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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Are they from NY?  I find that’s a more common world view there. [/quote]

NY state in general or NYC?[/quote]

DP. The boroughs and Long Island. They ask "where you're from" or "what are you" and not just to dark people or people with accents. People identify as Italian, Greek, Irish, Polish, etc. [/quote]

Not just there. I had an elderly woman at the waiting room of my doctor's office ask me "what are you?" is almost an angry tone. I was confused by her tone and then said "I'm sorry, did you say something?" She said, "What ARE you? Where are you from?" I said "I am from the DC area." Then she got annoyed and said "Where are your ancestors from?" I said that they are from all over and it depends how far back you go. So then I got "You look so ethnic. What ARE you?" Then the nurse came and it was time for my annual checkup. She was a loud woman and I got the sense if I moved away or said "I need to check my messages" she still would not have let it go. I also just felt strangely uncomfortable around her like if I had been blond, blue-eyed and white enough she would not have asked me these questions.[/quote]

This isn't what OP is asking for, but [b]there is a difference between people being annoyed with those who look different and those who are trying to order their worlds.  I grew up in NJ in the 1980s and people often talked about and were asked about their heritage.  it just was. [/b] I was never offended by that.  A couple weeks ago, though, some old coot told me to go back to where I came from in a store in Bethesda. These are totally different conversations (and the doctor's office conversation comes closer to that), and as long as OP's parents are just giving non-offensive descriptors, I think they should be left alone.[/quote]

New poster here. 
Same here, but Boston area.
[/quote]

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