Tired of constantly having conversations like this:
“Where are you from?”
“USA”
“But where are you really from?/But whats your nationality?/Are you actually american?.. like… full american?”
American isnt a race! American =/= white. Yes im “full american” even though im ethnically latino! If you want to know my ethnicity/race then just ask me that instead of implying im not a “real” american.
I know most people asking this arent doing so from a place of malice, but damn does it get tiring after the 100th time.
OP, I totally sympathize with you. It has got to be so frustrating to feel that you have to “prove” your Americaness when others don’t, both abroad and stateside. What would happen if you told one of these people that they didn’t “look” like they were from their own country? I think their brain might melt.
I think this is both the fault of America for having such a whitewashed global Hollywood for so long and also the fault of other countries for not trying to empathize.
I worked in Korea and always tried to use diverse photos in my lessons but without fail anyone Asian-American was immediately claimed as their presumed heritage. I’ve tried and failed time and again to have this conversation with locals, especially when they say “so and so looks American”. Why? Because they’re wearing jorts? They have a buzz cut? Look bud, I’m listening to them talk and they’re Russian.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said, “American is not a race” but it falls on deaf ears.
The idea that ethnicity and nationality can be different is not a concept in Asia. In homogeneous societies the thought has never crossed their mind, and likely never can.