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These 29 People Regret Accidental Racist Moments

17.

While I was walking by a road, two guys stopped their car randomly. They both got out, ran around the car, and switched passenger and driver. I realized what they were doing, so halfway through I yelled out, “Chinese fire drill!” They were Asian. They did not look amused, especially since I don’t think they knew what a Chinese fire drill is.

18.

Final presentations of the year in 9th grade and my friend Jamahl’s group was going to present their research. The room was pitch black and the only light was from the projector screen that created a white square in the front of the room. I noticed Jamahl was missing among his presentation team and instinctively asked “Where’s Jamahl at?” To my horror a smile emerges to the left of the projected white square where Jamahl had been standing. Due to his black suit, he was completely invisible until he smiled a white grin. Everyone thought I had make the joke on purpose (I was sitting in the back) and started laughing except for my African American counselor who was sitting right next to me and sternly told me that that was not funny (and would later be writing my required college recommendation)

19.

In year 6 we were learning about the USA and black people not being allowed to vote until the 80s. I said “Good!”, as in, at least they got to vote eventually. My teacher took that as “good, not being able to vote until recently.” F*cked the rest of my school life up and people thought I was racist…

20.

I shared an office with a black guy, and I’m a white girl. We talked a lot, and after several hours into the day it could sometimes degenerate into mindless rambling. I can’t remember WHAT I was yammering on about, but I distinctly remember saying something like, “She was black, but she was pretty too” … I had said “but” instead of “and” making it sound like I thought all black people were ugly, and she was an exception.

Written by Irvi Torremoro

Irvi Torremoro is an Austinite by way of Las Vegas. She's worked in various outlets in food & beverage and is now focused on writing, eating all the things, talking about Beyonce, and petting all the puppies. She runs flavorandbounty.com, a lifestyle blog about people in the service industry.