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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When DW read these posts to me, I stopped her halfway through---when OP said he thought he was "normal" and "regular" until the awkward questions came---and I thought back to my mother's advice to me, as the only non-white child in my private school classes.  She used to say, "[b]no matter how comfortable you get with these white people, no matter how accepted you feel as just 'one of the group,' there's going to be that moment...that reality check...when they remind you of what they truly think of you."  It's that reality check. [/b] I had to learn it the hard way.

It doesn't matter whether the questioner thought you were [a racial slur] or were just...interesting...because of your ethnicity.  All that matters is that in some part they viewed you as "different" from them.  They seem to have gone over the top to prove to you that you would be included regardless.  We can kid ourselves and say that different is neutral, and that it's DC and it's diverse and progressive so people have a right to be "curious" about "where you are reallllly from."  I am now "curious" what OP thought was "normal" and "regular" in the first place, and whether anyone agrees with me that therein lies the problem....

I suspect that by "normal" OP meant, "you know, just another, American person," which, I suspect, means, "you know, just like them."  If no one ever used a racial slur or otherwise discriminated against another person for being "different," we would be free to be openly "curious" about the significance of our different facial features.  But, that is not so, and I suspect that OP just got the reality check that white people do not view him as "normal" or "one of them," at least in some small part.  [/quote]

Just as German born Jews found out in WWII. They were loyal to their country and people and yet were betrayed.[/quote]

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