Weird/incorrect race assumptions you've made?

[Howallergic]

My first was Tracy Chapman. I presumed, despite the first name Tracy, that she was a white male. I was shocked to see from a picture that she was not only female, but that she was also black.
My Mum's ex partner presumed that Millie who sang My Boy Lollipop was white and was disappointed (80's) to discover that they were all black. From how he described it to me, it was almost as if he had fancied a girl who turned out to be trans - he felt ashamed.
Latest I can think of is an Irish singer called Hozier who my father assumed was a black man. He's a white Irish singer.
My most recent one was this very posh lady I had to deal with at work, and I presumed she was white, don't know why, but that bias was there. When a black girl turned up in jeans and a hoodie to meet me, I was a little shocked.

This is not a race row argument thread. I'm just wondering whether you've ever made incorrect assumptions based on accents or whatever. Jesus I hope it doesn't get me deleted. I started this with the intention of showing just how stupid our assumptions can be, not the opposite.

Anyway, I'll leave it to you.

I am Asian and once worked with another asian guy and was surprised when he spoke with a very thick glaswegian accent. I didn't realise scottish asians existed. Don't know why, it was stupid of me. Life is strange, years later I ended up marrying one ( not the guy I worked with) and now have scottish asian kids!

When said out loud, my surname sounds Indian. I’ve had people expect an Indian woman to arrive “oh, I expected you to be Indian or Pakistani”.

I've always loved the song " when a child is born" by Johnny Mathis, I've seen the vid but it's quite old, not great quality . I felt stupid when I found out he was black because I didnt know! No strong feelings either way , I was just ' doh'
I've had it happen to me ...I was born in London and couldn't have a stronger london accent . But my first name and last name are both extremely italian . These were printed on my business card in a client facing role ....when someone asked how long i had " been here " , I assumed he meant in that job, so I said 6 months.
He was taken aback and said Well you speak great English!

There is this famous linguist guy called McWhorter I am fairly obsessed with. When I first heard his voice (a bit of a Woody Allen twang) on an audiobook I pictured a posh white professor.

But he kept making slightly weird comments that bordered on the .. well not racist exactly but inappropriate and slightly unexpected from a liberal white professor. When I googled him and saw that he was black it all made sense.

The ironic thing is, one of his books and major arguments is that you can instantly recognise the voice of a black person 🤣

I'm really surprised at all of these. I don't think I've ever got any of these wrong. But then I've always liked soul music, and watched videos and films of music generally, so not much surprises me.

When the Emirates families first began to visit London en masse in the 70s I was surprised by the quantity of Western clothing the women bought. I had no idea that under the black robes they liked to dress up and gladly wear what we think of as ordinary clothing when with their women friends and family in their homes.

One good thing is that although my family is white my dad’s mum was half black. My dad just looks Mediterranean.

Occasionally people have felt comfortable enough in my dad’s whiteness to let their racism show until he reveals to them his mum was black.

Once he even broke friends with someone for their horrific racist joke emails. He was so upset. I was very proud.

I had no idea that under the black robes they liked to dress up

I was disappointed when I found this out. One of the great things about hijab is that you are not supposed to be pressured into caring about your appearance. But the pressure to look nice at home for your husband is still there.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who was shocked to see a picture of radio dj Tim Westwood.

Not a race one, but I had conjured up a very attractive image in my head from a CV because the guy's writing style and interests seemed so fitting for me. Very disappointing to meet him in person - just not my type!

(Unfortunately we hired him, so I'm going to have to shift the disappointment instead of forever labelling him as 'man less attractive than I thought he was going to be!')

