7 ms·

The article was really about much more benign PC stuff like: > by some campus guidelines, it is a microaggression to ask an Asian American or Latino American “

The article was really about much more benign PC stuff like: > by some campus guidelines, it is a microaggression to ask an Asian American or Latino American “Where were you born?,” because this implies that he or she is not a real American. Some Asians would find this policy racist as it presumes that all Asians are American Asian.

kelukelugames 11y ago
You are right, some of his points are over-corrections to the less harmful things. He doesn't recognize that most of the polices are not in place to just fix the smaller stuff. I don't think we should coddle our students either but there are definitely a lot of shitty behavior on campus. For example, look at these black face parties. http://www.thegloss.com/2014/10/17/culture/dear-white-people-review-racist-college-parties-blackface-mexican-stereotypes/2/ http://www.thegloss.com/2014/10/17/culture/dear-white-people... As for "where were you born", that's a long discussion. But I do want to say as an Asian American, I'm okay with it sometimes and sometimes not. Some people are curious, while others genuinely think I must be a foreigner. Maybe I'm being overly sensitive but it's hard not to be when I live in a country when co workers randomly ask me questions about chopsticks and internment camps.
- zyxley 11y ago
  There "where were you born" question strikes me as the kind of thing that's at a minimum pretty tasteless just by the nature of the question. If someone asks where you're from, they're probably curious about your background. If somebody asks where you were born, either they're implying you're not really a proper resident of where you prefer to live (whether that's a racial thing or a "somebody who moves to New York can't be a real New Yorker thing"), or they're being creepy by asking the kinds of things that get used as bank security questions.
  - fallinghawks 11y ago
    The "where are you from" question by itself is innocent, but becomes a microaggression when the asker refuses to take an American location as an answer (assuming US for simplicity). Then you get "No, where are you really from?" This implies that the POC, however much they talk, dress, and act like an American, cannot ever be a "genuine" American. "What ethnicity are you" or "What is your heritage" are better phrasings of the question of ethnic background.
    - tomp 11y ago
      The question "Where are you really from?" is equivalent to the questions "What ethnicity are you" or "What is your heritage" - the speaker is asking for the exact same information, and one must be really stupid not to get that.
      - deleted 11y ago
        [deleted]
- tomp 11y ago
  > I'm okay with it sometimes and sometimes not. Some people are curious, while others genuinely think I must be a foreigner. What's wrong with people genuinely thinking that you're a foreigner? Personally, I would consider it offensive if people would assume I'm not a foreigner somewhere where I looked unlike most other people. But then again, I'm from a non-English-speaking country, so by assuming someone is a foreigner, you're preemptively extending them the courtesy of communicating in English with them.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]

kelukelugames 11y ago

You are right, some of his points are over-corrections to the less harmful things. He doesn't recognize that most of the polices are not in place to just fix the smaller stuff. I don't think we should coddle our students either but there are definitely a lot of shitty behavior on campus. For example, look at these black face parties. http://www.thegloss.com/2014/10/17/culture/dear-white-people-review-racist-college-parties-blackface-mexican-stereotypes/2/ http://www.thegloss.com/2014/10/17/culture/dear-white-people... As for "where were you born", that's a long discussion. But I do want to say as an Asian American, I'm okay with it sometimes and sometimes not. Some people are curious, while others genuinely think I must be a foreigner. Maybe I'm being overly sensitive but it's hard not to be when I live in a country when co workers randomly ask me questions about chopsticks and internment camps.

zyxley 11y ago
There "where were you born" question strikes me as the kind of thing that's at a minimum pretty tasteless just by the nature of the question. If someone asks where you're from, they're probably curious about your background. If somebody asks where you were born, either they're implying you're not really a proper resident of where you prefer to live (whether that's a racial thing or a "somebody who moves to New York can't be a real New Yorker thing"), or they're being creepy by asking the kinds of things that get used as bank security questions.
- fallinghawks 11y ago
  The "where are you from" question by itself is innocent, but becomes a microaggression when the asker refuses to take an American location as an answer (assuming US for simplicity). Then you get "No, where are you really from?" This implies that the POC, however much they talk, dress, and act like an American, cannot ever be a "genuine" American. "What ethnicity are you" or "What is your heritage" are better phrasings of the question of ethnic background.
  - tomp 11y ago
    The question "Where are you really from?" is equivalent to the questions "What ethnicity are you" or "What is your heritage" - the speaker is asking for the exact same information, and one must be really stupid not to get that.
    - deleted 11y ago
      [deleted]
tomp 11y ago
> I'm okay with it sometimes and sometimes not. Some people are curious, while others genuinely think I must be a foreigner. What's wrong with people genuinely thinking that you're a foreigner? Personally, I would consider it offensive if people would assume I'm not a foreigner somewhere where I looked unlike most other people. But then again, I'm from a non-English-speaking country, so by assuming someone is a foreigner, you're preemptively extending them the courtesy of communicating in English with them.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]