Have you ever feel offended by...

[duckduck]

Quote:

Originally Posted by laperle Plus, this whole 'What's your heritage?' kinda talk turns me off. I'm just brazilian. I wish I was even more mixed than I already am.

One of my best friends in grad school is Brazilian, and he explains his heritage thusly:

"There were the natives, the Portuguese, and the slaves. Then everybody fucked everybody, and that made the Brazilians"

I always get a good laugh out of the look on people's faces when he says that.

 

[laperle]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mafalda laperle, have you read Joao Ubaldo Ribeiro, "Um brasileiro em Berlim" - eu A DO REI. And I still have to tell people that it's not my Brazilian side that gave me the opportunity to learn Spanish at home. I only read it in your contribution, but how about the others: How do you feel about people telling you "Wow, you don't look/sound/seem [insert the culture you identify with here]. I would have guessed you're [insert culture of host country here]." I am still wondering about that one...

I haven't read it, I'll give it a shot.

It seems you've already lived in many countries, I wonder how many stories you've collected so far.

Quote:

Originally Posted by duckduck One of my best friends in grad school is Brazilian, and he explains his heritage thusly: "There were the natives, the Portuguese, and the slaves. Then everybody fucked everybody, and that made the Brazilians" I always get a good laugh out of the look on people's faces when he says that.

Plus the spanish, dutch, french and then, the 'recent' immigrants, like italian, german, japanese and others in a minor scale.

It's a fuck festival, so we can look like everyone else, but still be brazilian.

Anyway, the cultural stereotypes bother me more. I don't walk around in a thong!

 

[mafalda]

laperle,

honestly, I have been very lucky when it comes to being stereotyped for cultural reasons. I have both a first and a last name that work in most of "my" countries, my coloring is sometimes seen as slightly, but not strikingly exotic (I do stand out in the Andean countries, though), and I don't have an accent because I had to move so often when I was a kid.
The only funny thing is that I seem to appear extremely "at home" wherever I go, thus making people believe they can ask me directions. (It even happens in Tokyo.

)
Oh, and when I was a teenager people kept telling me that the thing that gave me away was that my way of standing and moving was way too self-confident for a US teenager. Hello???

PS: My mother would probably have a fit if she ever saw my students walking in the street wearing chinelos...

 

[BloodMittens]

I don't know if this completely counts, but my mother was Russian and my father is Lithuanian.

Bad combo. Russia took over Lithuania for years and ran people out of their homes, I get to listen to my family constantly bash my mother for being Russian (because you know... it was all her fault that her long away relatives in Russia were killing innocent Lithuanians in their homes). But I have to listen to this from my father's side of the family.

And my boyfriend is 100% Lithuanian. And his grandmother and grandfather were refuges from Lithuania because of the Russians. Yes, I love when my boyfriend accidentally let it slip out that I'm half Russian.

You can imagine what Christmas is like over there now. His grandmother hates me and constantly brings up stories about how Russian soldiers killed her sister in her bed. Yes, lovely meal time with the boyfriend's family.

While this doesn't pertain to Russian's in the movies but sometimes I find it hard to watch XXX because of the references to it.

 

[kimmy]

i'm not very easily offended.

i do get a little pissed off when people of other races step up onto their soapboxes and talk shit about how white folks don't understand their suffering. and how alot of people will say "check our history!" hey, how about you read up on mine, too?

 

[Monsterbilly]

Quote:

Originally Posted by laperle Hi. This is a very interesting thread. I'm brazilian and live in Rio. Starting with films and TV series, I must say EVERY single one shows a completely wrong idea of our geography, culture and people. They show snakes in Rio airport, Copacabana beach in Sao Paulo (the city is far from the ocean), favela all over, Carnival in the streets ALL the time and the worst, IMO: girls in thong bikinis looking like hookers at the beach. Ah! We can't forget about brazilian people being portraited as speaking spanish. A little research, please? My brother was very bad treated in Italy, people thought he was arab and was a thief. WTF? The boy is an Air Force Pilot. And what the hell with these people assuming an arab MUST be dangerous? I used to work for international film festivals and also travelled a lot and I've heard all sorts of things during all these years. Some people say they can't believe I'm brazilian, 'cos I look so french! Is this a freaking compliment? I love France, but saying something like this offend my country, 'cos here we have it all and I can't even tell you all my heritage because I don't care about this. I have a gorgeous deep chocolate skinned cousin and her sister is lighter than an NC15! When I lived in France, all sorts of tourists stopped me to ask for information assuming I was french. People asked me to take pictures with them. They all looked shocked when they found out I wasn't french, because my french, my languages, my education, my clothes don't match their idea of a brazilian girl. This is insulting. I hate all sorts of offensive ways to treat other cultures, religions, countries and races (though, I personally dislike this race thing. I think we are all humans and jokes or comments that diminish others are just disgusting). Maybe I'm too radical on this. I don't even like to be compared to movie stars nor other people. Some foreigners insist to tell me I look like Catherine Zeta-Jones and I just don't really think I have to thank anyone for saying so. I don't think I look like her and if I did, I wouldn't like, because I like being unique. Plus, this whole 'What's your heritage?' kinda talk turns me off. I'm just brazilian. I wish I was even more mixed than I already am. ------------------------ A colombian girl said something about the world seeing her country as a nation of drug dealers. It's annoying.

