https://boards.hellobee.com/ Pregnancy, Baby and Parenting blog, by Hellobee en Thu, 30 Apr 2026 02:44:45 +0000 https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-2206236 Fri, 12 Jun 2015 01:01:17 +0000 Arden 2206236@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My family isn't mixed race, but my best friend is black and her daughter, my goddaughter, is mixed race. It seems like every time we go anywhere together people assume we are a lesbian couple (granted, I'm often wearing her baby, but still). It's funny.<br /> The best part is that her husband and my husband have been mistaken as a couple before when out with our daughters - because both of them are white and my goddaughter looks black, they assume she's adopted. But she's not, she just looks like her mama. :P </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-2205925 Thu, 11 Jun 2015 19:48:06 +0000 BKCaribBaby 2205925@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Anagram: Yep. That happens to us. Black men hit on me with my husband right there, which is pretty rude. He is a very preppy looking white guy, and I am Black with locs, so I guess they think I'm not with him. Either way,disrespectful.</p> <p>LO looks Latina/borderline white and not like me, so I usually get, "Is she yours?" if anything. </p> <p>@avivoca: Who are these Black people you know/knew?! That is beyond strange (if not maddening). </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-2205704 Thu, 11 Jun 2015 17:11:18 +0000 Anagram 2205704@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@daniellemybelle: hahaha....I have a friend that this happens to all the time! SO AWKWARD. People do something similar to me, like coworkers will randomly tell me that their cousin just married an Indian girl and ask if I want to see the picture. And I'm like.....ah, okay. Because my husband isn't Indian. But I get it, he looks Indian, whatever. People. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-2205334 Thu, 11 Jun 2015 13:04:37 +0000 avivoca 2205334@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@daniellemybelle: That's so crazy! Though, S does have hair like my sister. </p> <p>I don't know if H looks multi-racial. She looks like a darker version of my husband. Seriously, their baby pictures are identical except T is very pale and H is olive-toned. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-2205311 Thu, 11 Jun 2015 12:46:54 +0000 daniellemybelle 2205311@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Anagram: OMG!</p> <p>@avivoca: I'm sorry that happened. :(</p> <p>LO is very clearly biracial. People with biracial grandchildren, nieces/nephews, godchildren, third cousins, etc. etc. LOVE to come up to me and say things that are what they consider the polite version of, "Your kid is biracial like my loved one!" They'll say, "I love her hair - it is just like my granddaughter's." Or, "She looks just like my niece." And show me a picture and the only thing they have in common is that they are both biracial. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-2205047 Thu, 11 Jun 2015 09:43:24 +0000 avivoca 2205047@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Anagram: I don't know. I moved shortly after that, so I never found out why. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-2205046 Thu, 11 Jun 2015 09:40:59 +0000 Anagram 2205046@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@avivoca: Why wouldn't they want to hang out? how bizarre. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-2205040 Thu, 11 Jun 2015 09:37:45 +0000 avivoca 2205040@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Anagram: That's ridiculous!</p> <p>We don't get many as a couple because I can pass for white, but my family has gotten a lot of double takes over the years, especially now that we live in the south. My mom is black and my dad is white. I do remember in high school I was friends with some black girls until they found out that I was half-black. Then they didn't want to hang out anymore. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-2205026 Thu, 11 Jun 2015 09:27:37 +0000 Anagram 2205026@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Bump from many years ago.....</p> <p>I just went to a wedding with DH. We were standing in a group of people chatting, and the photographer came by and said "Couple photos! Lemme get some photos of each couple", and then proceeded to pull DH away from me to stand next to a Singaporean Indian girl for their "couple photo".</p> <p>ahahahahaha. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-610159 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 22:56:16 +0000 Anagram 610159@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@leelee: You were holding hands and the security guard asked if he was alone? hahaha.....that's crazy. </p> <p>Keep 'em coming, ladies!</p> <p>Here's one:</p> <p>We live in an elevator building, so we spend a lot of time going up and down with other people. As you know, people don't talk on elevators, so if it's crowded and there's a line to get on, people don't see that we're together. There have been times when I want to take my coat off, so I just reach over/through another person and ask DH, "can you hold this for a second?"