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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Thanks for the responses.  Many of them are interesting.  I must admit though that I'm not convinced the best way to live life is to refuse to ask people questions, for fear of offending them.  Yes, it's important to be polite and considerate, and to know that some people may (wrongly) assume you're questioning their "American-ness" when you ask about their background.  But that risk has to be balanced against the benefits of getting to know one another better.  Waiting for the other person to volunteer everything, or to gauge when I've been "invited" to ask certain questions, is certainly another approach, but ultimately IMHO too much of an impediment.

For me, this discussion probably will cause me to be more careful in phrasing my questions, to further minimize the risk of misunderstanding.  I hope that for you, this discussion might help you realize that not every question about your background is an implicit criticism.

Thanks.

Sam2[/quote]

I dont think you quite get it. It is not that people think you are intentionally being rude or that you are consciously thinking to yourself "this Asian person is not truly American." It is that from the Asian person's perspective, they are being made to talk about something personal like race & ethnicity simply because of the way they appear. In a way that a white person would never face. The message received is "you are in a different category from white people." Some minorities won't let this bother them, but it bothers many.  [/quote]

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