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Comment by jhbadger | Hacker News Reader

>I can’t imagine telling a class in even the safest parts of the United States “Go wander the streets and interview a stranger you suspect to be foreign”

In the US of course it isn't even just the overblown "stranger danger" hysteria of school children speaking to people they don't know but identifying "foreigners" due to the greater ethnic diversity in the US. And people get (justifiably) offended when asked "where are you from?" especially if they were born here and just happen to be of non-European descent.

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> And people get (justifiably) offended when asked "where are you from?"

Why is it justifiable? Is curiosity an offense?

Because it implies non-belonging. The question self means that the conclusion is already made that the asked person is not "from here".

That is pretty messed up. There can be gazillion good reasons for somebody to stick out, or somebody else to just asking. People getting easily offended and taking such benign question very personally have usually some deeper underlying untackled issues in their lives.

> usually some deeper underlying untackled issues in their lives.

Usually being fed up with asked "where are you really from?" with the implication "go back there" lots and lots of times in their lives.

It never even occurred to me people might be offended by that. I love stories of different places and foods, and I'm fascinated by all the permutations of accents that occur. I'm simultaneously mildly angered by people being offended by such a thing, and that others trained them to be that way.

I get asked where I'm from all the time even though I'm very obviously from around. I get what you mean but differentiating curiosity from xenophonia is generally pretty easy, and as such I see no reason why we should avoid the question entirely. Intention and context counts, pretending that it is always an offense is absolutist and reductionist.

Anything can be offensive if you try hard enough!

I think "offended" is a bit much in many occasions, but it's certainly a type of racial profiling. It simply doesn't happen in places where your class or group of friends or coworkers are not all white, because you know that not all people look the same. Whereas if you live in an area with a very homogenous looking population everyone who looks different probably is a tourist.

It's the assumption that they probably aren't "American" because they don't look like their ancestors came here on the Mayflower that many find offensive.

I think you’re right that people sometimes take it that way, but I’ve always thought it a rather uncharitable assumption. The answer could be a different place in the US. It doesn’t seem to imply anything about whether you’re American or not?

I’m in California and it’s somewhat unusual for someone to be native Californian.

I visited Florida once and was "mistaken" for a local because... I look South American, so the people there immediately assumed I would understand... Spanish :D and everyone seems to speak Spanish over there.

I wasn't offended at all, of course, but funny how context changes everything... I was actually worried they'd be "disappointed" at me for not speaking their native language.

> I visited Florida once and was "mistaken" for a local ... people there immediately assumed I would understand... Spanish

That used to happen to me in Germany, even though my German is limited to "noch ein Bier, bitte." Whereas in France (where I lived as a kid and used to have native fluency), people would immediately switch to English. I asked one Frenchman, "why?" The answer was, "You sound French but you look Australian or maybe South African." "No, I'm American." "That can't be; Americans don't speak French like that."

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