SC's upset cause I'm not what they think I am

[Bright_Star]

At least once a day I get some customer asking what my nationality is. I'm full blooded Puerto Rican with a little bit of African American thrown in the mix too. So I have what you can say are "exotic features".
People have sworn up & down that I'm Iraqi, Indian (From India), Chinese, Japanese or anything else BUT Puerto Rican! OR I get the clueless idiot who says that because I don't have an accent like Ricky Ricardo then I can't possibly be Puerto Rican. Both of my parents have accents or what's commonly refered to as "broken english". See, I was born In Puerto Rico but raised in the states. My parents were both born & raised in PR.
Then from time to time I'd be helping a spanish speaking customer who speaks little or no english & the customer near them gets pissed off cause I'm speaking in spanish! They tell me I have no right to talk in spanish & I'm like "WTF????"
I'm proud of my heritage but I find it amusing how some people react to the way I look. It gets annoying at times.
Then I get people who ask me if I know a certain spanish person & I say no & they insist that I should know them cause we're both spanish! I try to point out that there's a lot of hispanic people in this area-I don't know all of them!

[tropicsgoddess]

People are weird, that's all I can say. I know what that's like Bright_Star. My family and I are originally from Suriname (fka Dutch Guyana). My kid sis was 2 and I was 4 when we came to the states, when a year later our youngest sister was born in the states. With my family's looks, people have mistook us for tons of different nationalities it's not even funny. More often than not, they mistook me for Puerto Rican, Colombian, Italian, Russian somebody thought I was Jewish (I'm a non-practicing Catholic). My dad was mistaken for Greek and My mom and kid sis (they have caramel complexion while my dad, baby sis and I are more olive toned) were mistaken for Indian (from India) or Dominican. We live in South Florida (except for baby sis who's at home from college) and we do have a big populous of Hispanics (particularly the Cubans) and my dad is in the construction business. My dad was working with some Spanish clients who didn't speak much English. The thing was that my dad doesn't know much Spanish and because of his looks, the clients thought that my dad was Spanish and acting arrogant and ignoring them. Once my dad opened his mouth, that's when the clients found out that they all just had one big misunderstanding.

[edible_hat]

My fiance is deaf, when people find this out they sometimes ask "Oh do you know [random deaf person]..."

Yes, there are 20,000 deaf people in Australia and since I started dating one of them I've met the other 19,999.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I love the idea that if someone is a certain race or ethnic group, then they must know all the other members in that race or ethnic group. I think blacks must get it the worst.

I used to get asked AT LEAST once a week what ethnicity I am when I worked with the public. When I didn't work with the public, I'd get it about once every couple months from co-workers who prefaced it with "I hope you dont' think I'm rude, but I'm dying of curiosity...." No, I dont' think it's rude at all, asked with respect. There's nothing wrong with being interested in other people. I know some people consider it a rude question, so I never ask other people. But I really do not mind if I am asked myself.

People have assumed I was (in no particular order) Biracial, Spanish, Jewish, Italian, Native American (and this once by a Cherokee friend, who just assumed I was NA, too, untill he met my family.), Mexican, and "Gypsy". Two of those are actually right. Then there are the vast majority of folks who just say "You ain't frum 'round here, are ya?"

I like how the idiot in the OP's story wanted to fuss because of Spanish being spoken. What a dumbass. You do what you have to do to communicate with people, up to and including drawing pictures for people. There was more than one occasion I wished I spoke, say, American Sign Language. Would the idiot SC be offended if you were signing to a deaf customer? Sheesh.

[blas]

We at work really like to make fun of the stupid people, as you guys have already imagined.

When I was the brand new trainer, Chef Ramsey introduced me to the others as the "new foreign exchange", and this one guy (no longer works there) who was just a total idiot all together, asked where I came from. Chef Ramsey jokingly said "She's from Cambodia."

Idiot says "Is that tan natural then?"

None of this is meant to be offensive.....it's just a joke at work when people are borrowed from other departments or transfer that we are "foreign exchange". You probably have to work there to think it's funny.

[BlaqueKatt]

At least once a day I get some customer asking what my nationality is.

Whenever I got that question I answered with a straght face-deer in headlights look
"I'm american*" gets them everytime.

*My father on the other hand-he was Sicilian(never got his green card-or he to would have been american)-remember if you are declared a citizen of any country you can claim that as your nationality folks.

[Balgram]

My family is about at pale white as you can get, but we're from Africa and thus technically "African American."

When they were younger it took my brothers a while to realize what surveys were really asking for, so when prompted they wrote "African American" for ethnicity. They got dozens of colleges calling and asking them to come after writing African American on the ACT: it was funny. Now they put "African American/Black" instead on those tests and my brother likes to claim credit for it.

My parents have a thick accent (not quite British, not quite Dutch...it's a pretty accent but I can't hear it very well) and I think they got tired of people asking where they were from. They just started saying "We're from the east part of the city. We've lived here for 21 years."

The sad part is no one believes us when we explain we are from Africa. SOUTH Africa, people. It's a place. It's not just blacks. Whenever this comes up, people seem surprised at that fact. It's weird.

[wanderingjoe72]

I hear you.
I am hispanic with some NA in the mix back along the ways. People ask me what I am and I answer American. That answer always gets 'em. They always seem to come back with the "no, where are you from" question so I say Texas originally. Usually you can get them to drop the questioning all together at that point.

Living in the south west, I also gets lots of people that immediately assume I speak spanish. I do, but not at work since they don't pay extra for it and it is not in my job desription.

[Apathy]

I don't know why people are so curious.
"Are you [ethnicity]?" "Does it really matter in any way?"

I mean, maybe if you're wearing something or celebrating a holiday or something like that, I could see asking, but really, who cares? I guess people are just naturally gossipy.

And what was the deal the the guy in the OP who had a problem with someone speaking Spanish? Maybe he was just jealous that he doesn't speak anything besides "American."

[elysia]

Then from time to time I'd be helping a spanish speaking customer who speaks little or no english & the customer near them gets pissed off cause I'm speaking in spanish! They tell me I have no right to talk in spanish & I'm like "WTF????"

I would love to hear their reasoning behind that claim.

[Samaliel]

Easy : you're in America, so obviously you're only allowed to speak Americanese !

[Pedersen]

Old joke time:

Someone who speaks three languages is called trilingual.

Someone who speaks two languages is called bilingual.

Someone who speaks one language is called American

[tropicsgoddess]

My family is about at pale white as you can get, but we're from Africa and thus technically "African American."

The sad part is no one believes us when we explain we are from Africa. SOUTH Africa, people. It's a place. It's not just blacks. Whenever this comes up, people seem surprised at that fact. It's weird.

You know, one our members, the lovely Iradney is from South Africa.

[Samaliel]

Old joke time:

Someone who speaks three languages is called trilingual.

Someone who speaks two languages is called bilingual.

Someone who speaks one language is called American

Are they ? And here I thought they were called Fench...

But at least, Americanese speakers can communicate with a good portion of the rest of the world... While the die-hard French speakers are FUBARed whenever they come across foreigner, unless they work for the UN (the official language for the UN is still French, I recently read).

[depechemodefan]

My family is about at pale white as you can get, but we're from Africa and thus technically "African American."

I had a boss who is from Egypt. She looked hispanic but yes, she is African-American. Just not black. labels labels labels.