A white professor became the star of a viral video when his two young children wandered into the room while he was being interviewed by the BBC about relations between North and South Korea. An Asian woman dashed in and dragged the kids away before crawling back to close the door behind him.

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Why did so many people immediately assume she was the nanny?

"People fell back on stereotypes," said Phil Yu, a blogger at Angry Asian Man.

He said he'd first seen the video when his wife sent it to him. He tweeted about it -- "This is the single best video in the history of white men talking about Korea" -- and said he started getting responses to the effect of, "Did you notice how many people assume that woman is the nanny?"

"That hadn't occurred to me," he said. "It was so clearly the terrified parents."

"There are stereotypes of Asian women as servile, as passive, as fulfilling some kind of service role," he continued. "People were quick to make that assumption."

And Asian moms aren't alone in being the victims of such assumptions.

Sage Steele, the host of "NBA Countdown," wrote for People about her experiences as a biracial mother, saying she was "devastated" when two middle-aged women approached her and asked whether she was her infant's nanny.

On the parenting blog Scary Mommy, a Mexican American mother wrote about how she felt after being asked at the playground with her daughter, "How long have you worked for the family?"

A few years ago, Nicole Blades wrote a piece for the now-defunct site xoJane an article titled, "Nope! I'm not the nanny, just a black mom thanks." She encouraged readers to tweet about their own mixed-race families using the hashtag #notthenanny.

Today, people used the hashtag again to refer to the BBC video.

On Twitter — presumably before he logged off for the night — Kelly asked the BBC host whether this video was the sort of thing that "goes 'viral' and gets weird."

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3900853&forum_id=2#35463787)

'My wife and I did not fight after the blooper, we did not punish our children. In fact, we thought that no television network would ever call us again.'

'We thought it was just a disaster,' said Kelly.

'I communicated with the BBC immediately afterward and I apologised to them. I said that if they never called us back or never asked me to be on television again, I would understand.

'My wife and I did not fight after the blooper, we did not punish our children. In fact, we thought that no television network would ever call us again' +24

'My wife and I did not fight after the blooper, we did not punish our children. In fact, we thought that no television network would ever call us again'

'I communicated with the BBC immediately afterward and I apologised to them. I said that if they never called us back or never asked me to be on television again, I would understand' +24

'I communicated with the BBC immediately afterward and I apologised to them. I said that if they never called us back or never asked me to be on television again, I would understand'

Both parties tried to keep their cool despite the hilarious interruption from his children +24

Both parties tried to keep their cool despite the hilarious interruption from his children

His mortification doubled as his baby son excitedly made his way into the room in a stroller +24

His mortification doubled as his baby son excitedly made his way into the room in a stroller

+24

+24

'I had assumed this would end any television appearances, that would people see this and assume this was wildly unprofessional, no one would ever call me again, I'd never speak on television again'

'And I had assumed this would end any television appearances, that would people see this and assume this was wildly unprofessional, no one would ever call me again, I'd never speak on television again.'

Asked about becoming a 'poster child' for working fathers trying to balance office commitments with family life, he said: 'You have to be flexible. For example, this was my home office space and normally I hope that my children don't come in; I can get more work done.

'But we want our children to feel comfortable coming into the room and being able to approach their father. And that means you can't keep that strict boundary where some rooms are off limits.'

Addressing rumours he didn't stand up because he was wearing pajamas or pantsm he said: 'Yes, I was wearing pants! Someone at lunch recognised me today and asked me if I was wearing pants.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3900853&forum_id=2#35463814)

so she wants us to believe that there exists out there a sizeable contingent of people who look at a black woman with what would presumably be a visibly black or mixed race child, think "nanny", and then converse on the subject?

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3900853&forum_id=2#35463843)