Do you care when people see you as monoracial?

[milkman's baby]

May 31, 2010 1:18:09 GMT -5 Ganbare! said:

Funny thing is whenever I shut my mouth about ethnicity people of all phenotypes excepted the Nordic one assume I'm the same as them. I've got Japanese thinking I was Japanese, Jewish people thinking I was too, Greeks.. I never understood why they would maybe because I fit in many cultures, my behavior maybe the looks..

Have you gotten these assumptions while in the respective countries (from Greeks in Greece, etc) or from visitors and minorities somewhere else? Large homogeneous crowds will often notice the differences first, but take that same group out and make them the minority with you somewhere and they will get caught on how similar you look to them. When I'm in Latino communities they almost always pin me out as Asian, but when it's just me and one Latino in an all white community they hound me down as another Latina.

[hypeforlife91]

Omg welcome back Sweetfart! I thought you were gone for good! *sniffles*
Anyways, hectic weeks so far for me.

Regarding this topic, I recently had a guy who was moving my stuff to my new place ask me:
Guy: Hey what is your ethnicity?
Me: *Pause*
Guy: Are you like part asian?
Me: "Yeah, I'm Chinese and German-american"
Guy: "Cool! Cause I'm 1/2 Filipino and 1/2 Black"

The funny thing is that even before he told me what ethnicity he was I already suspected he was bi racial. When I first saw him drive his truck in the driveway I thought he was Brazilian. I didn't think about his race that much until he asked me what I was while moving my stuff for me up the staircase.

Then we hit off a great conversation and he tells me how much he loves rice and that "it must be the asian side!" It's great to have something in common with an acquaintance.

[Ganbare!]

May 31, 2010 10:29:28 GMT -5 milkman's baby said:

May 31, 2010 1:18:09 GMT -5 Ganbare! said:

Funny thing is whenever I shut my mouth about ethnicity people of all phenotypes excepted the Nordic one assume I'm the same as them. I've got Japanese thinking I was Japanese, Jewish people thinking I was too, Greeks.. I never understood why they would maybe because I fit in many cultures, my behavior maybe the looks..

Have you gotten these assumptions while in the respective countries (from Greeks in Greece, etc) or from visitors and minorities somewhere else? Large homogeneous crowds will often notice the differences first, but take that same group out and make them the minority with you somewhere and they will get caught on how similar you look to them. When I'm in Latino communities they almost always pin me out as Asian, but when it's just me and one Latino in an all white community they hound me down as another Latina.

I see what you mean by crowd psychology, in my experience they do it in both configurations: small groups of people or large crowds while abroad. I've interacted my whole life with very different social and ethnic groups, so my ability to blend in a lot of them probably comes from that. Good awareness of different cultures, languages definitely helped me appear as what I am not or partially am. Poor, wealthy, Chinese, Hispanic...

My friends are not homogenous in the slightest, they would certainly have nothing to say to one another if they ever met lol. It encompasses the Asian conformist career types, to the rebellious White gutter punk, to the nonchalant artist and so on. They reflect the diversity of my past, present aspirations even if they can be conflicting at times.

[jefe]

^ This kind of thing could happen to me in NY, but not so much in other places. The place needs to be diverse enough in the first place.

[synthguy]

For myself, I get diverse-looking white guy.

One guy came up to me and ask me:

Guy: I know you're Caucasian, but what is your ancestry?
Me: My mother is Korean, my father is Scottish, German and English.
Guy: Korean? You don't look Korean to me, but I can see a little Asian in your eyes, you look mostly Caucasian.

[thomas6]

I think that, in general, people don't like to be called something they feel they are not.

It also can put them in an awkward situation where they may feel like they should "correct" the person, but there's a lot of people who don't like to be corrected, and you can appear as a "jerk" for correcting others.

For me personally, I don't really mind all that much, depending on the circumstances.

[someone89]

doesn't bother me, i just let them know what i am! though a few lately have guessed what i was straight away, which kinda took me by surprise.

[milkman's baby]

Aug 5, 2010 15:57:40 GMT -5 thomas6 said:

I think that, in general, people don't like to be called something they feel they are not.

It also can put them in an awkward situation where they may feel like they should "correct" the person, but there's a lot of people who don't like to be corrected, and you can appear as a "jerk" for correcting others.

For me personally, I don't really mind all that much, depending on the circumstances.

Or maybe they just don't like to be mistaken for an ethnic group or race that they or the people around them dislike.

Sometimes I wonder, when I hear Eurasians get infuriated over being mistaken for Latino, if they have something against Latinos. Maybe they don't wanna be subjected to all the negative stereotypes that come along with being Latino. The same can be applied for any other group. It's funny because there are occasionally certain groups that people wouldn't seem to mind being mistaken for. I've heard many EAs get outraged when someone confuses them for Latino but then sound almost flattered if someone says they're Hawaiian (conjures up an image of a tropical, sexy persona perhaps). That's just one example but I think it's noteworthy to look into this sometimes.

I could care less if I get mistaken for a race I'm not. In fact, most of the time I am mistaken. Doesn't bother me at all. I honestly don't find any ethnic group or race more attractive or less attractive than others, so I could give a rat's ass what group I look like.

[Groink]

Man, I don't bitch when I get a discount at the taco truck.

[sim]

sometimes people have to.

The nurse/doctor who did my BRUNO stress test decided without even asking me that I was caucasian.

I'm not sure though, if there was an option to enter 'other'

[eanpavel]

I wouldn’t mind if someone called me full Caucasian, which alomst never happens anyway. Most ppl see me as a full Asian unfortunatelly. I got used to and don’t blame white people who call me Chinese = Asian, cause they usually don’t have a chance to compare my looks with Asians, but I get really pissed off when Asians ARGUE with me, telling me that I can’t be mixed (as if I was this “Eurasian-wanna-be Asian” who is making it up to seem more cool or something...). I mean, person can be confused of course, but how one can argue with someone over his/her identity?!

[jefe]

^ Many of us face this often if not daily.