Thursday, January 6, 2011

My un-PC coffee date

Last week, a university friend and I found each other in the same town at the same time so she suggested a coffee date, which of course I agreed to... but it wouldn't just be the two of us. There were a couple of other people, one of whom I also knew from university via my friend.

We met at a coffee shop, and after greeting my friend (I was pretty excited since we hadn't seen each other since graduation) I wanted to hug the friend (of my friend) who I know - although not very well. She sat with her arms crossed and said, "I don't hug people of colour."

"What sh*t is that?" I asked - knowing very well that she was attempting to be humourous.

It was a square table with all four chairs occupied and one pulled up to the corner of the table.

"That chair is for you. It's for people of colour," this girl said.

Taking it with a pinch of salt, I sat down and proceeded to catch up with my friend over this "People-of-Colour" girl. I asked her if we could please swap seats because I didn't want to be talking over all the time.

For the next hour and a half, I tried to elicit conversation with my friend who was sitting to my left, while the girl on my right was continuously making these racist jokes. Now, I know her, but I never knew her that well to make such jokes to/about (?) me. Eventually, I turned a deaf ear and blatantly ignored the little smart-ass chirps that were coming from her direction.

So what do you think? At what point would you think it's just not funny anymore? Kind of annoying and so rude - whether it's a joke or not. Remember, "there's an element of truth in every joke".

Luckily, I had another coffee date to get to so it was time to leave...and oh boy, was I ever so happy to leave their company.

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