\"So where are you from?\" asked the elderly (white) lady facing me.<\/p>\n
\"I'm from Canada,\" I responded.<\/p>\n
\"Where are you really from?\" insisted the woman.<\/p>\n
\"I'm from Timmins, Ontario.\" <\/p>\n
She was furious. \"You know what I mean!\"<\/p>\n
I did. I answered, \"My parents are from China.\"<\/p>\n
The exact scene is no longer clear in my mind. Was it in a church somewhere or some other public gathering? The words are probably different from what I recall. But the emotional dynamic is something I recall clearly to this day. I was probably being a bit mean in baiting her. I knew what she was after -- and I wasn't going to let her know right away -- at least until she would admit what she was asking. Something in her first question tipped me off that she wanted to know my ethnic\/racial heritage. Was I Chinese? Japanese? Korean? Filipino? But I was <\/i> from Canada. I've never been to China, my parents' homeland. If she wanted to know my ethnicity, she could have asked straightforwardly. And if she chose not to, why should I tell her? I resented the implicit assumption -- that I was not really<\/i>from Canada, where I was born. <\/p>\n
Believe it or not, Miss Manners<\/a> is the inspiration for today's entry. Before this morning, I had little idea that my experience is that of many others. She wrote:<\/p>\n But the next thing Miss Manners knew, a version of \"Where are you from?\" was back. Only this time it is not as bland as before. Geography is no longer the issue; the inquiry has to do with race and ethnicity. People who answer as carelessly as before, stating their hometowns, are further interrogated as if they are being disingenuous: <\/p>\n \"No, where are you really from? Where are you from originally? Where were your parents from?\" <\/p>\n This is particularly galling to homegrown Americans whose looks or names strike the descendants of other immigrants as somehow more \"foreign\" than their own. The presumption that there is a particular American look or nomenclature is not borne out by the census figures.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “So where are you from?” asked the elderly (white) lady facing me. “I’m from Canada,” I responded. “Where are you really from?” insisted the woman. “I’m from Timmins, Ontario.” She was furious. “You know what I mean!” I did. I … Continue reading