There are worse first questions.
Like the “Where are you from? No, I mean originally” you get asked in Germany if you aren’t white and straight-haired.
I can have so much fun with that question! Esp. because in German (“Wo kommst du her?”) I can logically answer “from work” first, then my home, then I ask them to specify what they mean by originally. By that point they are usually sufficiently humbled.
Some keep on stumbling not realizing that the words they choose don’t matter, it’s their attitude I resist.
And if someone asks me that question before asking my name I refuse to answer anyhow.
Born and raised in the US to Asian immigrant parents. The “are you Chinese or Japanese” question was rampant even before the episode of King of the Hill came out. So many others too:
Do you ever go back? (Sure, but it’s my parents that “go back”, the US is my home and I’ve never lived overseas long enough to feel attached to another place)
What’s it like in Taiwan/Taipei? (Not sure, I’ve only ever been to the airport on my way to ThaiLAND)
So do you know karate/kung fu? (Yeah, because all Asian people are born with an innate knowledge of martial arts without any kind of training or instruction)
There are worse first questions.
Like the “Where are you from? No, I mean originally” you get asked in Germany if you aren’t white and straight-haired.
I can have so much fun with that question! Esp. because in German (“Wo kommst du her?”) I can logically answer “from work” first, then my home, then I ask them to specify what they mean by originally. By that point they are usually sufficiently humbled.
Some keep on stumbling not realizing that the words they choose don’t matter, it’s their attitude I resist.
And if someone asks me that question before asking my name I refuse to answer anyhow.
Omg this fucking question.
I swear, white people never get asked that question.
It’s always like Hispanics/Latinos and Asians getting asked that.
I think I’ve internalized it a bit that I realized when I was in school, I never asked where the white classmates are from.
Feel so weird that “white” is “default” in the US.
Makes me feel like a perpetual foreigner.
Born and raised in the US to Asian immigrant parents. The “are you Chinese or Japanese” question was rampant even before the episode of King of the Hill came out. So many others too:
Do you ever go back? (Sure, but it’s my parents that “go back”, the US is my home and I’ve never lived overseas long enough to feel attached to another place)
What’s it like in Taiwan/Taipei? (Not sure, I’ve only ever been to the airport on my way to ThaiLAND)
So do you know karate/kung fu? (Yeah, because all Asian people are born with an innate knowledge of martial arts without any kind of training or instruction)
The ocean? What ocean?
That when you respond with: “If you don’t shut your god-damn mouth, I’mma have to use those moves on you”
I said something along these lines and had to wrestle with a large Trailer-Trash-American kid in 3rd grade. 2/5, would not recommend.