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Originally Posted by myfoursons  My husband's boss lives down the road from us. He has a son the same age as one of my sons. They go to school together and they are friends. My husband's boss is new to the area and had moved from Alabama. Just for additional information that will be needed later in the story, they are a black family and we are white.
Anyway, their little boy wanted to know if two of my boys could go to Bible study with him on Wednesday night. Our kids told us this and my husband wanted to confirm this. So, while at work, he asked his boss about it so that he could get the details. Our children had in fact been invited.
We were curious as to which church they intended because our town has a bajillion churches of varying denominations. So, he asked his boss what kind of church they attended? Then he said what I find to be the most offensive thing. His response was, "Don't worry, it's an all white church."
Is it just me, or was this totally uncalled for? I feel like he was implying that we were racists. We are far from it. I grew up in a majority black town. I have biracial nephews. I have never thought anything about color as being a factor with the places my children go or who they hang out with.
I am thinking of confronting him to make it clear that when we wanted to know about the church it had nothing to do with race. But, it is my husband's boss and I don't want to create any ill feelings. Any advice? |
Being Black doesn't make someone tolerant anymore than being White makes someone a racist.
Sometimes Blacks are hurt so often by Whites that they just assume every question or comment has to do with race or racial stereotyping. Some Blacks do not realize that whites too can be the victims of racial injustice.
Where I used to work, very few of the Blacks were aware of the different ethnic groups. When one White guy was trying to describe a fellow mechanic to a Black mechanic, he said "You know, that old Polish guy". The Black man didn't know a Polish surname from an Italian name, from a Irish name, etc. There is a lot of favoritism between White ethnic groups. I know of major companies (Fortune 500) where at one time, an Italian was doomed or an Irishmen was slated to the junk pile when it came time for promotions.
Many Blacks do not understand this. They however, have one major thing going against them; while the different ethnic groups eventually blend in, Blacks are always easy to spot and easy to discriminate against, so White ethnic groups always pass them on the totem pole over time.
A Black friend of mine admitted that after 911, he felt that he had moved up, because then Arabs were more disliked than him.
Note: When I said Polish, I meant Polish-American, etc. 