this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2024
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Why do people keep asking where I'm from? (lemmy.ca)
submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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Up until I started working, I didn't really encounter that question. When I did start working, people started asking me that question.

Them: Where are you from?

Me: Canada.

Them: Where are your grandparents from?

Me: Canada.

Them: Ok, where are your great grandparents from?

Me: Canada.

It's irritating sometimes. I just want to exist, do my job and go home, like anyone else. Once is ok, twice is odd, three times is weird, and the fourth time is a pattern.

The only accent that I might have would probably be from Newfoundland, Canada, as I grew up with a lot of people from there. I also talk too fast sometimes.

Have you had similar experiences, and if so, how did you handle it? Can fast speech patterns cause this? Why do random people care so much?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 5 points 9 months ago (6 children)

I have a classic NZ voice as well as a tan and get asked this often because I'm in the most Caucasian place outside of Europe (I'll let you guess). Half the time they don't even assume where I'm from because they don't have enough education about the world to hold any stereotypes about me (which makes them draw a blank about countries), which ironically gives me the freedom to respond however I want.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago (1 children)

A lack of education on a certain accent and/or look might also trigger honest curiosity in people, as opposed to racism. But I guess the way people ask you background questions reveal their agenda.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 9 months ago

Yes and no. They have a highly exclusive mindset, insisting people with their roots here going generations back are priority number one and newcomers like me are priority number two, but no, they're not outright racist or hostile or anything, just by far not welcoming. Though that itself isn't the best thing in the world. Last year was a huge year for natural disasters and they only worried about me after I had survived, not while I was trying to survive, perhaps because to them I'm a stock human who "asked for the life".

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