Out of My Comfort Zone

I think I've written about this before, but I'm not a "race" person. I don't care what race you are. If you're Japanese, Mexican, Italian, etc..I have no idea unless you tell me. I don't know many racial slurs, so if someone called someone something bad, I probably wouldn't even realize it. That's how out of the "race" loop I am. If you don't tell me you're something, I'd never know, and never ask. I either like you or I don't. We have a contractor here at work and the other day he said something like "Well, you know Puerto Ricans can dance." I was like 'Can they? I have no idea.' I don't even know if I know any Puerto Ricans. I guess from that statement he's Puerto Rican. I never asked. hee hee.

A while back, we had a Vietnamese woman working with us. She told us immediately that she was Vietnamese, and told us about some of her customs or whatever. It was interesting to hear. But..I was always uncomfortable when she would make jokes about Vietnamese people or being Asian in general. The thing is, she ALWAYS made statements like that, and it really made me feel weird. She was telling a few people that she was having guests over for dinner. One guy asked what she was making and she said something like 'Oh, don't worry. I'm not making rice patties.' Everyone laughed (except me). Another time, she mentioned that she wanted to go on a trip to Denmark as the photographer. She said 'Well you know, Asians always take the best pictures. They always have their cameras around their necks whenever they are visiting a new place.' Again, people laughed at her anecdote (I'm not sure that's an anecdote). For Christmas, I got her and Gabby these awesome, corduroy blankets. I should have gotten one for myself, but I didn't. I had a red one and a green one. I saw her first and said 'You can either have the red one or the green one.' She said 'All Asians love red, so I will take that one.' I told her that she could have the green one if she wanted, and she said 'No, red is for good luck. I'll take the red one.' I just said 'ok.'

I don't know why it always made me so uncomfortable to be around her and hear those jokes. I told Gabby that I hated hearing those little stories, and Gabby didn't understand it at all. I don't even know if YB understood. I'm not a person to get embarrassed or feel uncomfortable often, so this is new territory for me. I hope I don't run into too many people like this girl again in my lifetime. It's just not a good feeling. Maybe it's just not funny to me. Stereotypes aren't funny at all. Unless you're fat. Just kidding.