"So, you're brazilian? Show us your tits then"

A friend of mine got that one in England

I don't mind jokes, i get annoyed with ignorance.
For example, my boyfriend always teases me saying "japanese, corean, chinese, it's all the same" (i'm half japanese) and i respond saying "polish, ukranian, it's all the same" (he's half polish)

We both know that its not the same, is just a silly joke.
I got teased a lot when i was young because i was different than the other kids. Some made fun of me because i'm "japanese", others because my skin was too "white" (and it wasnt really that white

). I really didn't mind, i didn't see it as a racial matter, kids make fun of everything, if the nose is too big, if you're too tall, if you're too short, too fat or too thin... well, i wasn't fat, my nose was ok... so they made fun of me because of my heritage
But yeah, as i said before, ignorance sucks big time. Once i was talking to a girl about cakes and i said that i love grape cake... she said "eeeeww, you japanese people eat the strangest thing"

 

[Korms]

I don't really get offended by this but it is kind of annoying that very often in American films English people are portrayed as either super posh toffs who wear cravats and go fox hunting every weekend, or football hooligans who drink too much and beat people up. The film "Euro Trip" (really, really bad film by the way) srpings to mind when I think of bad British stereotyping (and bad stereotying of other nationalities for that matter).

 

[k.a.t]

^ word.

 

[nibjet]

When people see asian people talking and proceed to start babbling "ching chong ching", also, when they call them "oriental," that's for objects, not people.

My bigger pet peeve is being in the south, and when I go to mexican restaurants, I *always* hear some dumbass giving the "they shouldn't be here if they can't speak english!" speech. I always want to be like "listen you asshole, you can't even say the word 'tortilla' correctly and they just took your order and held up a conversation with you IN ENGLISH"

Also, people assuming everyone down here is completely ignorant because of the accent. Mine isn't that bad, and I constantly hear people saying 'you don't have the southern accent, you sound educated." *boggle*

 

[makeup4ever]

My husband is Slovak and very offended by the movie in the 1st post and another one called Euro Trip where it portrays Bratislava as a very poor and ugly place where a hotel room costs about 10c. I tell him not to take such a silly movie so personally but he just hates how his little-known country and people are portrayed.

 

[SuSana]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nibjet When people see asian people talking and proceed to start babbling "ching chong ching", also, when they call them "oriental," that's for objects, not people.

Yes! When I tell someone that they don't believe me.

 

[BEA2LS]

i am Polish and am really sick of stupid Polish jokes. For real..
I am also the only white girl on my whole street and it took me a year to prove that I'm not some "stupid white girl that everyone can take advantage of" (their words, not mine..) I am actually pretty tough and would never assume someone is something just because of their race.

 

[brianjenny17]

I'm Portuguese and Irish so when people ask me what I am they always say "Ohh what a mix, I thought the Portuguese only stuck with their own" I absolutely hate that.

Another is, I currently work in a Construction company as a receptionist and when I applied for the job I got, "Do you have any previous experience with the construction business?" I responded with no and got "But aren't you Portuguese?"

I'm sorry just because im Portuguese doesn't mean my father works in construction, and no I don't speak Spanish I speak Portuguese. I wish I did but people get confused when I tell them they aren't the same language.

 

[Mabelle]

I'm half irish half german.

whenver i say i'm german, 80% of the time someone follows that with a nazi comment. That offends me. Yes, everything the nazis did was absolutely horrible, but please, thats not all Germany has contributed to the world or history. And i can assure you, that my family were not nazis. They were hiding jews.

I really dislike that being Irish is associated with drinking yourself stupid. That if you don't drink, you're not irish. Thus why i don't like st patrick's day very much. I'd prefer to celebrate a culture, not drunken stupidity. I realize pubs are a big part of the culture, but again, they are def. not everything, and pubs don't ness. mean getting stupid shit faced drunk.
I went to Ireland about 3 years ago. About two days before i went, i was at work and someone mentioned to a customer i was passing (at the cash) that i was going. She said "Oh! Don't drink too much!!" to which i responded I dont drink. She looked at me and very seriously said "Then why are you going to IRELAND?!" uhhh i don't know to see the beautiful country side, learn the history, appreciate the culture, see where i'm from?!?!

