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What's the most funny/ignorant thing someone has said about your ethnicity?

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Original post by sketchymofo2
or how they think you can talk Jamaican and refer to you as brother or sister.
yeah i am half Jamaican and get the same thing.

...yes we can tan and burn.


Yes haha. People are very strange. :biggrin:
When I was in the US in college, I once had a guy ask me if I spoke english. Ethnically, I'm Pakistani, but I can pass for a Hispanic person.

The guy said something, and I didn't quite understand him. He then says something along the lines of: Do you speak English? and then Tu Hables Ingles. And then I said to him "Of course I speak English, I'm from England".

Sometimes I get the occasional: Where are you from? No, I mean where are you originally from?
I'm white in terms of both of my parents but my grandparents were Portuguese so I've got crazy curly hair, almost afro curly and its always awkward when people tell me I'm "appropriating" other cultures, like people don't believe me when I tell them my hair is just like that... :')
Original post by STLJA
People tend to like me walking them home after a night out because they say if they are with a black man they won't get robbed.

I've also been asked if I personally know Bob Marley despite him being dead for 30 odd years now and despite the fact I was born and raised in England.

Another guy within like 5mins of meeting me asked me for the exact size of my penis to see if the BBC stereotype is true. Safe to say I was creeped out and never spoke to him again lol.


Hahaha did he ask you straight out of the blue? How did that even come up in conversation??
Original post by Brahmin of Booty
Kashmiri?


Pakistani.
Reply 65
Chinese and small penises and all that

I mean come on... 2 inches isn't small!
Reply 66
In high school, this group of boys asked me if I was related to Saddam Hussein (when his execution was all over the news) because we share the same surname, different spelling, though.

It wasn't banter or anything, they were just being ignorant fools.
Reply 67
When I was living in Ireland, a pakistani man in a shop thought I was pakistani as well, except I'm north african lmao.

My dad looks turkish so some people spoke to us in turkish in the street sometimes lol and then they were shocked when he said we're not turkish.

In France ( I'm from France), most white people , when they see arab looking people, (or black people with african sounding names) will ask " where are you from ?" " France" " No but like really where are you from ? " and then they'll try to guess" your " country", " are you morrocan ? are you algerian ? are you tunisian ? are you egyptian ?" Please, **** off. That's super offensive cause when they see someone who has a portuguese/italian/spanish/polish etc last name they'll say this person is french, but not me, because I'm not white enough Lol . And the fact that they never believe me when I say half of my family has blond/red hair and blue/green eyes and so they say that surely they must be berbers or half french and when I say no they say I'm wrong, OMG, how stupid of them.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by sh9
In high school, this group of boys asked me if I was related to Saddam Hussein (when his execution was all over the news) because we share the same surname, different spelling, though.

It wasn't banter or anything, they were just being ignorant fools.


When people said things like that to me in primary school, I used to respond with "shut up or I'll bomb your house". The looks on their faces with that response....

In hindsight wasn't exactly the best comeback for fighting stereotypes :lol:
Original post by kiwi94
When I was living in Ireland, a pakistani man in a shop thought I was pakistani as well, except I'm north african lmao.

My dad looks turkish so some people spoke to us in turkish in the street sometimes lol and then they were shocked when he said we're not turkish.

In France ( I'm from France), most white people , when they see arab looking people, (or black people with african sounding names) will ask " where are you from ?" " France" " No but like really where are you from ? " and then they'll try to guess" your " country", " are you morrocan ? are you algerian ? are you tunisian ? are you egyptian ?" Please, **** off. That's super offensive cause when they see someone who has a portuguese/italian/spanish/polish etc last name they'll say this person is french, but not me, because I'm not white enough Lol . And the fact that they never believe me when I say half of my family has blond/red hair and blue/green eyes and so they say that surely they must be berbers or half french and when I say no they say I'm wrong, OMG, how stupid of them.


I can imagine how annoying it must be for you! I have a Libyan friend who said people would ask her "If you're from Africa then why aren't you black" (inb4 OH MY GOD KAREN YOU CANT JUST ASK PEOPLE WHY THEY'RE WHITE)

I also have an Algerian friend who I was talking to about Arab stuff, a white friend interjected and said "but Algeria is in African so how do you know Arabic"
'What's that'
Original post by Bezoar
I'm kind of light-skin brown, but I'm not South Asian (ie I'm not Indian/Pakistani etc), I'm Middle Eastern.

I've had someone request a bhangra dance when Punjabi MC came on in the club. I've also had people asking me to teach them to wrap turbans, teach them urdu and teach them how to make parathas.

An old housemate of mine came into the kitchen when I had finished cooking:

"Mmmm smells good!! Did you just make a curry"
"No it was fried eggs and toast"
"Oh, smells like curry"

I have plenty more but those are just a few to start things off.

Anyone else want to contribute? :colone:


not to do with ethnicity, more to do with being Polish - but I often get people talking to me (I speak perfect English) but once I tell them I'm foreign, they start talking REAAAAAALLY slowly.

Or also I get people asking me all of the time whether I hate Germans (???), or I've had the "all you eat is potato and cabbage right?".

