Case of Mistaken Identity

We are reading "The House on Mango Street" in my 8th grade advanced class. It's a skinny little book that is completely PACKED with heavy issues and beautiful prose. It's easy enough for the most struggling readers to decode and complex enough that the most advanced readers can spend weeks picking it apart.
One of the most intense themes in the book is the idea of being an "outsider." The Protagonist Esperanza feels like she's an outsider from her family because she is a teenager and the rest of her siblings are young, because she is the oldest girl and her only sister is too young to really connect with, and because she's far too "cool" for her parents. She feels like an outsider in her neighborhood because she is a Latina who wants a career in writing rather than simply getting married young and producing children (not my words- hers), and in her school because she is the only Latina in her class. She feels like she sticks out like a sore thumb.
We were talking about that in a class discussion and it came up that I often feel like an outsider around my husband's family/friends. One of the girls in my class asked me what I meant by that, and I explained to her that I'm often one of, if not THE only white person in the house and that I go days sometimes without speaking my native language to anybody. The entire class of 8th graders went dead silent and Jesus shouted out, "YOU'RE WHITE!?!?!?!"
I have been his teacher for 2 years now and he was in my class for 3 out of 8 class periods last year, and I guess the enormity of that realization hit him like a ton of bricks.
I'm also guessing by the stunned looks of 15 latino 14 year olds that my Spanish has improved lately. Am I wrong in thinking that this is completely hilarious?