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Vent: It gets quite frustrating traveling as a nonwhite american. (alien.top)

submitted 10 months ago by CanalBloody@alien.top to c/digitalnomad@expats.zone

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Tired of constantly having conversations like this:

"Where are you from?"

"USA"

"But where are you really from?/But whats your nationality?/Are you actually american?... like.. full american?"

American isnt a race! American =/= white. Yes im "full american" even though im ethnically latino! If you want to know my ethnicity/race then just ask me that instead of implying im not a "real" american.

I know most people asking this arent doing so from a place of malice, but damn does it get tiring after the 100th time.

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[–] JRLtheWriter@alien.top 1 points 10 months ago (12 children)

If I may ask, where do you get these questions the most? I'm a Black American, have been living abroad for almost a decade now and traveling often the whole time. When people ask me where I'm from, I usually just tell them I'm from New York and that ends it there. Every once in a while someone asks me about my ethnicity or if I know where in Africa my ancestors come from. I usually just say that most African Americans travel their lineage back to West Africa but it's almost impossible to pinpoint a specific location. That usually ends that part of the conversation.

[–] KinkThrown@alien.top 1 points 9 months ago

I read this memoir by a guy who did a group bicycle tour around Cameroon and one of the guys in his group (all Americans) was black.

When the locals learned the black guy was American they were really confused. They didn't know that there were black people in America. They asked him what his tribe was and when he said he didn't have one it blew their minds. They asked how there were black people in America and he explained about the Atlantic slave trade and they had never heard of it. In the end they would refer to him using the same (mildly pejorative) word they used for whites.

These were country people they met in the sticks, not educated people, but I don't think it's that uncommon. I live in southeast Asia and have met people who've never heard of World War 2.

This is the book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1290572

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