I also often get people assuming I'm really promiscuous, as there is seemingly a stereotype (which I wasn't aware of) that Eastern European women are prostitutes, and especially love Asian d**k... how random!
Reply 72
Original post by Bezoar
I can imagine how annoying it must be for you! I have a Libyan friend who said people would ask her "If you're from Africa then why aren't you black" (inb4 OH MY GOD KAREN YOU CANT JUST ASK PEOPLE WHY THEY'RE WHITE)

I also have an Algerian friend who I was talking to about Arab stuff, a white friend interjected and said "but Algeria is in African so how do you know Arabic"


Lol yes that also happened to me, while I was living in Ireland this year, my vietnamese roommate told me " but, why aren't you black ? are you mixed race? " lol I told her that most algerian people had either the same olive skin tone as me, and a lot of them were as white as irish, and that just a small part of the population was actually black, she was like " BUUUT it's in Africa !!" :ahee::ahee::ahee:

This is so not okay tbh. But irish people were totally not like that they were all super jealous of my tan and my brown hair lol, which is super common in france but whatever. I'm moving to Scotland in three weeks, we'll see how it goes lol, but when I was there last year everyone was adorable, and honestly when you come from a country as racist as france, everywhere seems super nice haha.
Reply 73
Original post by danuuutka
not to do with ethnicity, more to do with being Polish - but I often get people talking to me (I speak perfect English) but once I tell them I'm foreign, they start talking REAAAAAALLY slowly.

Or also I get people asking me all of the time whether I hate Germans (???), or I've had the "all you eat is potato and cabbage right?".

I also often get people assuming I'm really promiscuous, as there is seemingly a stereotype (which I wasn't aware of) that Eastern European women are prostitutes, and especially love Asian d**k... how random!


About the english thing, I'm from France and was studying abroad in Ireland and a lot of Americans were always speaking so slowly and trying to explain to me some words, which was super dumb of them because these words were actually borrowed from french lol, and I'm an english linguistics major and I actually spoke a better english than most of them so that was sooooo frustrating :frown: .
Original post by kiwi94
Lol yes that also happened to me, while I was living in Ireland this year, my vietnamese roommate told me " but, why aren't you black ? are you mixed race? " lol I told her that most algerian people had either the same olive skin tone as me, and a lot of them were as white as irish, and that just a small part of the population was actually black, she was like " BUUUT it's in Africa !!" :ahee::ahee::ahee:

This is so not okay tbh. But irish people were totally not like that they were all super jealous of my tan and my brown hair lol, which is super common in france but whatever. I'm moving to Scotland in three weeks, we'll see how it goes lol, but when I was there last year everyone was adorable, and honestly when you come from a country as racist as france, everywhere seems super nice haha.


Haha I really feel like so many people who have the privilege to grow up in their country of origin end up in a bubble of their own ethnicity... Here in the UK, the mentality is "if you're white then you're one of us, if you're not white then you must be either Indian or Pakistani". So many people here don't know what the difference is between the Middle East and South Asia. It's really frustrating.
Is France actually that much more racist than the UK do you think? I always assumed as it had more Arabs & Non-Arab Africans that they would be a lot more more clued up on different cultures...
Reply 75
Original post by Bezoar
Haha I really feel like so many people who have the privilege to grow up in their country of origin end up in a bubble of their own ethnicity... Here in the UK, the mentality is "if you're white then you're one of us, if you're not white then you must be either Indian or Pakistani". So many people here don't know what the difference is between the Middle East and South Asia. It's really frustrating.
Is France actually that much more racist than the UK do you think? I always assumed as it had more Arabs & Non-Arab Africans that they would be a lot more more clued up on different cultures...


Well I've only been to england and Scotland for a week last year, in Glasgow and Manchester, so I can't be certain, but from the few interactions I've had with people, and how friendly they were ( most people are really not friendly in france or helpful, and elderly white women hold on to their bags like I'm gonna steal it when I ask for a direction...) I'm quite sure they're more civilized than in France lol. people of Arab and African descent are clearly discriminated against when it comes to studies, work, finding accommodation, justice ... Basically everything lol. I'm so glad to leave France ! :smile:
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by kiwi94
Well I've only been to england and Scotland for a week last year, in Glasgow and Manchester, so I can't be certain, but from the few interactions I've had with people, and how friendly they were ( most people are really not friendly in france or helpful, and elderly white women hold on to their bags like I'm gonna steal it when I ask for a direction...) I'm quite sure they're more civilized than in France lol. people of Arab and African descent are clearly discriminated against when it comes to studies, work, finding accommodation, justice ... Basically everything lol. I'm so glad to leave France ! :smile:


That's really interesting to know! I would like to hopefully do volunteer work abroad after graduating someday, and my degree also have an opportunity to study in a European uni for a term in my final year. I was considering either French or Spanish... But hearing this is making me scared to study in France :lol: Maybe I'll go for Spanish instead
Original post by UWS
Chinese and small penises and all that

I mean come on... 2 inches isn't small!


:redface:
Reply 78
Original post by Bezoar
That's really interesting to know! I would like to hopefully do volunteer work abroad after graduating someday, and my degree also have an opportunity to study in a European uni for a term in my final year. I was considering either French or Spanish... But hearing this is making me scared to study in France :lol: Maybe I'll go for Spanish instead


hahaa I'm sorry if I scared you but it's not a great loss, there's basically no student life in france, no clubs or associations, it's quite boring, and most universities lack funds and stuff
Reply 79
Come on that doesn't help :C

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