Reply to Kind of Felt Uncomfortable Because of My Ethnicity On a Tour

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[quote=SAM2][quote=Anonymous][quote=SAM2]By the way, does it matter what [b]my[/b] apparent ethnicity is?  [b]If I'm somewhat foreign-looking or foreign-sounding myself,[/b] does that change your assumptions when I ask about your background?[/quote]
This is the perfect example of the exoticized "other." The assumptions you make aren't necessarily negative in YOUR mind, but they might be for the Asian person. No one wants to be a museum piece to be probed and examined. There are a couple unexamined assumptions in this post: 1) Asians have an "exotic" name. If you met someone named, say, Patrick O'Connor, would you ask about the origins of his name? Why is the Asian name so much more "interesting" to you? What do you consider to be "American"? 2) I'm assuming that you are white or black, but the assumption here is that if you are Asian you are "foreign-looking." Why, after all these posts, would you assume that someone who is Asian is "foreign"?[/quote]
You're misinterpreting my question, and making lots of inaccurate assumptions about me.  I'm sure it's unintentional, but I'll correct them below so we can communicate better.

First, I certainly wouldn't consider most Asian names "exotic" or even particularly notable.  Nor would I consider "Patrick O'Connor" notable.  I wouldn't comment on names like "Mike Smith" or "Yu-Ch'uan Wang" or "Viktor Pshonka", because those names are not too uncommon or interesting to me.  But I don't have much experience with Laotian names.  While I surely would realize the person I was meeting has some Asian heritage (assuming he actually was Laotian, I guess), I would not simply lump him in with other Asian names, as you suggest.  Instead, I would be interested in the origins of his name, so I'd ask about it.  Isn't that the whole point of getting to know people?

Second, I don't see why you'd think I classify all Asian people as foreign-looking.  I used the word "foreign-sounding" to describe myself because I was keying off language in the prior post about foreigners, but perhaps there's a better phrase ("not a traditionally American accent"?).  I'm also not sure what basis you have to assume my own race.  That seems like the sort of dangerous assumption that causes problems.  But more importantly, could you answer my question?  If I look or sound "not traditionally Caucasian" -- perhaps Latino or maybe even Asian (!) -- do you still make all sorts of negative assumptions when I ask about your background?[/quote]

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