Race

Lady peon with eye patch: Yeah… Once you go black, you never go back.

45th Avenue and Vermont Street
Portland, Oregon

Overheard by: WOW

Waitress #1: What’s with your couple at table five? It’s impossible to tell how old they are. They could be in their 20s or 50s.
Waitress #2: That’s ’cause they’re foreign. All foreign people look like vampires.

River Street
Savannah, Georgia

Sales agent, about Arab Muslim client on phone: Jesus Christ, is it those people with the capes again?!

745 Boylston Street
Boston, Massachusetts

Secretary #1: Here, I’ll trade you dark chocolate for my chocolate.
Secretary #2: No, I like dark chocolate.
Secretary #1: Why does the white man have to take all the dark chocolate? That’s the last piece of dark chocolate, and I’m dark so I should eat it! You ate all the white chocolate last week because you’re white, and now you’re going to have all the dark chocolate, too, just like the white man does to everything!
Secretary #2, eating dark chocolate: It’s all mine now. Look at this! [Opens mouth.]Secretary #1, muttering to herself and walking away: Just like the white man…

11330 Pierce Street
Riverside, California

Overheard by: Kevin

Defense attorney at deposition: … And before the accident, about how many times per month were you intimate with your wife?
Plaintiff: Um, probably upper 20s.
Defense attorney, incredulous: Upper 20s?!
Plaintiff: Yeah. My wife is Latin.

9th Street
Sacramento, California

Newbie: Are you Chinese or Japanese?
Korean working the register: What?! Japanese are rich, ignorant fools, and Chinese are murderous barbarians. I am Korean!
Newbie: Oh. I never knew that…

Korean deli, 1700 Research Boulevard
Rockville, Maryland

Overheard by: Septimus

Staffer: I just left Publix and my cashier’s name was Kartoon.
HR manager: Oh, yeah! My wife was telling me about her. Do you think her parents meant to name her ‘Khartoum,’ after the country in Africa?
Staffer: I don’t know. Maybe it’s just a popular name from her parents’ native country.
HR manager: Oh, you mean she’s not black?
Staffer: What? No, she’s Asian.
HR manager: Oh. Was I stereotyping just now?
Staffer: Ummm, yeah, a little bit… You are so in the right profession.

Office
Hilton Head, South Carolina