Flibbertigibbet

Races High

Trey Givens is talking about race and it reminds me of something that happened at work the other day:

I was talking to some of my employees about my trip to El Salvador in February and one of them asked if they speak Dutch there because I'm learning Dutch. I said, "No, they speak Spanish there, but I was a Spanish minor." So, they were confused because they thought the reason I am learning Dutch is because I'm going somewhere that they speak Dutch.

I'm not. I'm just learning it because I like language.

Well, I also have a new employee who happens to have a slightly darker complexion than me. You might mistake her for Hispanic at a glance, but she's not.

So, I was joking about learning Dutch and I said with a wink, “I’ll bet she knows waar is de kruidenierswinkel.�

She turned to me and said, "I don't speak Spanish."

I said, "That was Dutch."

Then I realized that she thought that I thought she's Hispanic. Other than her skin tone, there is no reason I would think that, though. And even if she were, I have no reason to think she speaks Spanish. She has a very strong Southern drawl.

I'll bet that some people have made that mistake with her before. I'll bet she was seriously confused by my foolishness about her speaking Dutch.

Huh.

This story is going no where right now because I just realized how strange it is to joke to someone about speaking Dutch for no reason at all. (I thought that's why it's funny.)

Interestingly enough, without paying any attention to race, gender or any of that stuff, I have hired the most diverse team in the office. We're a team with two Asians, a Black guy, a Jew, two women and a homo manager. The woman I hired was to replace a Hispanic guy.

HR must be peeing their pants with joy about my maintaining our Affirmative Action / EOE policy. Get over it, HR people! It's not on purpose!