Couple days after Hurricane Ivan; Taiwanese kid, black guy, me and another white guy, playing cards on the porch, a single light bulb powered off a van battery.
Black guy we just met keeps getting me and the other white guy mixed up, swapping “John” for “Josh”. After about the fourth time, the other guy pipes up:
“I’m John, he’s Josh.”
Black guy is sorely embarrassed.
“Man, I’m so sorry y’all! Just can’t get it right!”
“It’s cool. I know us white people all look alike to y’all black folk.”
dead
silence
<everybody looking around to see if it’s cool to laugh>
my in-laws were at the grocery store and an older black lady came down the isle looking confused. she spoke up and asked, “Are there any crackers in this isle?”
my FIL spoke up and looked her dead in the eye and said, “Just the two of us.”
The lady stood there for a moment, even more confused and then busted out cackling as she walked away.
not even a few minutes later, a couple isles over, the cackling resumed with some other laughter with it.
Oh my lord, perfect! In the late 90s I had never heard the word cracker. Working Nissan Consumer Affairs, lady on the phone went off, “Well ain’t you a smartass little cracker!” Slammed the phone. (And yes, I was being a smartass.)
Pulled my black friend aside, “Hey Darren, just got called a ‘cracker’. Sounds like a racial slur, right?”
LOL my god, he took a step back:
“SHALFI you ain’t never heard that word?!”
“Um.”
“You know, like a slave master? <pantomiming a whip>”
Picture this.
Couple days after Hurricane Ivan; Taiwanese kid, black guy, me and another white guy, playing cards on the porch, a single light bulb powered off a van battery.
Black guy we just met keeps getting me and the other white guy mixed up, swapping “John” for “Josh”. After about the fourth time, the other guy pipes up:
“I’m John, he’s Josh.”
Black guy is sorely embarrassed.
“Man, I’m so sorry y’all! Just can’t get it right!”
“It’s cool. I know us white people all look alike to y’all black folk.”
dead
silence
<everybody looking around to see if it’s cool to laugh>
We were SCREAMING!
my in-laws were at the grocery store and an older black lady came down the isle looking confused. she spoke up and asked, “Are there any crackers in this isle?”
my FIL spoke up and looked her dead in the eye and said, “Just the two of us.”
The lady stood there for a moment, even more confused and then busted out cackling as she walked away.
not even a few minutes later, a couple isles over, the cackling resumed with some other laughter with it.
racism’s powerless in the light of comedy.
Oh my lord, perfect! In the late 90s I had never heard the word cracker. Working Nissan Consumer Affairs, lady on the phone went off, “Well ain’t you a smartass little cracker!” Slammed the phone. (And yes, I was being a smartass.)
Pulled my black friend aside, “Hey Darren, just got called a ‘cracker’. Sounds like a racial slur, right?”
LOL my god, he took a step back:
“SHALFI you ain’t never heard that word?!”
“Um.”
“You know, like a slave master? <pantomiming a whip>”
“OH!”