My 3 year old air conditioner broke the other day (apparently it ran out of refrigerant, so much for Keeprite quality) so I called in the dealer rep. Pretty decent guy, told me all kinds of useful info about my furnace, ac unit, and the whole concept of how an ac unit works. Being an info junkie, I soaked it all up and mentally decided this was my go to guy for any future heating / cooling issues. So I was kind of taken aback when he suggested that my last name (Wright) was kind of unusual for a "coloured" guy.
Now he'd struck me as a pretty smart guy until he made that comment. So here are the things that bothered me about it.
1. Who the fuck uses the term "coloured" any more?
2. Aren't all people "coloured" (As in that kid's Christian hymn, "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red & yellow black & white, all the colours in his sight etc...").
3. The use of the word coloured clearly shows the limited social interaction this dude has with any black people, so did I make an error in judgement by being friendlier with him than befitted what was strictly a business transaction?
Anyhow I explained that most Caribbean blacks are the descendants of slaves, who carried the names of their former English / Spanish / French slaveowners.
Adding insult to injury, buddy then went on to say that he knew a lot about Caribbean history, from the (get this) 5 Caribbean cruises that he's taken! At this point I mentally wrote off all the points that this guy had accrued.
I wonder what percentage of the North American population is this clueless?
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