Former first lady Michelle Obama detailed her experiences with racism while her husband Barack Obama was president of the United States.
Michelle recalled her experiences during an episode of her podcast, “The Michelle Obama Podcast,” according to an article published Thursday by Entertainment Tonight.
“What the white community doesn’t understand about being a person of color in this nation is that there are daily slights,” Michelle said. “In our workplaces, where people talk over you, or people don’t even see you.” (RELATED: Michelle Obama Blames Trump, Lockdowns For Her ‘Low-Grade Depression’)
Michelle went on to talk about what she experienced with long-time friend Denielle Pemberton-Heard as the pair took their daughters to get ice cream after a soccer game.
“We were stopping to get ice cream and I had told the secret service to stand back, because we were trying to be normal, trying to go in,” Michelle said in the podcast. “There was a line, and… when I’m just a Black woman, I notice that white people don’t even see me. They’re not even looking at me.”
“So I’m standing there with two little Black girls, another Black female adult, they’re in soccer uniforms, and a white woman cuts right in front of us to order,” she continued. “Like, she didn’t even see us. The girl behind the counter almost took her order. And I had to stand up ’cause I know Denielle was like ‘Well, I’m not gonna cause a scene with Michelle Obama.’ So I stepped up and I said, ‘Excuse me? You don’t see us four people standing right here? You just jumped in line?'”
Michelle claimed the woman “didn’t apologize” to her and “never looked [her] in [the] eye.”
The former first lady said she had experienced situations like this multiple times despite her newfound fame across the world.