Chick #1: When I was in school I failed Spanish, even though I am Puerto Rican.
Chick #2: My husband taught me Spanish. He was Italian but learned it from selling drugs with the Dominicans.
–B61 bus
Overheard by: Pepe
Chick #1: When I was in school I failed Spanish, even though I am Puerto Rican.
Chick #2: My husband taught me Spanish. He was Italian but learned it from selling drugs with the Dominicans.
–B61 bus
Overheard by: Pepe
Girl #1: So, was he at least hot?
Girl #2: No! He was Chinese!
–Times Square
Overheard by: Andrea
Girl on cell: I’m in this ethnography class. And I thought it would be, like, really easy, but there’s all this vocab — they use language in this different way that I’m not used to. So I said something, and this girl repeated it and made me look really bad. Well, we were talking about race, you know? And I just said that every race has their specialties, right? But now everyone in the class thinks I’m racist… Who knows?!
–Washington Square
Gilchrist, founder of the Minutemen, moments before students stormed the stage: What did you say? I don’t speak Mexican.
–Columbia University
Bouncer talking to people in front of Webster Hall: First, I have been nothing but a gentleman in talking to you. Your racial bullshit is not needed here. Second, I am a spic, not a nigger. If you’re gonna insult me, get it right.
–11th St between 3rd & 4th Ave
Overheard by: AJ
Black crackhead: Spare some change, Miss? I’ve been asking the niggers, but they don’t give me shit.
–Broadway & 11th St
Overheard by: Miss I Am Not a Nigger
Model wannabe: You should forget about him, he’s just a racist spic.
–Steinway & Broadway, Astoria
Overheard by: Crash
Black girl: That was the most racist, sexist movie I have ever seen, and I loved it!
–Kaufman Theaters, Astoria
Overheard by: A White Guy
Homeless guy: I got a sore on my left foot! Look at it! That’s what comes from being in America!
–Beth Israel Emergency Room, 18th & 1st
Doorman: So I looked her straight in the face and I said, ‘Listen, you’re in America now.’
–Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Columbus Circle
Yasser Arafat look-alike: If she’s naked, don’t go in there; I know how these goddamn American girls are.
–Bedford St & W 4th
Overheard by: Birthday Boy
Woman in exaggerated Latin accent: Run, run, American people! Run before you miss the train!
–Uptown 6 train, Wall St station
Overheard by: gay among hardhats
Guy: It’s an old American name, like in the Bible.
–A train arriving at 59th St
Overheard by: IanM
Park Avenue woman, upset because cashier didn’t have quarters: I have every right to be nasty! I’m an American! I’m a fucking New Yorker!
–23rd & Park
Spanish hipster tourist: Americans are the worst!
–Apple store, 5th Ave
Overheard by: Rich Mintz
Chinese girl: [in Chinese] Your luck just ran out.
Black girl: What the fuck did she say?
Chinese passerby: You are fucked.
–W 4th & 6th Ave
Overheard by: Ting
Deranged woman to tranny friend: I am not a white woman. I do not take the yolk out of my eggs!
–14th St
Overheard by: Melanie from Queens
Homeless woman to white man holding white girlfriend’s hand: You fucking Indian faggot!
–Court St & Dean St, Brooklyn
Overheard by: Adam
White girl: He’s my favorite person in my building, because he’s ethnic.
–F train
Overheard by: djingo
Man staring at ‘Exit’ and ‘Salida’ signs on separate emergency doors: Huh, I wonder if Caucasians are supposed to exit right and Hispanics are supposed to exit left…
–Flight from NYC to Houston
Guy: I love it when Asians get high, because you can’t tell.
–Pace University
Overheard by: Pants
40-something Asian lady to daughter: No, it was not mixed race — He was pure Vulcan!
–Green St, Brooklyn
Overheard by: Heather Letzkus
Pretentious young woman on New York neighborhoods: It’s all pretty homogenous up around Central Park. Well, I mean, up by 107th street you’ll find some black kids on skateboards.
–R train
Overheard by: BrooklynDodgy
Black kid, pointing to a Hasidic Jewish man: Yo, check out the Amish dude!
Mother: He ain’t Amish, they wear straw hats.
Black kid: But he’s got a beard. Amish guys got beards. So he’s Amish.
–Uptown 4 train
Overheard by: jewish girl
Latina: Like white people. You know, like you.
Jewish guy: I’m not white, I’m Jewish.
Latina: Didn’t you heard, Jew is the new white.
Jewish guy: Oh.
–4th St & Broadway
Overheard by: Noemi
Girl: Have you ever realized that we didn’t have any black friends in elementary school?
Preppy friend: That’s because all the black kids were in special ed.
–Sugar Sweet Sunshine, Rivington St
Overheard by: Lauren C
Chick: Wait, so he was the black dude from Tennessee on the debate team that you were talking to?
Dude: Yeah. Well, no. He was normal.
Chick: What do you mean?
Dude: He was white.
–Soho
Overheard by: drunk at the bar
