Some days it's difficult

[msguide]

Some days I don't know how to handle the ignorance and stupidity of other people.

I was born in Japan. It's on my nametag for work, which is on my jacket, hanging by the door.

The exterminator just left. I slipped on my work jacket because it's chilly outside and I had to sign the bill.

"You're from Japan? Funny, you don't look Japanese."

Funny, you don't look like an idiot. I don't say that, but I always want to.

Really? And what's that supposed to look like? You know what they say about not judging a book by its cover. One day someone actually said, "Well, you know, slanty eyes." Are you kidding me?

"Do you have dual citizenship?" Really? Why would I want that? My mom was from Georgia, and my dad was from West Virginia. You don't get much more red, white, and blue than that.

Is it just because I'm a fair-skinned, blue-eyed blonde that people think it's okay to say insensitive and racist things to me? Do they think I like it? Would they say it to one of my neighbors who really has a Far Eastern heritage?

Or is it the blonde part they can't get past?

What makes people so ignorant? Oh, and the exterminator was not of European descent. I politely refrained from asking him if he had dual citizenship.

[Maxf1ex]

Well, he could be right in that you do not look Japanese.

I was born and raise in North Carolina. Except for about 4 years (3 in Army) when I liver in other states and did a bit of hobo traveling. But with more and more of the imports moving it I am hearing the question of where are you from? And this is not just from the Darn Yankees, but from some of the locals also.

And while I do enjoy a good snappy comeback, most people have a high curiosity factor. In other words they like to know things. Oh granted, it is not there business on where you are from. But some people have trouble holding in there questions when something hits them as being really strange.

But I did question someone once, they were Korean, and I told them they spoke English better then me. Which she just had to tell me she was born in Japan. Which lead to me asking what Nationality was she claiming (American-fathers side Japan, mothers side) Turns out she was raise in the U.S.. It was a long (about 10 minutes) chat in which I would like to think we both learn some things.

Long story short, it is all in how they as on if it would bother me.

[msguide]

Part of the point is I think it's a little bit racist to make such comments to people--especially someone you just met.

The other part of the point is, do they think I haven't heard it all before?

And today at work I was in 45 minutes of touchy-feely-handholding nonsense from HR. Required attendance. Say who you are and where you're from. Of course, I say, and the facilitators just have a cow. "Wow! Japan! Way to go!"

Right, like I had anything to do with it.

[Maxf1ex]

Take it for what it is. You think it might be a bit racist, and others might agree with you. But on the few times I will ask the question I first think.

I have no reason to know.

Why have we drifted off the work topic?

Do they feel the need to let someone know?

Too many times while doing my job people have gone off topic and start talking about co-workers, family and/or friends. Once that has happen, you have open yourself to questions.

People do seem to think a bit slowly, by that I mean if someone just says what thought came into there mind then yes, as they are saying it, they know you most likely have heard it before. But should they stop in mid-thought, or finish the thought? Hard choice to make.

Touchy-feely-handholding nonsense has it place, such as a first date. And while some people "have a cow" about where you are from, I feel they are excited because most people they know have such simple places of birth. I live within 20 miles of where I was born at. My parents did not give birth to me elsewhere. My parents did not come from another country. My parents are not native Americans (as I use the term, but both parents were born in North Carolina). Most of my childhood age 5-21 (mostly) was in the same house.

All this gives me at times a narrow point of view. So people feel that you have travel and might have a world view of things. This gets them excited.

Typing does limit my words, it also does not allowed me to read your face to see if I need to say it a bit different then the words I was using.

Stay well.

[msguide]

No the work thing was HR.

I'm just saying I don't know why people think I should look a certain way because of where I was born. Any full grown adult knows that American children are born all over the world every day. I'm sure several thousands of American military families had babies in Japan during the 1950s. Nobody wonders why John McCain doesn't look Panamanian.

You'd have to go back about 600 years to find some ancestor who was not of Western European descent.

Think about how this looks. You walk up to someone who wears a name tag with name and hometown. You've never met them before, but the first thing out of your mouth, is "Wow! You don't look Japanese!" Really? How rude is that? It's also ignorant--especially this day and time. And if you don't know for sure that Japanese don't have "slanty eyes," maybe you should have paid attention in your anthropology class.

I have a very dear friend who was born in Cote d'Ivoire, West Africa, and she lives there now. She's fairer and blonder than I am.

People need to stop making assumptions and they need to think about what they say. It's just tacky and inappropriate, and they need to stop it.

[Maxf1ex]

It is fun to meet a "white" "African-American". Even more fun to watch the black "African-American" denied that a white person can be an "African-American".

Guess I understand people too well.

[googoodan]

I once had a friend from New Mexico. I remember someone asked him when he moved to the US. D'oh!

I always get a crack out of how Americans react to either Spaniards or people of European descent living south of the border.

Its not only Americans who do things like that. I used to speak Spanish somewhat fluently; I haven't practiced in years. Several times I noticed an immigrant having trouble asking for something in a store or restaurant, so I went to help out. I went and did a quick translation. Several times I got asked in a surprised manner "Eres mexicano?" I don't remember an American ever asking. Still, the number of white Mexicans seem to outweigh the number of brown Mexicans based on my trips there. I find that most Americans are surprised about that since it seems only the brown Mexicans cross the border.

Now that my brain isn't as sharp as it used to be, I get confused when I go to other countries sometimes. Last October I went to Barcelona. I went in a store and asked for something in German. When I was at the Frankfurt airport, I asked the information desk something in Spanish. When I was in London, I just lost all sense of language and basically spoke in hand gestures.