Basically i hate cultural stereotypes.

 

[enigmaticpheo]

I hate the fact that because I have pale skin, I am therefore "white". I'm half Russian half Italian. "White" is classifying me as being Swedish, English, German and Dutch along with any other race that has fair skin. It's like calling someone, "Brown". Ridiculous!! Look at individual heritage instead of blanket generalization; every region has its OWN culture, and to lump it all together is absurd. Just like it is to assume someone with dark skin is Mexican. Good grief.

Also, I hate that when I say I'm half Italian, people make mafia cracks. And assume I'm Sicilian. Well, no, I'm not. My mom is from just outside of Venice! Or that my Russian heritage means I am a "commie". Honestly!

And the fact that people assume due to me being fair skinned, I cannot possibly have come from immigrants. My mom immigrated to the U.S., as did my Dad's parents. I'm a first generation American on my mom's side! Just because I don't have a thick accent doesn't mean I don't speak other languages, nor does it mean that my family's been in the USA for hundreds of years. In reality, my parents grew up speaking other languages. Harumph.

 

[blazeno.8]

Quote:

Originally Posted by couturesista Diabetes is not a genetic disease, true its more prevalent(sp) in the black community, but that comes from having a poor diet and not living a healthy lifestyle, ( eating habits and exercise) not from genetics. I understand what you mean though. In the black community we are more prone to (genetically speaking) sickle cell. I have the sickle cell trait. which means I inherited genetically from one of my parents ( that would be my DADDY, LUV YA!) My daughter has the trait, and it will be passed on .... If I her dad had the trait as well as myself she could have possibly had sickle cell, and the same issue continues with her when she decides to have a baby. I do understand what you meant though. Now, thats not to say other races don't have or can't get sickle cell.

I thought that depending on the kind of diabetes the person has, the problem can be in large part genetic but could be aggravated by environmental factors (such as poor diet). Without proper regulation of your body's natural capacity to produce insulin (which is inherited) the onset of the disease can come much faster. That's not to say that no form of diabetes is ever a result of diet, but it's more to say there can be an important genetic link.

Anyways... back on topic, I hate listening to the n* word. Period. I don't care who's saying it, I just don't like it.

 

[jackie100]

I'm asian but to be honest nothing people say about my race offends me. I have no idea, I guess I just don't care or I'm too busy with certain things in my life so I really don't care at all. Even if people say things like "small eyed asians" or "gooks" or anything like that, to be honest it doesn't offend me.

However I get extremely offended when people ask me about money or ask me how much I make or assume how much I make.

I also get really mad when people make assumptions about my age.

But race or culture, I don't care at all. I am not really that much into my "culture" and don't have that many ties to it, I'm americanized.

Money and my youth are things that offend me much more. I guess I'm crazy but those are the things that I take seriously... lol Just being honest. Race is not that important to me I guess.

 

[LoveMU]

I used to get offended when someone would ask me what my ethnic background was. I used to think they were trying to find out so they could stereotype me in their head or try to "figure me out" based on stereotypes they have. Then I remember my co-worker (who's a dude) said to me, can u believe how many guys ask you on a daily basis what your background is? like they would even care if you were some dude, they're just trying to hit on you" LOL

Then I realized it was a form of flattery. obviously I've been offended by other stuff, but I thought this was nice to share since it was something that I think i've been wrong about all along. Sometimes people don't always mean harm.

 

[LoveMU]

I just thought of something else:

I too hate it when people assume I must come from a typical American household in the suburbs. i am first generation american and both my parents do not speak fluent english and my first language was not english!

Also, i hate the term white because I feel closely related to my ethnicity and not really my race if that makes sense. I almost feel like my ethnicity is my race.

 

[yodagirl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SkylarV217 I'm from the south and I know it's not a race or anything, but I get really annoyed at how it seems like all southern people are painted as MORONS. I know some of the people are like that, but thats not everyone. I feel like Northern people think we run around scraping roadkill of the road to cook and running out back barefoot to pee in out outhouses .... Then there is the other end of the Southern stereotype... The Steal magnolia big haired full make up southern bell bimbo ...

Oh thank you my dear! I get soooo irritated when I visit family up north and people ask me where I'm from and then proceed to make the following assumptions:

"Do you wear shoes down there?" --No ma'am I sure don't...I rented the pair I have on for my trip here

"Everyone is married to their cousin, brother, sister, etc"

"You all have outhouses down there, right?" Yeeeeaaaahhhh buddy, we sure do!

It just gets a little irritating that people assume I'm some barefoot redneck thats married to my brother and use an outhouse