I think you’ll appreciate this site. Very funny stuff.”

This is what was in an email a white co-worker, whom I didn’t know well, sent me a few years ago one day out of the blue. I saw the URL and new exactly what webpage would materialize if I clicked the link. Below is my reply.

“Thanks for sending me the link. You’re right; the site is funny. I find this site even funnier because I’m actually black. But I bet my half-white mother will get a kick out this site. “

She replied:
“Oh, well, maybe your white side will think it’s funny too! Ha-ha.”

Um. Yeah. Joke failed.

But it was an awkward situation/conversation/forum/exchange. It may have been the first time my race was mistaken and then explained over email. I’m pretty sure she wasn’t trying to sound racist or insensitive. I found the whole thing amusing.

Of course, I then forwarded the email chain to my friends in the workplace. And they all thought it was hysterical because I had been working there long enough that people should’ve known I was black based on the following things told to me by said friends:

1) my hair
2) they way I walked
3) the attitude I caught whenever I found out I had to work late/basically spend the night at the office

And white people must really love Vespa scooters. I can’t recall ever seeing a black person on a Vespa…