My Strangest Job Interview

Many years ago I applied for a job with a non-profit organization as a Camp Manager. At the interview I was surprised to find that I had to face a Board of Directors. On the board were several people from very prestigious families which made me feel as if I was out of my league and most unlikely to be considered. The questions from one member to the next were pretty straightforward and easy ones which made me go into a mode of answering without putting much thought into it until they hit me with one that stopped the flow abruptly. The question was, "how do you feel about people of different races?" A bit stunned at the switch in direction from experience, personal likes and family history I finally was at a loss for words. Thinking that this one question would have ended all hopes of my getting the job I had no choice but to give the only answer that I could and that was the truth. I told the interviewer that "I really can't answer that sir" and he asked me why. I told him that I was raised in the Waimea Sugar Mill Camp. We had kids of Portuguese, Japanese, Caucasian, Hawaiian, Filipino, Chinese and a combination of many other races and truthfully, none of us gave it much thought. We were all raised by each others parents in a village setting that made us as close as family. I was upset with myself for not being able to answer that one question. Because even as an adult (I was 30 years old at the time) I still couldn't understand the differences between races. However to my surprise, a week later, I found myself as the new Camp Manager in an environment that could not be beat.