I am remarkably good at accents and can mimic almost any one. I used to work in a factory with a lot of polish people and learned to speak it with the accent well enough that when the big boss came round And I was speaking polish to my colleagues, was super shocked when I spoke English with no accent “I thought you were polish”, I was the only person who wasn’t management who was English.
I worked a job taking telephone calls for a wedding venue once, and when the guests would visit they would ask “are you sure you’re the person we spoke to on the phone?” I guess my none accent and RP elevated me in their minds, and they weren’t expecting a 17 year old student with an ill fitting suit and pink hair!
Likewise I have done some work where it was assumed because I had a Welsh surname I was welsh, and have been accused of “denying my heritage” when I met them in person.
I honestly think we just build up a picture in my head of what the person who sounds like that looks like, I think it’s human instinct.

I was convinced George Ezra must be black. His voice simply doesn't conjure up a young, clean cut white guy in my imagination.

Even now I know what he looks like, it takes me by surprise if I ever see him singing in YouTube or an advert.

I apparently sound much older than I am on the telephone . I'm a tutor and regularly get comments about how young I am in person! (I'm actually 41 so I must sound elderley on the phone!)

We had a bus conductor on a local route who had a strong Jamaican accent. She was a white woman who (I assume) was Jamaican but people would do a double take - and then realise that this was how she spoke.

I was at Mass once in a little church in a naice village and some girls were attending from the girls boarding school, as they did each Sunday. One of the girls who attended each Sunday was black. One week we had an elderly relief Priest and he asked the black girl whilst introducing himself where she was from! Her and her friends were in fits of laughter whilst she was replied "Errm, England".

I remember getting my secondary school timetable and noticing that one new teacher had a very obviously Japanese surname. I thought I'd walked into the wrong classroom when she turned out to be a white Welsh lady! One of us asked - she had a Japanese husband and had taken his surname. Somehow that explanation never occurred to me, despite her being Mrs.

Not so much race, but there are several singers I assumed were female who turned out to be males. For example when I was a child, hearing John Waite singing “Missing You”. I even thought, “that’s odd, she’s named John”...

There are a couple of bands from the 70s (ie Rush) that I always say ‘are you sure that’s not a woman singing?’. Even after seeing some old videos I’m not 100% certain.

@Giningit @AriadneCrete yep, me too.

“You’re so articulate.” Why wouldn’t I be? I went to school, didn’t I?

“You don’t sound like you’re from Sarf Lundun.” We’re not all Del Boy

“Oh, you’re a black woman, I was expecting a white male scouser because of your name.” Yep, I changed it deliberately to confound you and you preconceptions....

Joanne shaw Taylor. Listen then look. A bit like Sandy Shaw back In the day.

Was working on a project for a Caribbean client, and their project manager had a broad Jamaican accent, turned out to be a tiny Chinese lady.

In Scotland when I was a child it seemed to be the law that every small village has at least 2 of the following - Chinese restaurant, Indian restaurant, Italian cafe/ice cream van.

Each one would be owned and managed by a somwone (first or more generation) from that country. So it wasn’t unusual to meet dads mate ‘Johnny’ who was born and bred in Honk Kong and had a broad Glaswegian accent who ran a few restaurants. Dads friend (Billy) was originally from the Punjab and had a very thick Glaswegian accent.

I grew up in a very white village in the North East. When I was little my dad played football with a guy who I'd spoken to on the phone when he called my dad, he had a very "by 'eck as like" Yorkshire accent. I was fascinated when I actually met him and he was Chinese.

SerenityNowww apart from the Yorkshire Chinaman I mentioned above. The only non-White person I knew was the son of Chinese restaurant owner!

As a Londoner I'm used to people having first generation accents, local, RP, MLE but it does still surprise me a little if BAME people have another strong regional accent.

I think as time goes on we will just get better at everything. For instance if you see the name Jennifer Patel now you can probably guess, but you could still be wrong!

@DayKay

I’m sure I’m not the only one who was shocked to see a picture of radio dj Tim Westwood.

his dad was bishop of edmonton, ie the central, north of the river part of london. lived in gower street, near the museum. i met him, the bishop a few times; he told me his wife was a counsellor.