That is a kinda weird question to ask somebody IMO. I mean after a while of knowing somebody it's not as weird.
The one I get more is getting mistaken for a Mexican when I am really Salvadorian. It don't bother me I just mess around with them and tell them "Why you gotta disrespect me like that?" and tell them I'm Salvadorian. Most of the time they just say, I didn't know.
I'm your standard white dude of English/Irish/Scottish/Welsh/Dalmatian descent, but I was real confused one day when a guy on the street asked me in all seriousness if I was Chinese, definitely one of those WTF? moments.
Wow, this thread just brought back a really funny-strange memory for me. I just remembered one time sitting in school - must have been about 3rd grade - and I guess some kid had said some kind of racial comment because the teacher decided to have a class "discussion" about it. Now I had spent the first few years of elementary school in Cambridge Mass at a really progressive school where the kids were all multicultural and the children of Harvard professors and shit. My three best friends were Irish/Indian, Brazilian, and Nigerian and race never, ever came up.
But this was in a new school in whitebread suburban New Jersey and this batch decides she wants to teach us all a lesson about tolerance. So she points me out in front of the whole class as as an example of being multicultural. All eyes turned to me, my stomach dropped and it suddenly hit me. The first thought that came into my head was, "Wait, I'm not WHITE?"
It's funny to me now (besides the Richard Pryor reference) because in my naivete I didn't understand then what "white" meant, I just knew it meant being like everyone else and at that age you don't appreciate being different yet. And I know that teacher meant well but jezus, how can you call a kid out like that? Can you imagine that now, her ass would be in court!
Algerian,English, jewish, turkish. Nobody ever asks me though, they just assume I'm english. I never know what to put on those forms where they ask your ehnicity, I usually end up ticking the box that says "other" which is I guess what I am.
im mexican, native american indian, italian, french-canadian (as i was once told the "black" canadian... whatever the fuck that means?), irish, norweigan, blah blah blah...
im mostly asked by whites and latinos what nationality i am because, im assuming, neither race feels im white or latino. i spent more time in the security offices of hillsdale/stanford mall than most folks spent there time there shopping.
me: why am i here? officer: what are you doing walking around the mall? shopping? m: yeah im shopping. o: who are you here with? wheres the rest of your gang? m: im here buying a present for my mom and im not in a gang. why am i here? o: i dont like your look. m: what? what does that fucking mean? o: it says here your last name is Torres. is this correct? that would make you mexican now wouldnt it. m: (eyes rolling)
it didnt get much better after that. they called the police on me cause dude kept saying dumb shit and i attacked him in the office. oh yeah... pepper spray hurts. just wanted to let yall know that in case that situation pops up for you.
i also dont know why i always get asked if im filipino? is it cause im eating dinaguan at all the parties? i dont know... i married one though so those questions will hopefully stop.
The one I get more is getting mistaken for a Mexican when I am really Salvadorian. It don't bother me I just mess around with them and tell them "Why you gotta disrespect me like that?" and tell them I'm Salvadorian. Most of the time they just say, I didn't know.
Yeah I hate when people do get it right (that i'm latino) they assume i'm mexican as well. EL SALVADOR STAND UP!
I get this question a lot. I assuming it???s because of my olive skin and as the old black lady next door calls it ???that good hair???. The answer depends on how they approach me & the context they ask it in.
I love when Latin???s start talking Spanish in front of me thinking I have no clue what's going on. When I worked @ HBO Latin the Cubans thought I was middle eastern or something??? They didn???t start speaking to me until they heard me yapping it up w/ the Mexican on-line editor. After that they wanted to be best friends. Needless to say I decided to keep away from them. Except for my mom and aunt the rest of the Cubans on that side of the family are some of the most closed minded folks I've ever had the displeasure of meeting.
I use to get the "are you Jamaican?" thing until I chopped off the locks. Now I just look like the dudes on 8th st looking for work in the morning.
The funny/sad shit was getting called an "Oreo" in elementary.
french-canadian (as i was once told the "black" canadian... whatever the fuck that means?)
There was a book in the 70's written by a french-canadian dude called "White Ni**ers of America". I never read the book, but I saw a short underground film on which it was based. The opening scene shows documentary footage of a group of Haitians dancing around a dog's head mounted on a stick. There's a narrator talking the during this scene & he's saying stuff like: "look at these black people. They live like animals. And to think, the rest of the world views us (french canadians) with as much disgust". It was a crazy movie, circulated underground for years.
After nine years and one too many rum in cokes @ the wet bar in Baja I decided they were time to go. The last time I felt that free was when the cops let us go after "confiscating" an OZ of kush in high school.
My oldest daughter (7) was seriously shook when she saw me. So much so she started crying. Wifey on the other hand was just pissed!
Oh man, I get this question on the regular. I'm half black Haitian and half white Dane, but since I was a child, people have thought I was from Brazil, Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan, India - even Australia (back when I had my hair long and wild). I think the question is rather tedious, and I never ask anyone else unless it comes up naturally. I hate when people ask "Where are you from?" even before engaging in a normal conversation. I mean, I understand why people could be curious, but please chill with the racial inquiries - we got plenty of time to talk. To ask that as the first question after exchanging names seems forced to me.
The only times I've encountered the question in a more official setting is when applying for a long-term American visa. That "Race" checkbox is strange to me. What the hell does my race have to do with applying for a visa? There's a lot about Denmark that annoys me, but at least I've never encountered such a question on any official form here. "Nationality" - yes, "Race" - no.
Another question on the US visa application that pisses me off is the one that goes something like: "Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?".
