front yard (meadow grasses) when the husband/father came over and asked if I could help him move a couple of pieces of furniture. I gladly helped him move some stuff around and he tipped me. Ten bucks.

Then he asked for my phone number in case he had some small jobs for me. I told him that he knew where I lived. I wish I had a camera to catch the look on his face.

I kept the ten.

[Cha]

17. That's kinda

funny. lol

[awoke_in_2003]

4. I worked retail for far too many years...

while it was never said out loud, it was implied that black customers would be watched more closely than whites. If you don't believe this still happens, pay attention the next time you go to a store.

[obama2terms]

15. My mom waited tables in the 70's and 80's

One thing she remembers the most, is when she worked at a place called Houston's ( early 80's I think) when black people applied for a position other than one in the kitchen she was told to fold over the right corner of the application to show the manager it was a black person applying for the position. It's pretty sad to think this happened considering anti-discrimination laws had been passed over a decade before.

[awoke_in_2003]

16. Racism never went away...

it just went underground for a while. It all exploded back up when Obama took office.

[No Vested Interest]

5. There's nothing wrong with being mistaken for a waiter

Waiters are good people and many people now prominent - actors, lawyers, educators - have served as waiters.
I'm sure the now-President was gracious about the mistake. I doubt he was carrying a tray of drinks or a plate of hors d'oeuvres.
It makes for a good story for both the author and the President.

Yes, I get the point, that the author had stereotyped the young black man based on his color. After all, this is America, and these things happen.
Perhaps the author learned not to be so quick to stereotype - or perhaps he didn't.

[Rozlee]

6. As a retired RN, I've received some of that kind of treatment in the past.

Whenever I went to hospitals as a contract nurse, other RN's or staff would assume that I was an aide or other kind of tech assistant. Hey, not to knock aides; they're the backbone of the medical industry and I was one before I became an RN. But, I never saw anyone else get that kind of assumption on first acquaintance with me when they hadn't first been introduced given my credentials. They'd see a short, scrawny Hispanic woman with wiry hair and a Rosie Perez demeanor and thick accent and Bingo! I certainly couldn't have gone through four years of college to have earned a BSN, let alone challenged many of my non-nursing prerequisite courses. Not to brag, but hey, bragging. It only got worse when I "married up" (i.e. got hitched to a well-to-do white dude) and moved to the tony Texas Hill Country where most of the medical staff in the hospitals were predominantly white. It rankles, but it is what it is.

[Cha]

18. Good on you, Roziee!

[freshwest]

7. Those silly wabbits! (dial-up warning, large image)

Obama Gives Helen Thomas Cupcakes For Her Birthday

http://gawker.com/5330020/obama-gives-helen-thomas-cupcakes-for-her-birthday

Funny story and video of the event celebrating her 89th birthday above.

RIP, Helen Thomas. Obama was one of her admirers, for keeping him accountable.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/20/us/helen-thomas-obit/index.html?hpt=hp_t2#

He is unendingly gracious, almost to a fault. He must have been brought up with good manners and feeling love for others. And I'd love to get a hug and cupcakes offered like that!

Obama will veto any farm bill without food stamps. It's an immoral environment he has to work in, dealing with those who want to push savage inequalities on the American people and the world. Obama treats everyone equally and they hate him for it.

I'm sure Obama would have given them something to eat. The waiter story is about stereotypes, which deny one the gift of getting to learn the story of another person and experience their perspective. It's their loss if they don't know the freedom of Namaste.



Obama knows by education, upbringing or instinct, that primary needs must be met as the first step in Maslow's Pyramid:



I've always considered Obama at the top of that pyramid, as it shows in everything he does. He's never forgotten anyone along all those levels.

Very proud of my President.

[Cha]

19. Nice pyramid, fresh.. mahalo!

I agree, Pres Obama is all about the top of this pyramid.

[freshwest]

21. It's something to think about...

Last edited Sun Jul 21, 2013, 09:14 PM - Edit history (1)

He has achieved a level many have been held back from and his actions to uplift the poor show he doesn't consider think of himself separate or better in any way. Personal growth seems to require all of those steps.

FDR explains the danger of not providing a 'hand up' for people:

True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

That's the group suffering at the bottom of the pyramid. Those are the people the GOP wants to be increasingly desperate to force then to accept their fascism.

Since the GOP is determined to eliminate the social safety net, Democrats have been forced to remind them of this concept. To shame them in the view of the public, if at all possible, or to just make things work at all.

[refrescanos]

8. I've had people

"show up" while I'm shopping (I'm white). I'm currently unemployed, so I do a lot of weighing in my mind before I buy things for myself.
I used to work at the Atlanta Airport. Most of my co-workers were African American. After the ruling in of Bush, I found out that my co-workers thought I was a Republican. I had never discussed politics at all.
That reaaaaly hurt.

[treestar]

9. What was Obama wearing?

This story is either suspicious, or the person who asked Obama if he was a waiter is a moron. Did Obama have his suit jacket off? A bow tie?

[erodriguez]

10. presumably his black skin

Which made the party-goer assume he was hired help and not a guest.

[treestar]

11. If he was wearing a suit and tie

In 2003, that person was and is a total moron. Waiters in fancy places usually have a uniform that does not look like the business attire of people attending the event.

[erodriguez]

12. if only life worked that way. smh

[treestar]

13. I would never have made that mistake

By 2003, I knew that colleagues could be black and that a black man in the room in a suit and tie was not a waiter.

In 1953, maybe there'd be at least a plausible excuse.

[dusty trails]

20. And the right wingers ...

And the right wingers can't accept a black man in the "White House".

[KauaiK]

22. This happened to my Hawaiian boss

...in expensive California restaurant. She was dressed in business attire waiting for her party after using the restroom and some cracker yelled at her to "don't just stand there open the door". One doesn't have to be black....just any color but white. Shameful.

[School Teacher]

23. Mowing the Lawn Story

This reminds me of a prominent African American journalist who was out mowing his lawn one day in a fancy suburb of Washington DC.
A white lady driver stopped, rolled down the window and asked him: "How much does the lady of the house pay you to mow the lawn?"
The journalist answered: "She lets me sleep with her."