He may be president now, but Barack Obama says he's a black man who has been mistaken for the valet.
Obama tells People magazine that every black professional male his age has had someone hand over their keys while waiting outside a restaurant. That happened to him, he said.
First lady Michelle Obama says her husband also used to have trouble catching cabs and once was mistaken for a waiter at a black-tie party. She says even when she went to Target as first lady, a fellow shopper asked her to get something from a shelf.
The president says racial relations have gotten better, but more progress is needed.
He says the small indignities they have experienced pale in comparison to young men who have been mistaken for criminals just for being "dressed the way teenagers dress."