Yesterday I was on the Metro-North train from Westport, CT to Grand Central. My sister and I were sitting across from eachother; she was next to this woman who was going to NY to find her daughter an apartment (weird) and I was next to a woman who's breath smelled like she had just dined on dog shit.
As normal human beings do, we started to make small talk with the other women. The mom looking for an apartment for her daughter asked my sister where she lived and then she turned to me and said, "And you? Where do you live?"
"Oh I live in Hoboken. It's a really great neighborhood and if your daughter is going to be at NYU she can just take the Path Train right to 14th Street."
The woman next to me piped up, "Oh uh-uh. I live in Jersey City. It's the next town ova from Hoboken. Is nice. Right by the water front. I mean it can get expensive but it's a good place to live."
As I was gagging from her breath which was making a direct bee-line for my nostrils she then turned to me and goes, "I mean, how many black people live in Hoboken?"
Reluctantly I moved my hand away from my nose and replied, "Well I don't know. I've never stopped to count them all."
The woman just gave me a side-ways glance, then she let out a breath (UGH!!!) and went back to talking about how amazing Jersey City is.
Who the hell asks that kind of question? What if I turned to her and asked, "Um..by your estimation how many white people live in Jersey City?"