Crossing Borders And Breaking Boundaries

I am white. Another woman who works in my company is American born but of Japanese descent. We’re both around the same age. We don’t work in the same department but find out we have a lot of common interests, so we often wind up grabbing breaks or lunch together to hang out. One day, a guy from another department comes up.

Guy: “I always see you two together. What do you possibly have to talk about?”

Me: “Uhhh… books, movies, TV… normal stuff?”

Guy: “No, I mean, you’re white, and you’re…”

He looks at my coworker and pauses.

Coworker: *Deadpan* “An engineer?”

Guy: “No! Well, yes. I mean, you’re also… It’s just weird. I don’t know what you’d have in common.”

He hurried off, looking flustered, and my coworker and I had a good laugh. She and I have become even better friends, and she likes to joke about how “touching and truly American it is that a producer and an engineer can overcome the divide to become friends.”