Fact Check: Was Sasha Obama kicked out of Reagan Washington airport for being a Black woman?
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA: A rumor going around last month claimed that staff at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia asked Sasha Obama to leave the premises.
Sasha, the youngest daughter of former President Barack Obama, was allegedly the victim of an airport discrimination incident that went viral on social media.
The Sasha Obama rumor that sparked the frenzy
It all started with a claim that Sasha was asked to leave Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington. According to the rumor, airport staff allegedly questioned the legitimacy of her business-class ticket due to her being a Black woman.
The drama supposedly escalated until Barack Obama himself arrived to “set things straight,” leading to a happy ending where Sasha emerged as a champion for travel industry reforms.
The tale first popped up in a YouTube video uploaded on December 21 by a channel called Beneath the Mask. The video was dramatically titled “Airport Staff Kicked Out Sasha Obama, But Regretted Everything When Her Father Barack Obama Arrived” and quickly went viral, racking up more than 900,000 views.
Social media platforms like Facebook and YouTube ate it up like candy and became inundated with comments and debates surrounding the incident.
Fact-Check: Fiction at its finest
The story was entirely fabricated. A simple Google News search revealed no credible reports of such an incident. The video, as well as others hosted on the same YouTube channel, was nothing more than engagement bait designed to attract views—and, presumably, ad revenue, Snopes reported.
To add to the absurdity, the video used artificial intelligence (AI) tools to generate its thumbnail and script. The image showed a faux perspective of Sasha, Barack, and airport workers, while the video itself was a 51-minute loop of baseless claims narrated by AI.
And this wasn’t Beneath the Mask’s first rodeo. The channel has a history of posting sensationalized, made-up stories about prominent Black figures. Earlier in December, it claimed that “racist resort staff” had attacked the Obamas and that a “racist pilot” targeted Barack Obama.
Other targets included Kevin Hart, Will Smith, and LeBron James, all of whom were allegedly embroiled in discriminatory incidents that same month.
Former first daughter Sasha Obama is charting her own path
Born in 2001, Sasha was just seven years old when she and her older sister Malia moved into the White House in 2009. As two of the youngest White House residents since the Kennedy era, the Obama sisters captured America’s hearts.
During her father’s presidency, Sasha largely stayed out of the limelight as she focused on school and extracurricular activities. She attended the prestigious Sidwell Friends School, where she was an active swimmer, basketball player, and ballet dancer. What's more? Sasha even performed in 'The Nutcracker' with the Moscow Ballet in 2012.
Her big “coming out” moment was at the 2016 state dinner honoring Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Michelle Obama later reflected on Sasha’s blossoming independence during Barack’s second term in her memoir 'Becoming.'
Fast forward to today, Sasha is a young woman charting her own path. While much of her life continues to remain private, she’s proven time and again that she’s more than just “the former first daughter.”
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