Obamas discuss racist experiences

They've moved all the way to the White House, but Barack and Michelle Obama say they're experienced their share of racism.

"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," Obama said in an interview with People magazine.

First lady Michelle Obama told People, "I think people forget that we've lived in the White House for six years. ... Before that, Barack Obama was a black man that lived on the South Side of Chicago, who had his share of troubles catching cabs."

She cited another incident involving her husband: "He was wearing a tuxedo at a black-tie dinner, and somebody asked him to get coffee."

Mrs. Obama told a story about how, as first lady, she once went incognito to a Target store in the Washington area.

"The only person who came up to me in the store was a woman who asked me to help her take something off a shelf," Mrs. Obama said. "Because she didn't see me as the first lady, she saw me as someone who could help her. Those kinds of things happen in life. So it isn't anything new."

All that said, the nation's first African-American president and first lady said that things have gotten better, though more progress is needed.

"The small irritations or indignities that we experience are nothing compared to what a previous generation experienced," President Obama said. "It's one thing for me to be mistaken for a waiter at a gala — it's another thing for my son to be mistaken for a robber and to be handcuffed, or worse, if he happens to be walking down the street and is dressed the way teenagers dress."