This week at work I went and bought some chicken wings for lunch. I brought them back to work to eat, but upon returning I realized I had forgotten to get hot sauce!! I was so mad, because everyone knows that wings aren’t good without hot sauce. Luckily I work with a bunch of black women so I was in luck of getting some. I asked one of them if they had any hot sauce. She said, “I think so. Let me check.” She looked into her drawer but she couldn’t find any. “Sorry I don’t have any.” I looked at her and said surprisingly but jokingly, “Really??” She replied back, “Why, you think just ‘cuz I’m black I have to have some hot sauce??!!” Then we both laughed and I asked my other black co-worker for some. She had a whole stash of it in her office.

The point of this true story of mine is that if you show love and respect to your friends and co-workers, it’s ok to make fun of each other’s stereotypes. Usually you have to figure out who you can and cannot joke with first by judging their sense of humor. I think if everyone was open with one another about their preconceived notions about other races and cultures, there would be less racial tension in the world today.