Race

Dude: Look at those people there on the bench?
Chick: Which ones?
Dude: Those six people, all sitting there, all talking and animated and engaged with each other, each a representative of a different family of hair color. We totally just walked through their sitcom and we didn’t even know it.

–Washington Square Park

Asian guy: I want to spike my hair.
White guy: So grow out the sides and spike the whole thing.
Asian guy: What do I look like, one of those Dragon Ball Z kids in Chinatown?

–Office, Old Slip

Overheard by: Kevz

Puerto Rico chick: He likes that–what do you call it? That the black people make…that “tooka tooka tooka”…?
Nuyorican chick: Rap music.

–South Bronx

Overheard by: emilie

White girl: I’m sorry, I don’t have any money.
Black guy: I didn’t ask you for nuthin’, lady!

–57th & Lexington

Guy: I want to go to FIT so I can hook up with girls.

–27th & 7th

Girl: I mean, I got shat on at Harvard.

–9th Street & 2nd Avenue

Overheard by: Kamran Javadizadeh

Woman: Is there a special event going on at Columbia this summer? Because I’ve seen a lot of Asians around.

–116th & Broadway

Overheard by: Carrie

Hipster girl: I mean, I’ve got like, over 160 facebook friends. Does that not mean anything?

–56th & 6th

Overheard by: Joyce Shen

Sociology professor: No one knows what the hell Derrida is talking about, but we all pretend we do anyway.

–Columbia

Overheard by: djlindee

A family of Hasidic Jews–mother, father, 4 children–are on the boat. A young boy turns to his father and asks: Why do they have so many kids?
Father: Well, after World War II, they had to get their numbers back up.

–Statue of Liberty Ferry

Overheard by: Lux Garner

Asian girl #1: Who’s that guy that’s not Steve Harvey?
Asian girl #2: Cedric the Entertainer.
Asian girl #1: Yeah, he might have been in The Cookout.
Asian girl #2: Oh my God, that’s so racist. “Who’s that guy that’s not Steve Harvey?”
Asian girl #1: Well, you knew who I was talking about!

–McDonald’s, 85th & 3rd

Overheard by: Aisha Moore

Chinese girl: I hate it when non-Chinese people make my Chinese food.
Puerto Rican guy: Yeah, when Chinese people make it, it tastes like greed.
Chinese girl: What did you say?
Puerto Rican guy: Relax. Italian food tastes like lazy complacency.

–49th & Broadway

Woman: So how was the blind date?
Man: Ugh, you know. He’s tall, white, and a vegan. The same as every man in this world.

–Union Square

Overheard by: Mike Drucker

Guy: Hey, how you doin’?
Bum: Ah, shit. It’s the White man!

–116th & Amsterdam