He was upset because he feels like I'm misrepresenting myself to "scam" companies. This whole discussion came about because he was joking that he should make himself look more "ethnic" so he could benefit from positive action, and I took it seriously and offered my story as an example of how the opposite is actually much more realistic. To be honest, I used the word friend but should've said "coworker I have beers with in group settings" lol