An Executive Got Mistaken For Kitchen Help. But Instead Of Getting Angry, She Turned It Into This. [View all]

http://www.upworthy.com/an-executive-got-mistaken-for-kitchen-help-but-instead-of-getting-angry-she-turned-it-into-this?c=upw1

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And we get to the receptionist and we say, "We're here for the lunch." She motions for us to follow her, we walk through a series of corridors, and all of a sudden we find ourselves in a stark room, at which point she looks at us and she says, "Where are your uniforms?" Just as this happens, my friend rushes in. The blood drains from her face. There are literally no words, right?

And I look at her and I say, "Now, don't you think we need more than one black person in the U.S. Senate?" Now, Harold and I, we still laugh about that story and in many ways the moment caught me off guard, but deep, deep down inside I actually wasn't surprised. And I wasn't surprised because of something my mother taught me about 30 years before.

You see, my mother was ruthlessly realistic. I remember one day coming home from a birthday party where I was the only black kid invited, and instead of asking me the normal motherly questions like, "Did you have fun?" or "How was the cake?" my mother looked at me and she said, "How did they treat you?" I was seven. I did not understand.