Race

Young black woman #1: What’s We Own the Night about?
Young black woman #2: One guy’s a cop, and his brother is a gangster or something.
Young black woman #1: Does it have black people in it or white people?
Young black woman #2: White people.
Young black woman #1: Let’s see something else.

Columbus, Ohio

Overheard by: Jason Bourne

Guy: Nah, Ed, you can’t ever be creepy — you’re Asian.
Ed, indignantly: Dude!
Guy: I mean, unless you’re a ninja–
Passerby: –With a sword!

Algonquin Conference Center
Ottawa, Ontario
Canadia

Black party hostess: So, are there any black people in Nevada?
Drunk white hippie girl from Nevada: No! But we might as well be black, because we’re so uneducated and everything, you know? [Room, full of black professionals, explodes with laughter.]Black suit: I need a very dry martini right now.

Gregory Street
Madison, Wisconsin

White girl: I don’t know why I don’t like dark-skinned people…
White guy: Maybe because you’re a racist?
White girl, annoyed: Nooo… I just don’t like them.

http://www.overheardatmcgill.com/archives/2007/03/12/or-maybe-its-because-youre-a-racist/

Guy: Man, I have a ton of friends who are Asian. But watch out — if you touch one of them on the head, they’ll kill you.

http://eavesdropdc.blogspot.com/

Nervous white guy to friend: Are we gonna be the only white people on the train?

http://overheardinphilly.blogspot.com/

Overheard by: eastchestnut

Asian guy: Goddamn, that shooter down in the US is gonna give Asians a bad name. Quiet Asian guys will only be able to stay silent for five minutes before people get suspicious.
Mexican guy: Join the club. Down in the US people only think of us as cheap landscapers.
Asian guy: I don?t think we have a lot of Mexicans here.
Mexican guy: That must be why your lawns look so shitty.

http://www.overheardatmcgill.com/archives/2007/04/28/blacks-and-arabs-break-out-into-dance/

Stressed undergrad: Yeah, I have to write a 25 page paper on my experiences with racial ideology.
Bimbette: Oh my god, I would just write a list of every time I talked to a black person… But I would never be able to get 25 pages.

overheardatnu.blogspot.com

English professor: Outer space is occupied by evil orientals.

Marymount University
Arlington, Virginia

Overheard by: Sarah Yvonne

50-something female to Native American presenter in elementary school: Is it true that the arrival of whites changed your way of life?

Denver, Colorado