The Muslim Times’ Editor’s comments: As we stop profiling Afro-Americans, we do not have to start profiling the Muslims.

Washington (CNN) – Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, has been a member of Congress for almost two decades.

Yet when he is walking down the street in Washington, D.C., at night and white women walk toward him, he says “I cross the street” to avoid making them uncomfortable.

Cummings says he rarely speaks about race or what life is like as a black man, but says President Barack Obama’s heartfelt remarks Friday afternoon made him more comfortable to do so.

“I think it’s important that he speak out and he brings a very unique perspective, because is the president and he has been extremely fortunate compared to most African-Americans, and yet still he can speak to the prejudices that most of us still face,” Cummings told CNN in a telephone interview.

Cummings lives in what calls the “inner city” of Baltimore, Maryland.

For emphasis, he says “when I say inner, I mean inner.”

The 10 term congressman says he loves to go shopping with his wife, because he likes to watch her try on dresses. But he won’t do it outside his district where people know him because “I don’t like the idea of people following me around.”

“People usually have the security guard following me, or questions with the overabundant, ‘can I help you?’ They think you’re going to do something wrong. We’ve seen it over and over again since childhood,” said Cummings.

Read further