An Evening Out

I wouldn't even have been in that restaurant if I hadn't been interviewing for a new girlfriend. As we sat in the upscale North Phoenix eatery, merrily discussing the ins and outs of computer dating, this utterly charming lady motions towards the front door and mentioned something about the beautiful baby that was standing there with her parents. Naturally, I turned to see what she was referring to and there stood an adorable African-American light skinned baby, about a year old, doing her best to stand and walk. She was cute and we both commented upon it and nothing else. Since the child was behind me, I returned my attention to my applicant that was still commenting on the baby's antics. Then she said, the father of the baby was staring back at her and gave her a dirty look. I didn't feel it was worthy of comment and returned our conversation to us. The young family was then seated and we thought nothing of it. About 3 or 4 minutes later, the rather large African-American father was at our table wanting to know why we were staring at him. My friend and I looked at each other totally confused as we were really not staring at the father, but the child. I calmly explained that we were enjoying his baby and had commented to one another about how adorable she was. The father said he thought we were staring at him because of his color. Flabbergasted is the only word I can think of to explain my surprise. I guess I've never been a black man in a white world and never thought about how rude it was to stare. The gentleman then introduced himself to us and we all agreed there was no problem. I was particularly pleased with the outcome of things, he was a big one!