...the one that goes something like: "Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?".
There is an old Icelandic dude who was denied entry because they found out that he had been a member/prominent figure in the Icelandic Communist Party.
They softened up, and kindly, let him stay in his hotel room for three weeks. He was not to leave the hotel. He got hammered for three weeks and came back home.
one dude asked me if I was arab and I said "fuck no" then he got mad and thought I had something against being an arab.
the worst shit is when dumb fuck yuppie dudes start talking to me in slow as fuck broken spanish. This happens a lot because of my job, usually when I show up at some remodel project in the marina. Or they start talking to my helper, this 16 year old white kid, thinking he's the one in charge. Those are usually the jobs I just walk out of and never go back.
Comments
Just observing general white assumptions conflating race and ethnicity.
The one I get more is getting mistaken for a Mexican when I am really Salvadorian. It don't bother me I just mess around with them and tell them "Why you gotta disrespect me like that?" and tell them I'm Salvadorian. Most of the time they just say, I didn't know.
so, I do what one must do....
...give them a different answer each time.
But this was in a new school in whitebread suburban New Jersey and this batch decides she wants to teach us all a lesson about tolerance. So she points me out in front of the whole class as as an example of being multicultural. All eyes turned to me, my stomach dropped and it suddenly hit me. The first thought that came into my head was, "Wait, I'm not WHITE?"
It's funny to me now (besides the Richard Pryor reference) because in my naivete I didn't understand then what "white" meant, I just knew it meant being like everyone else and at that age you don't appreciate being different yet. And I know that teacher meant well but jezus, how can you call a kid out like that? Can you imagine that now, her ass would be in court!
Weird!!!
I'm definitely Scandinavian.
Have never met my biological dad, so I don't know what he was.
Nobody ever asks me though, they just assume I'm english.
I never know what to put on those forms where they ask your ehnicity, I usually end up ticking the box that says "other"
which is I guess what I am.
im mostly asked by whites and latinos what nationality i am because, im assuming, neither race feels im white or latino. i spent more time in the security offices of hillsdale/stanford mall than most folks spent there time there shopping.
me: why am i here?
officer: what are you doing walking around the mall? shopping?
m: yeah im shopping.
o: who are you here with? wheres the rest of your gang?
m: im here buying a present for my mom and im not in a gang. why am i here?
o: i dont like your look.
m: what? what does that fucking mean?
o: it says here your last name is Torres. is this correct? that would make you mexican now wouldnt it.
m: (eyes rolling)
it didnt get much better after that. they called the police on me cause dude kept saying dumb shit and i attacked him in the office. oh yeah... pepper spray hurts. just wanted to let yall know that in case that situation pops up for you.
i also dont know why i always get asked if im filipino? is it cause im eating dinaguan at all the parties? i dont know... i married one though so those questions will hopefully stop.
Yeah I hate when people do get it right (that i'm latino) they assume i'm mexican as well. EL SALVADOR STAND UP!
I love when Latin???s start talking Spanish in front of me thinking I have no clue what's going on. When I worked @ HBO Latin the Cubans thought I was middle eastern or something??? They didn???t start speaking to me until they heard me yapping it up w/ the Mexican on-line editor. After that they wanted to be best friends. Needless to say I decided to keep away from them. Except for my mom and aunt the rest of the Cubans on that side of the family are some of the most closed minded folks I've ever had the displeasure of meeting.
I use to get the "are you Jamaican?" thing until I chopped off the locks. Now I just look like the dudes on 8th st looking for work in the morning.
The funny/sad shit was getting called an "Oreo" in elementary.
There was a book in the 70's written by a french-canadian dude called "White Ni**ers of America". I never read the book, but I saw a short underground film on which it was based. The opening scene shows documentary footage of a group of Haitians dancing around a dog's head mounted on a stick. There's a narrator talking the during this scene & he's saying stuff like: "look at these black people. They live like animals. And to think, the rest of the world views us (french canadians) with as much disgust". It was a crazy movie, circulated underground for years.
After nine years and one too many rum in cokes @ the wet bar in Baja I decided they were time to go. The last time I felt that free was when the cops let us go after "confiscating" an OZ of kush in high school.
My oldest daughter (7) was seriously shook when she saw me. So much so she started crying. Wifey on the other hand was just pissed!
The only times I've encountered the question in a more official setting is when applying for a long-term American visa. That "Race" checkbox is strange to me. What the hell does my race have to do with applying for a visa? There's a lot about Denmark that annoys me, but at least I've never encountered such a question on any official form here. "Nationality" - yes, "Race" - no.
Another question on the US visa application that pisses me off is the one that goes something like:
"Are you or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?".
GTFOOHWTB. But that's a whole 'nother thread???
There is an old Icelandic dude who was denied entry because they found out that he had been a member/prominent figure in the Icelandic Communist Party.
They softened up, and kindly, let him stay in his hotel room for three weeks. He was not to leave the hotel. He got hammered for three weeks and came back home.
"I used to be the Indianapolis 500 but now I'm the Tour De' France".
I'm certain they will be baffled AND too embarrassed to try to explain what they REALLY meant.
Today??....Good dope and cheap beer.
But sometimes it's the other way around.
Q: What race are you?
A: HUMAN.
Tada!
the worst shit is when dumb fuck yuppie dudes start talking to me in slow as fuck broken spanish. This happens a lot because of my job, usually when I show up at some remodel project in the marina. Or they start talking to my helper, this 16 year old white kid, thinking he's the one in charge. Those are usually the jobs I just walk out of and never go back.
I took it for granted that you preferred "his paleness".