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I was in a restaurant in Munich and some Germans I was seated with asked my waitress if I was French when I did not respond to their greeting. How dare they! Just because I appear European...
That's awful! It's almost like he wanted to honor your heritage when expressing thanks for your kind gesture. What is the world coming to when people try to, gasp, communicate with others.
On the bright side, that terrible, "racist" white man provided yet another opportunity to take offense where it is very likely none was offered or intended.
Seriously, what is gained by assuming the worst and becoming outraged over something that was probably meant to be a friendly gesture?
Times 1000.
Unbelievable. The things people find to be offended about...it's beyond absurd.
I was in a restaurant in Munich and some Germans I was seated with asked my waitress if I was French when I did not respond to their greeting. How dare they! Just because I appear European...
You don't seem to get the dynamic is different, because of the racial minority context
Why am I not surprised to see a bunch of non-minority people assuming they have the right to dictate how a person of color is supposed to feel when someone acts in a way that is clearly based solely on their visible race and not based on who they are as a person.
Yesterday I held the door for this white man and he said "Xie Xie" (Chinese for thank you) and then when I had no response and no reaction, he said "Arigato" (Japanese)
Now I don't speak either language, I was aware of those greetings as many people who don't speak the language do, as others understand "Bonjour" etc. But just because I was Asian, he ASSUMED that I spoke the language. I am Chinese-American but that does not necessarily mean I speak Chinese or any other languages, just based on my race.
THEN, when I had no reaction again, he said "Are you Filipino"?!
I said "No I am not and you have been wrong!"
This is almost an opposite situation from the recent run ins I've had where I felt race was a trigger for encounters with rude strangers, in that this man "meant well" but "Thanks" would've sufficed, this is California 2018 after all. But the assumption about language ability and THEN ethnicity (with multiple failed attempts) just screamed ignorance.
It's not cute that just because you know 1 greeting in language X you use it on someone who you THINK comes from that country X.
Oh and this is not the 1st time something like this has happened
Haha!! This has happened to me also. And yes, I find it highly annoying. As a Chinese AMERICAN, I greatly prefer to be only addressed in English. I am not flattered or pleased when someone tries to reach out to be in what they have guessed to be my nationality.
And no, I am not impressed that they know how to say a few basic words in several languages.
Haha!! This has happened to me also. And yes, I find it highly annoying. As a Chinese AMERICAN, I greatly prefer to be only addressed in English. I am not flattered or pleased when someone tries to reach out to be in what they have guessed to be my nationality.
And no, I am not impressed that they know how to say a few basic words in several languages.
And then there are the couple here who have trivialized it all, joking about it, likening it to being mistaken for another European IN Europe, without regard for the additional dimensions of the racial minority context
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