"Even The Bosses?"

Today I had the unique pleasure of having my dad drive me to work. He says he wants to help me save money on transportation, which is great, but he also uses it as an opportunity to find out what is going on in my life. Today, he said something I thought was interesting.

So, today, while we were in the car, he decided to ask me about work. Mind you, I have now had this new job for over a month, but it was today that he decided to learn more about it. I was sitting in the front passenger seat listening to the radio, when he asked: "How many black people work there?"
I've never truly understood why we, as black people, always ask this question. If I answer "none" am I supposed to quit my job and declare the company racist? Then, I can become another statistic--the unemployed black person.
Anyway, I answered his question--there is one other black person in the office in case any of you must know. But, this wasn't the statement he made that surprised me this morning. Then he asked if the black person was a man or woman.

Past readers of my blog may remember my earlier post about working in an all female office so, when my dad asked, I said, "Its all women." My dad replied, "Even the bosses?" and there was just this tone of disbelief when he asked that question that I gave him a sideways glance before answering, "Yes, even the bosses."

At this point some of you may say that he was just surprised at this because of how hard women have to work to get to the top, and his surprise was "good" surprise. However, you don't know my dad. When I was younger, in elementary school, he would drive me to school and if someone on the road was driving badly he would always say, "Women drivers!" Even at age 6 I knew there was something wrong with that statement, and I would ask him how he knew it was a woman when he couldn't see the driver

My father has such antiquated ideas about women I just have to laugh about it sometimes. Moving to America hasn't done anything to change this. Of course, he is from a different time and he may be excused, but there are people in our generation who exhibit the same tendencies. Those are the people I have a problem with!