</p> <p>And people always STARE like they think I'm being really demanding/forward with a guy I don't know. I think they don't put 2 and 2 together until we get off on the same floor. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-610008 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 21:38:45 +0000 softcream 610008@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@Cherrybee: LOL. that is all </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-609430 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 14:13:55 +0000 wheres_c 609430@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@MediaNaranja: yes! I got the green card question a lot myself! I wasn't even a citizen myself, so i would be zero help in getting a green card. SO got his citizenship before I did. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-609333 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 12:28:53 +0000 mrsjazz 609333@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm not in a mixed race family, but my BFF is Latina (Puerto Rican) and I'm a Black American. I went to visit her soon after my godson was born and we went to her 6-wk follow-up appt. and an old lady came up to us and kept asking me about my godson. "How old is he?" "What's his name?" those type of questions. My BFF was standing right there but I was holding my godson--though we are both brown, I am darker and my godson looks exactly like her. I kept deferring the questions to my best friend but the lady kept asking me and told me "god bless you and take care of that baby" on the way out. My BFF was like, "um wtf?"</p> <p>And then we went to a bagel store right after the appointment and the cashier thought that we were a lesbian couple out with our baby :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-609322 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 12:16:03 +0000 shopaholic 609322@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@kjn: that story made me laugh and smile! Love your friend's response! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-609313 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 12:06:13 +0000 leelee 609313@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>DH is white and i am asian. We took my whole family to Hawaii a couple years ago. When we got to the front of the security check at the airport, the guard looked at my husband who was at the front of the group and said, "one right? You can go ahead." DH pointed at us (group of asian people) behind him and said "actually 12." I think the guard felt so bad he let us by even though the line for the next check point was really long. It was weird though considering I was holding DH hand and we had all been chatting prior. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-609193 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 11:07:13 +0000 mrs. bird 609193@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>we've had quite a few of these moments. DH is black, i'm white, apparently this is confusing for some people. the best faces i've gotten were when i took DH's little cousins to have their hair done before our wedding, i walked into the hair braiding salon and you could have heard a pin drop. once i was in a store trying on some dresses and asked if the woman working in the store would grab my husband for me because i wanted his opinion and told her i thought he was in the waiting area outside the dressing rooms, she came back to tell me he wasn't there, so i got changed and went out, sure enough, there was one man sitting on the couch in the waiting area, my husband, so i turned to the woman and said, 'that IS my husband' and left. there have been many more, but yeah, i agree, people can be stupid and say the silliest things when it doesn't occur to them that you could be a blended family. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-609171 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 10:56:10 +0000 .twist. 609171@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>hahaha these are great! </p> <p>I don't have anything super exciting. My ex's parents are from England, they came over here oh, 40 years ago but still have quite thick accents (to us). We would go out for dinner and his mom would say something about something she got or something she'd never seen before, and I was amazed at how many waiters/waitresses would just say "OH, that is so sweet, you can have it, we have lots!" because they thought she was just visiting here from England. That woman got so much free shit. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-609170 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 10:53:51 +0000 LaughLines 609170@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@CHERRYBEE the Columbian story reminded me of a similar one. My cousin is adopted and is darker skinned, he is from a TOWN named Columbia and everyone always assumes he's from the COUNTRY Columbia and asks if he speaks spanish, etc. