ABSTRACT
T his is a real anecdote: A Belgian couple visited Manhattan for the first time with their two children. While they devoted the morning to a classic tour of the city, they spent the afternoon walking at random in the streets. As they got tired, the children saw a McDonald's restaurant and wanted a “real American Big Mac.” The family entered and realized that everybody, waiters and patrons, was Black, and several of them were overweight. The mother made the queue while the rest of the family sat at a table. As she waited for her turn, the mother mentally rehearsed her order because of her awkward English. “Can I help you, Ms.?” said the person behind the counter. The mother responded, “Yes, please, four Big Blacks.” As she pronounced the words, the Belgian woman realized what she had just said and burst into laughter while apologizing. Everybody else around laughed, too, and when the family left the restaurant after having eaten their hamburgers, they were accompanied by wishes for a nice evening. Imagine now that instead of laughing, the woman had opened scared eyes and become red like a torero's muleta. Do you think that the whole family should have run away from the place like one does in an arena? The father teaches social psychology and has used this anecdote with great success during seminars in several countries to illustrate social phenomena. He was, however, warned not to tell this story in the United States because the audience could be shocked and scandalized.
