Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the question Where Are You From. As an Asian American growing up in the 70s and 80s it was a poorly phrased ignorant way of asking What Is Your Ethnicity? I would answer the question ‘I grew up in a small suburb outside Boston’. And the uncultured pasty white person would say No Where are you FROM FROM?? Still get it today from the same kind of people.

Being of a particular ethnicity myself, I used to get this question a lot too. I know academia now considers it a microagression. But I personally do not. I appreciate that people are interested in my heritage or to learn about me.

Exactly.

Would you prefer people make assumptions?

Would you prefer people not care or acknowledge?

I live in MoCo where we have a very diverse Spanish speaking population. I hate it when people assume we have lots of Mexicans living here. Guess what? We don’t. We have newly arrived immigrants from dozens of Spanish speaking countries alongside first generation, second generation, etc.

I hope we can move away from this micro aggression stuff and determine how to have polite, friendly conversations about such stuff. Right now, it feels like we can’t ask.

Bold above is racist.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the question Where Are You From. As an Asian American growing up in the 70s and 80s it was a poorly phrased ignorant way of asking What Is Your Ethnicity? I would answer the question ‘I grew up in a small suburb outside Boston’. And the uncultured pasty white person would say No Where are you FROM FROM?? Still get it today from the same kind of people.

I'm sorry you've had to deal with such ignorance. But I'm genuinely curious, when you say "uncultured pasty white person" are you trying to imply that white people on the more orange/olive spectrum are more cultured? Since you believe that the range of skin tones within any ethnic or racial group is relevant to the conversation, do you see skin tone generally as an indicator of the character of the human you're interacting with?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because my home town in a crime filled cess pool and people tend to avoid me if I tell them where I am from when they first meet me. Eventually, once they have gotten to know me, and know I won't cut them, I will talk about it.

Newark?

Compton?

Those are literally the only two cities with nationally recognized negative connotations.

I'm the pp. My hometown has locally recognized negative connotations, particularly in Virginia. It doesn't have to be "national."
When I moved further south or west, it wasn't a problem.

When I move to within one or two states near Virginia, it is an issue. Have literally had coworkers refuse to talk to me, because they hated my hometown so much when stationed there. Hint Hint. After I opened up how much I hated it too, we usually became friendly. That's when I learned that it's best not to talk about specifically where I am from until I get to know others better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Because my home town in a crime filled cess pool and people tend to avoid me if I tell them where I am from when they first meet me. Eventually, once they have gotten to know me, and know I won't cut them, I will talk about it.

Newark?

Compton?

Those are literally the only two cities with nationally recognized negative connotations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the question Where Are You From. As an Asian American growing up in the 70s and 80s it was a poorly phrased ignorant way of asking What Is Your Ethnicity? I would answer the question ‘I grew up in a small suburb outside Boston’. And the uncultured pasty white person would say No Where are you FROM FROM?? Still get it today from the same kind of people.

Being of a particular ethnicity myself, I used to get this question a lot too. I know academia now considers it a microagression. But I personally do not. I appreciate that people are interested in my heritage or to learn about me.

Exactly.

Would you prefer people make assumptions?

Would you prefer people not care or acknowledge?

I live in MoCo where we have a very diverse Spanish speaking population. I hate it when people assume we have lots of Mexicans living here. Guess what? We don’t. We have newly arrived immigrants from dozens of Spanish speaking countries alongside first generation, second generation, etc.

I hope we can move away from this micro aggression stuff and determine how to have polite, friendly conversations about such stuff. Right now, it feels like we can’t ask.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you from is different from where were you born/hometown.

When I’m asked that while on vacation or sitting in a cab on a business trip, I say, “I’m from DC” (where I live).

If I’m asked in a setting where we’re having a longer conversation/getting to know each other, I say, “I grew up in X, and I’ve been living in DC for 20 years.”

Nonetheless, I know what you’re saying, OP. And, New Yorkers are the worst.

We were on vacation with friends from college, and the cab driver asked us where we were from. A pal said he was from NY, and another pal said, “Whatever, Dave. You just moved to NY and you’ve been there for like 5 minutes. You aren’t a New Yorker yet.”

