Michelle and Barack hit People Magazine to give an interview about the unbearable racism they have experienced in their lives. (Gotta capitalize on the #blacklivesmatter thing, don’t you know.) The storytelling quickly culminates in a tale of the ultimate indignity: Michelle (despite her lofty, lofty status as the FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES) being asked to help another shopper at Target:

The protective bubble that comes with the presidency – the armored limo, the Secret Service detail, the White House – shields Barack and Michelle Obama from a lot of unpleasantness. But their encounters with racial prejudice aren’t as far in the past as one might expect. And they obviously still sting.

“I think people forget that we’ve lived in the White House for six years,” the first lady told PEOPLE, laughing wryly, along with her husband, at the assumption that the first family has been largely insulated from coming face-to-face with racism.

“Before that, Barack Obama was a black man that lived on the South Side of Chicago, who had his share of troubles catching cabs,” Mrs. Obama said in the Dec. 10 interview appearing in the new issue of PEOPLE.

“I tell this story – I mean, even as the first lady – during that wonderfully publicized trip I took to Target, not highly disguised, 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. 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.“

Michelle Obama is 5 feet 11 inches tall. And guess what, Michelle? I can testify from experience that taller people are sometimes asked for help reaching things. Sometimes the people asking for help aren’t even racists. Sometimes they’re just . . . short. Which, the woman was short — a fact that Michelle noted when she told the story to David Letterman a while back. And she didn’t even seem that upset about it, then. As Allahpundit asks:

When did she decide that that encounter wasn’t a rare, heartwarming slice of normalcy outside the presidential bubble but a depressing reminder that even First Ladies aren’t immune from racism in America?

I just have one thing to say to Michelle, and it comes from the White House Web site itself:

Reach higher, Michelle! Reach higher!!!

P.S. I had this sneaking suspicion as I was composing this that it’s the type of story Dana would blog . . . and that I should check to see if she had already. Which she had. That’s OK. I’m still leaving this post up. I have my own take on it, so you get to see how would we each blog the same story, I guess. Her post has more detail on how Michelle has changed her narrative, which is useful information. But comment on her post, so that the comments all go in one place.