Ehhhh, I always carry a knife, but sounds like one would not have simplified this situation, considering how it ended.

Yeah, especially because my grandparents were pretty racist, that side of the family fought on the wrong side in the civil war, so I’ve always been hyper conscious of not spewing that same vitriol.

I told a black coworker that something respectable he did was mighty white of him. I had heard someone in some fucking show say it, and for some ungodly reason it categorized in my head as a generally nice thing to say. Obviously, as soon as I heard the words in the open air, I froze. I apologized to the 3 people present and explained how I never said that phrase before and had just regurgitated some random shit. We turned it into a convo about unconscious racism and programming. The guy was super cool about it, we’re decent friends now, but I still die inside every time I think about it.