The Origin Curiosity Continued

Whether American, European or Israeli for that fact, the tourists I've encountered so far want to know my ethnicity. Most ask the ignorantly offensive way. I thought only Americans where this ignorant, but the curious white European tourists I've encountered so far are equally so. It's interesting because white American tourists don't get probed for their ethinicity. They don't get asked really where they're from even though they really are from somewhere else too.

I met a very nice Romanian woman over the weekend who thought I had such a strong American accent because I studied there for a long time. I told her that I was born in the U.S. and it obviously didn't get through to her because she later asked me about the Philippines as if I lived there. I told her I don't know because I grew up in the States and lived there all my life. Then she finally got it.

Many of the tourists I've met so far have no context for non-white Americans. I am of course used to experiencing this in the U.S. as well, but it gets so damn exhausting. The images the American media ships abroad are responsible for much of the de-contexting of American people of color. I also wonder what other trails of lies and misinformation from foreign countries contribute to this.