4 ms·

This reflects my thoughts on NYC perfectly. Even though every time I leave the city I end up complaining about how my apartment is the size of somebody's living

This reflects my thoughts on NYC perfectly. Even though every time I leave the city I end up complaining about how my apartment is the size of somebody's living room, when push comes to shove I wouldn't dream of trading my Manhattan shoebox for a big house in the suburbs. The culture part really rings true for me. I was born in Asia, immigrated to Canada at a very young age, and now I'm in the US. I find it difficult and oftentimes annoying to live in places without this sort of diversity. I've been to, for lack of a better term, "whiter" parts of the US and have always been a bit uncomfortable. I've met very few hostile "real" racists, but in these parts of the country I feel like every time I meet someone I have to first break through the stereotypes attached to my skin color. "Where are you from?" "Canada" (I speak with no trace of an Asian accent) "No, where are you REALLY from?" In NYC the answer is "Cool, which part of Canada?" Nevermind the people who just have to sneak in the "good at math" joke somewhere in there. Nobody ever means any harm, but it is profoundly annoying to go through life being the "other". In big cities this is never a problem - when I meet new people I'm treated as an individual first, not the sum perceptions of my race.

a8da6b0c91d 12y ago
I bounced around overseas as a kid due to my father's job. In most of the country there is the automatic assumption that my family is connected to the military. In their heads the only reason people go overseas for work is for the government. It's only in some of the major cities that people have the correct understanding that the vast majority of American expatriates have nothing to do with the military. It's not an annoying problem or anything like that, it just speaks to a certain mentality in most of the country that's hard to relate to.
scott_s 12y ago
You may find this comic familiar: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/31 http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/31
eshvk 12y ago
> The culture part really rings true for me. I was born in Asia, immigrated to Canada at a very young age, and now I'm in the US. I find it difficult and oftentimes annoying to live in places without this sort of diversity. I've been to, for lack of a better term, "whiter" parts of the US and have always been a bit uncomfortable. I've met very few hostile "real" racists, but in these parts of the country I feel like every time I meet someone I have to first break through the stereotypes attached to my skin color. Hah. I feel ya. I was born, grew up in Africa. I am of Indian origin. I don't explicit identify as Indian. Hell, being asked if I am from India as the first question from the get go is pretty fucking infuriating for me. It is getting to the point where I occasionally ask if they are European? Not to say this doesn't happen in the big cities like NYC or SF, but it happens way less than it would in Podunk town, USA. But it happens more in SF with its huge Indian tech population than in NYC where tech is just one another industry. This [1] kind of hits too close to home sometimes. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJI1Dw83Hc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJI1Dw83Hc

a8da6b0c91d 12y ago

I bounced around overseas as a kid due to my father's job. In most of the country there is the automatic assumption that my family is connected to the military. In their heads the only reason people go overseas for work is for the government. It's only in some of the major cities that people have the correct understanding that the vast majority of American expatriates have nothing to do with the military. It's not an annoying problem or anything like that, it just speaks to a certain mentality in most of the country that's hard to relate to.

scott_s 12y ago

You may find this comic familiar: http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/31 http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2003/12/31

eshvk 12y ago

> The culture part really rings true for me. I was born in Asia, immigrated to Canada at a very young age, and now I'm in the US. I find it difficult and oftentimes annoying to live in places without this sort of diversity. I've been to, for lack of a better term, "whiter" parts of the US and have always been a bit uncomfortable. I've met very few hostile "real" racists, but in these parts of the country I feel like every time I meet someone I have to first break through the stereotypes attached to my skin color. Hah. I feel ya. I was born, grew up in Africa. I am of Indian origin. I don't explicit identify as Indian. Hell, being asked if I am from India as the first question from the get go is pretty fucking infuriating for me. It is getting to the point where I occasionally ask if they are European? Not to say this doesn't happen in the big cities like NYC or SF, but it happens way less than it would in Podunk town, USA. But it happens more in SF with its huge Indian tech population than in NYC where tech is just one another industry. This [1] kind of hits too close to home sometimes. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJI1Dw83Hc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMJI1Dw83Hc