Conversation with co-worker today:
(We had been talking with a third co-worker about famous people and Nelson Mandela’s name came up in the conversation)
Her: Nelson Mandela? Now why is he famous again?
Me: (thinking she’s putting me on) Um? He was a political prisoner for many years in South Africa? The whole anti-aparteid movement?
Her: Aparteid? What’s that?
Me: (thinking, Holy Crap, she HAS to be putting me on) Um? That thing in South Africa that went on for a long time where the native Afrikans were treated very badly by the white South Africans and they were segregated and all?
I realize that aparteid was much much more, but just in case my co-worker wasn’t putting me on about not knowing these things, I didn’t want to overwhelm her brain and cause an overload of some kind by giving her too much information.
Should I mention here that this co-worker is in her early 60’s? And makes a habit of reading the paper every day? I’d like to think she was just yanking my chain, but something about her tone told me otherwise. Yeesh.
Yzerfontein says:
You could have tried playing along…Nelson Mandela, the porn star….
November 23rd, 2006 at 4:13 pm
Cagey says:
Yeah, it blows my mind when people don’t know things like that. It also explains why things get pretty f&*cked up out in the world. If people don’t even KNOW, how can they even CARE?
December 5th, 2006 at 11:07 am