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-609161 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 10:43:37 +0000 StbHisMrs 609161@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My dh's ex-wife is Japanese, his dd's look more Japanese than white, I'm white and so is my ds and our dd. My dh took ds (pale white and bright red hair) into a convenient store (the owner remembered dh and his daughters going in) and the owner said oh you have a Japanese son too!! My dh said "nope, this is my step-son, he's not Japanese! The guy said oh, he looks part Japanese!!! Wth? </p> <p>This use to make me so angry but now I think it's funny..<br /> My ex-dh's family is from Northern Italy (light skin and red hair), he was named after his Grandfather and has a traditional Italian name, also a Spanish name, with a very American last name. We use to get phone calls and mail in Spanish and it was SO frustrating!! lol </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-608975 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 07:54:40 +0000 MediaNaranja 608975@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I lived in Ecuador for several years, which is where I met my DH. Luckily we haven't had too many weird run ins. He always gets mad when people assume he's Mexican. They'll ask "oh, so where in Mexico are you from?" And he just gives the death stare. </p> <p>The one that really irks me, though, is when people ask me if he married me for a green card....WTF. Or sometimes they ask if he came here illegally. Again, WTF. I doubt that people would ask me that if my husband was a white European. But since he's brown-skinned, he's obviously just using me for a green card. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-608954 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 07:02:00 +0000 kjn 608954@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I haven't had too many awkward moments. I hate that the waiters always give me a fork when I'm out for Chinese food with his family (I'm white, DH is Chinese). But a friend of mine with the same family ethnic background has a great story. She brought her little girl to work one day and a coworker she didn't know well said "Oh she's beautiful - when did you bring her home?" My friend said "actually I grew this one myself". So funny. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-608937 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 05:26:41 +0000 Cherrybee 608937@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>A very close friend of mine, A (he actually walked me down the aisle!), came to my mum's 60th birthday dinner a few years back. He's mixed heritage - his mum was black and his dad was white.. My mum's friend J was sitting opposite us and kept staring at him. Finally, she asked the question she wanted to ask - and the conversation went like this:</p> <p>J: So A, where are you from?<br /> A: Birmingham (it's a city 30 miles away from us)<br /> J: No.... where are you originally from?<br /> A: Birmingham. I live here now though.<br /> J: No... I mean, where were your parents from?<br /> A: Birmingham?<br /> J: No, I mean.... are you Columbian?<br /> A: Columbian?? [starts doing a dreadful Mexican sounding accent, asking her to pass the sauce....]</p> <p>Luckily A has a great sense of humour about it all - he totally knew that she was trying to ask why his skin was the colour it was but he was having too much fun with her! </p> <p>Some people really do need to think before they speak and then usually not open their mouths at all!!!! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-608894 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 01:47:10 +0000 Mrs. Jacks 608894@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@TurtleDoves: I think you probably have it harder than many because there is so much Muslim prejudice these days. There was a beautiful young lady traveling as we were coming home. She was wearing yoga pants, long sleeved workout shirt... Totally American girl! But because she was wearing hijab, I could watch people eyeing her. It made me really sad. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-608882 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 01:16:40 +0000 CupQuakeWalk 608882@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm Muslim &amp; I wear a scarf (hijab) so whenever we go out to eat, the server will try to flex his or her wits and be like "oh, I know you don't eat pork because your Jewish!" Or "oh, I didn't know Hindus ate meat?" And I'm like.."I'm Muslim; but good try:)" I guess some people just know a scarf is a religious symbol but they have no idea which religion, so they guess ;) </p> <p>Once when we were in Miami beach (prodominately orthodox Jewish) a Jewish man dressed in full orthodox clothing said "shalom" to my husband thinking he was Jewish...then he saw me standing next to DH and his jaw just dropped. I bet he was thinking.."how'd I mess that up?" Not all black haired guys with facial hair are Jewish...some are Muslim! Haha </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-608874 Sun, 03 Mar 2013 00:52:48 +0000 sandy 608874@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>My husband is white and I'm Asian but I don't have any funny stories about us BUT I have a good story about my husband and our friend. On the day if my baby shower we had our good friends staying with us from out of town - they have 3 little girls who were all under 3 at the time (2 are twins). The mom and I went to my baby shower for the day and the dad and my husband took the kids to the zoo for the day. The whole day people kept coming up to them and talking to them about the girls and assuming they were a gay couple with 3 kids...they got asked how long they had been together, etc. