First a little background. I am working for a Korean company so lots of Koreans, few scattered other Asians (2 Flips, 1 Viet, 1 Chinese just left company though), few hispanics (1 PR, 1 Mexican, 2 American born hispanic, 1 mixed hispanic) and some caucasian (in the home office, not talking about the field people). The new head of HR is caucasian. Several people have commented that they're being racist about their new hires (interviewing mostly caucasian and leaning towards hiring gay white males) but they tend to complain and discuss it amongst the non-caucasian staff.

Anyway, on 4 separate occasions/ 4 separate people came to me to complain about the new hires and tell me they were racist and were only hiring white people and that the new people wouldn't talk to them because they're not white. When one of the assistants in my department came to me to complain about it I looked at her and laughed (coudn't help myself) and said I'm white you fool. I was one of the first people she discussed it with. I agreed about noticing that they seem to be interviewing and hiring way more white candidates for the office. But the conversation snowballed and now the big joke around the office is I'm not white. They keep joking with me about it and say its a compliment. That I judge people for who they are and not whether they are my same race, etc. OK, so its a back handed compliment for me at best. I take it in good humor because they mean well by it but really its a slam against my race to lump all of my race (or any race) into one category and say we're all this way or that. The fact that they all say I'm not white is supposed to mean I do not fit the stereotype but I feel its not only wrong to have racial/sexual preferences in hiring but also wrong to feel all of one certain type of people are racist because of the color of their skin.

I've talked to them about it but they don't see and think I'm kidding and just repeat yeah, but you're not white. Just think its a strange "compliment" as I'm told it is. So what's the strangest compliment you've gotten?

and yeah, sorry this was a little bit of a rant too...but I feel better now :P