Race relations

The other day, I was with a client who reported that she has Puerto Rican, Dominican, American Indian and African American heritage. Somehow, I said something about being white, which I figured was fairly obvious. She said, "You're white?" I just looked at her, showed her my hand, said, "Yes, of course I'm white!" She responded, "Really? Where is your mother from?" When I answered that she was born and raised here in the US, she asked where my grandmother was from. Again, I answered that she was born and raised in the US and that my ancestors go back for many years, but before that, they were from England, Scotland, and Sweden. Basically, the whitest countries you can be from -- that's where my people are from. I am so white that I have to slather 45 on to sit on the beach for any length of time, as well as wearing a hat and sitting under an umbrella.

I am increasingly realizing that for many of my clients, "white" is a negative term. If you call someone white, that's pretty much as bad as it gets. One of my clients is definitely white -- fair skin, freckles, straight hair, etc. The worst name she is called at school is "White out." I've had clients that have said someone was white, and then quickly say, "Oh, sorry" because they assume that I would be offended by that term. The fact that they like me, for the most part, means that I can't possibly be white. Maybe I should not tell them!