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-608640 Sat, 02 Mar 2013 21:12:30 +0000 Mrs. Tiger 608640@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>I'm white, DH is Indian, soo many stories just like yours! He's actually from Malaysia, and the first time I went there with his family, I was carrying his toddler sister at the airport, and the ticket attendant assumed I was the nanny, and then on the Malaysian side when they were stamping passports, they asked my FIL (in Malay) if I was following them and should they deal with me :)</p> <p>So far, DS just looks white, so I expect DH will get stranger comments than me! We joke that if our 2nd looks more Indian I'll have to carry that one so its more obvious we're all together :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-608568 Sat, 02 Mar 2013 20:08:47 +0000 tysonja 608568@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>hehehe great stories!!! :)</p> <p>we haven't had any good stories to come out of it yet (dh caucasian, me chinese) bc we live in vancouver and it is really really really common here :) </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-608550 Sat, 02 Mar 2013 19:30:29 +0000 Anagram 608550@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>@wheres_c: haha. I'm glad it doesn't happen to just me! The British football jersey story has a nice, health dose of sexism, too! </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-608540 Sat, 02 Mar 2013 19:19:49 +0000 wheres_c 608540@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>Those are hilarious!<br /> I'll have to rack my brain to think if I have any.</p> <p>I was at the British store today and had LO dressed in a british football outfit. The store owner said "oh daddy must be a big football fan". Um no, that would be me.<br /> Then he asked where in UK daddy was from - and I told him daddy was from Peru, it's me who's British.</p> <p>I'm always getting "I thought you were black" or "I thought you were hispanic" because I guess my name is more common in those races.</p> <p>When my mom and I and SO and his mom go out to lunch and it's busy, servers will always say "table for two?" not fathoming the blondies are with the two dark haired people speaking spanish. </p> https://boards.hellobee.com/topic/hilarious-misunderstandings-from-strangers-when-you-have-a-mixed-raceculture-family#post-608508 Sat, 02 Mar 2013 18:41:32 +0000 Anagram 608508@https://boards.hellobee.com/ <p>With all the various family dynamics we have on HB, I figured many of you should have funny stories to share in this category. I have so many stories, so I'll try to narrow them down to just one or two.</p> <p>In December of this year, my husband's sister, her husband, and their two kids came to visit us. As a treat for the kids, my DH bought tickets for all of us to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. There were two massive lines wrapping around the building to get in, and people were getting antsy. Right before you could go inside, the two lines merged into one giant bottleneck, where ppl checked tickets. My husband was first in our group, holding the tickets, and holding his nephew's hand. His sister and BIL were next, holding their other child, so I was last in line.. When we got to the ticket taker, my husband gave all the tickets and walked in, and everyone followed, until the ticket taker got to me, and he held me back and started putting the rope down.</p> <p>I was like, um..that's my husband--- he gave you my ticket! And the guy just stared at me like I was lying until my husband came back and got me. Because Dh and his family are all brown and I'm white, of course. We all had a good laugh about that one.</p> <p>Second story:<br /> once in a restaurant, DH dropped me off to go inside and get a table while he parked. The hostess said she could seat us right away, so I went with her to a table, and asked her to tell my boyfriend, who would be walking in soon, where I was sitting. After I sat, I noticed an Indian girl sitting alone at a table right next to me.</p> <p>When the hostess returned 2 minutes later, she was leading a white guy and my bf. she turned to the white guy and said, "and here you are, Sir" and pointed at me...and then pointed my boyfriend to the Indian girl! So then the white guy had to explain that the Indian girl was his wife, and my bf (the Indian looking guy) must be with me. Awkward/hilarious!!</p> <p>Final one:<br /> my FIL picked me up at the airport once, because my DH was at work. On the way home, he said he needed to run into an Indian grocery store to get a specific thing my MIL wanted for what she was cooking. He asked me to go in with him, because he forgot his glasses and was afraid he wouldn't be able to read the labels. </p> <p>We got some downright GLARES from some older Indian ladies who must have wondered WTH a 65 year old south Asian man was doing with. 30 yr old blonde woman who is much more tall! Soooo funny/awkward. </p> <p>I have a lot more stories, but I want to hear from all of you! </p>