I’d just spent a few minutes having a laughing fit after seeing this Overheard in the Newsroom entry:
Anchor to a reporter of Middle Eastern descent: “Where are you from?”
Reporter: “Well I’m originally from Cincinnati but I grew up in Boston.”
Anchor: “No, I meant where are you from?”
You have no idea how often I’ve had this conversation. Scottish accent? My birthplace? The fact that I’m merely 10% East Asian? None of that matters. What am I and where was I really from matter.
A colleague and I once, during a time when we should be working but couldn’t be arsed, created a bingo card specifically for “foreign-looking” people, which includes “are you an immigrant?” and such. Another colleague – also mixed race – loved it enough to create one for mixed race people. And it was the funniest thing ever.
I don’t have an original copy any more, but here is my to-my-best-recollection reproduction of his bingo card (click on the image to enlarge).
I think I’ve been guilty of a variation of the “I wish I looked as exotic as you” bingo card. And if I haven’t said it, I know I’ve thought it a time or two.
I am an Indigenous Australian and I once asked a Korean woman if there were any Korean people who didn’t have the black hair/brown eyes. She gave me such a look. In my defence, I was thinking in terms of the Australian people who have Indigenous features and colouring and red hair. Still felt stupid though.
@Sarah
Ah, it’s normal, though, isn’t it? It’s listed because the frequency of the comment made to a mixed race person. At times, it was said to me a couple of times every day when I was working with a large group of people. That’s what the bingo card is about, really. A mixed race person’s familiarity with all these comments.
@Wendy
Heh! I do think it’s a valid question, though. I have met full East Asians who have hazel eyes and in one case, green-ish eyes (not fake).
As for the hair, it’s impossible to know because people with dark blond or reddish hair tend to – since they were toddlers – dye their hair black or an acceptable brown shade to fit in. My dad told me that at his junior high school (where it didn’t permit dyed hair), a girl in his year didn’t dye her light-brown hair black was bullied by her peers and in some cases, teachers. She dyed her hair black at their school’s request, which is a bit ironic, considering their no-dyed-hair rule.
Naturally blond East Asians – particularly Japanese and Mongolian people for some reason – tend to be mixed race, too. Rare, but they exist.
Jesus. My English is so crap. Sorry about that. It’s nearly end of my night shift, though. Hurray!