This is a different question though altogether. When you are a tourist in another country, they want to know where you are traveling from. Not where you grew up.

What about when I’m on a business trip?

What about if a colleague asks?

The assumption is where do you currently live, not where were you born 40 years ago.

Again - if you are a tourist, question means where are you visiting from.

If you are in the town you live in, i.e., you are at work, they are obviously asking where you came from. Like, what's your hometown.

This is playing coy to pretend you don't understand the question. Give me a break!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why would anyone ask where you originally lived as a child? What a nosey yet dull question. I don't really like answering questions like that especially as I don't identify with any particular area and it's boring to explain why. I have a pat answer I give but maybe people should learn to be better conversationalists.

You are odd for being so secretive. Really. it's you, not them. If I was in another major city full of transplants like NYC and someone dodged answering the question, I'd automatically assume very strange person.

Anonymous wrote:I hate the question Where Are You From. As an Asian American growing up in the 70s and 80s it was a poorly phrased ignorant way of asking What Is Your Ethnicity? I would answer the question ‘I grew up in a small suburb outside Boston’. And the uncultured pasty white person would say No Where are you FROM FROM?? Still get it today from the same kind of people.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you from is different from where were you born/hometown.

When I’m asked that while on vacation or sitting in a cab on a business trip, I say, “I’m from DC” (where I live).

If I’m asked in a setting where we’re having a longer conversation/getting to know each other, I say, “I grew up in X, and I’ve been living in DC for 20 years.”

Nonetheless, I know what you’re saying, OP. And, New Yorkers are the worst.

We were on vacation with friends from college, and the cab driver asked us where we were from. A pal said he was from NY, and another pal said, “Whatever, Dave. You just moved to NY and you’ve been there for like 5 minutes. You aren’t a New Yorker yet.”

This is a different question though altogether. When you are a tourist in another country, they want to know where you are traveling from. Not where you grew up.

What about when I’m on a business trip?

What about if a colleague asks?

The assumption is where do you currently live, not where were you born 40 years ago.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where are you from is different from where were you born/hometown.

When I’m asked that while on vacation or sitting in a cab on a business trip, I say, “I’m from DC” (where I live).

If I’m asked in a setting where we’re having a longer conversation/getting to know each other, I say, “I grew up in X, and I’ve been living in DC for 20 years.”

Nonetheless, I know what you’re saying, OP. And, New Yorkers are the worst.

We were on vacation with friends from college, and the cab driver asked us where we were from. A pal said he was from NY, and another pal said, “Whatever, Dave. You just moved to NY and you’ve been there for like 5 minutes. You aren’t a New Yorker yet.”

This is a different question though altogether. When you are a tourist in another country, they want to know where you are traveling from. Not where you grew up.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hate the question Where Are You From. As an Asian American growing up in the 70s and 80s it was a poorly phrased ignorant way of asking What Is Your Ethnicity? I would answer the question ‘I grew up in a small suburb outside Boston’. And the uncultured pasty white person would say No Where are you FROM FROM?? Still get it today from the same kind of people.

Being of a particular ethnicity myself, I used to get this question a lot too. I know academia now considers it a microagression. But I personally do not. I appreciate that people are interested in my heritage or to learn about me.

Anonymous wrote:Why would anyone ask where you originally lived as a child? What a nosey yet dull question. I don't really like answering questions like that especially as I don't identify with any particular area and it's boring to explain why. I have a pat answer I give but maybe people should learn to be better conversationalists.

Anonymous wrote:Where are you from is different from where were you born/hometown.

When I’m asked that while on vacation or sitting in a cab on a business trip, I say, “I’m from DC” (where I live).

If I’m asked in a setting where we’re having a longer conversation/getting to know each other, I say, “I grew up in X, and I’ve been living in DC for 20 years.”

Nonetheless, I know what you’re saying, OP. And, New Yorkers are the worst.

We were on vacation with friends from college, and the cab driver asked us where we were from. A pal said he was from NY, and another pal said, “Whatever, Dave. You just moved to NY and you’ve been there for like 5 minutes. You aren’t a New Yorker yet.”