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TIFU By referencing the Office, and it getting mistaken for racism

This happened last year, but I'm finally ready to write this.

So, first I want to say, I am a huge Office fan. I adore the show, and know all the important quotes by memory. My close friendship are also huge fans, and we basically make Office references all the time. Even in my workplace, one other woman is a HUGE Office fan, and we reference it all the time.

So, about a year ago, my boss's friend's son (we'll call him X) joined the workplace (it's a telecommunications place, we sell office communication bundles). My boss is black, and so was his friend's son. I'm a middle-aged white man, and I promise, 100% not racist. So, we're all pretty close, and we regularly eat in, typically pizza.

So, one day, it's on me to order the food, and it's pizza day. So, I'm going round, asking people whether they are fine with it, and I go to ask X. I ask him, then make a reference to Michael Scott's famous quote "Do Black people like pizza?". Me, obviously not thinking, says this to X, someone who I rarely interact with as much, and don't even know anything about him, including whether he is an Office fan. As soon as I said it, I regretted it, but he seemed cool. I felt so ashamed and apologised so much.

When I came into work the next day. the boss called me in. X's dad is a very influential person on my Boss, and X complained to him. My boss said, regretfully, he was going to fire me. I had to hastily pack up and leave soon. I tried to get my friends to back me, but the boss didn't want to hear it. So, there I was, a jobless idiot, whose constant references to The Office got him fired.

tl;dr Made an Office reference that was mistaken as racism, got fired

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