And why you shouldn’t say them.
1. “Are you sure you’re black?”
My friend was working with a white colleague on a project. She had just come up with a brilliant idea for a problem they have been trying to solve for weeks. Even though this guy could see that my friend is a black woman, he couldn’t believe a black woman had solved a problem he, a white man, couldn’t. Hence, his question, “Are you sure you’re black?”
What he didn’t say was he could not imagine a smart and talented black woman.


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