Let me know where you're from!
I'm in Hampton Roads, VA.

#location #whereareyoufrom

I sound like my mama now

The Such Thing As the Ridiculous Question –
Siaara Freeman

#Poetry #SiaaraFreeman #WhereAreYouFrom

https://3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2022/12/tuesday-poem-334.html

Listening to „Fremd im eigenen Land“ by Advanced Chemistry, selected by Raphael Moussa Hildebrand für Klassik-Pop-Et cetera @DLF. Remembering Germany’s history of racist attacks in the 1990s (& ongoing). Music as archive. #society #racism #whereareyoufrom #responsibility #memory

The recent news of Ngozi Fulani’s (CEO and Founder of Sistah Space) treatment at Buckingham Palace has opened up more conversation about simply asking “Where are you ‘really’ from?”.

Why does this question matter?

There is nothing wrong with asking about where you lived or where you grew up, these are normal questions for making connections with people. However, the follow-up question “Where are you ‘really’ from?”, or “You look/sound like you are from X or Y”, trying to satisfy their own assumptions leads to more uncomfortable conversations.

I grew up in the UK and lived in Europe, South East Asia, and Asia. From experience, this question follows you around wherever you go. When I provide a simple answer, “I grew up in the UK”, it never quite satisfies their curiosity according to their own biased judgement. From those who ask, I don’t stereotypically look like someone who should identify as that. They probe further and push me in a position to convince new acquaintances that that’s where I am REALLY from. After numerous microaggressive conversations of the same questions, it gets very exhaustive.

These intrusive questions are often excused as being curious and framed without malicious intent. It can be triggering as it undermines your identity, making you justify your identity, distorting your sense of belonging and making you feel alienated. These unwelcomed conversations have real undertones of racism, anti-minority and anti-immigration, these judgements about someone’s race, ethnicity and nationality can be harmful to the recipient.

The only way we can eliminate unconscious biases is to listen carefully when someone speaks and make meaningful connections. We need to stop profiling someone’s identity based on our own biased judgements. We are all different, no one should be measured and placed neatly in a box!

#WhereAreYouFrom #WhereAreYouReallyFrom
#MicroAggression #StopAsianHate #Identity #NgoziFulani

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/12/09/susan-hussey-royals-where-do-you-really-come-from/
#whereareyoufrom #whereareyoureallyfrom #theracecardproject
https://www.npr.org/series/173814508/the-race-card-project

Ask me where I’m really from and I’ll tell you where you can really go…

#WhereAreYouFrom
#NoMoreRacism

RT @MrsMe15556009@twitter.com

I'd forgotten about this brilliant vid. This captures it perfectly! #IStandWithNgoziFulani #LadyHussyIsRacist #RacistRoyalFamily #WhereAreYouFrom @royal_suitor@twitter.com @BreakthruDiva@twitter.com @jozzzaphen@twitter.com @scobie@twitter.com

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/MrsMe15556009/status/1599025738992087040

Great to see journalists calling out on racism behind the question, “Where are you really from?”.
This weeks story with Ngozi Fulani has related to so many who has experienced this form of micro-racism.
#WhereAreYouFrom #WhereAreYouReallyFrom
https://youtu.be/JwjvsqQ9e-Y

I’m watching the ‘where are you really from’-gate with a lot of interest. I have been asked in various contexts, with various intents for as long as I have lived in the UK. I realise I always will. Most people, even if their intentions are perfectly genuine (healthy curiosity), don’t know how uncomfortable this question can make people feel. It places an identity label on us that we might not be aligned with. No one has to identify with the place they were born in or want to have a conversation about it. Sometimes a simple ‘if you don’t mind me asking’ can make a whole lot of difference. And be prepared to just take ‘it’s complicated’ for an answer and move on #whereareyoufrom #whereareyoureallyfrom

In my experience, the problem is sometimes not so much with the question #whereareyoufrom but with the conversation that follows

RT @giulio_mattioli@twitter.com

Old lady on crutches asks me for directions, recognises my foreign accent and goes "are you Swiss?"

Me: "no I'm Italian"
Her: "Oh - whereabout?"
Me: "err... Lombardy!"
Her: "😱 it's so bad there isn't it? I wonder why - it must *the Italian mentality*"

Me: 😡😡

#COVID19

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/giulio_mattioli/status/1237412017373351941

Where are you from?

https://youtu.be/1DmabQguml4

Riz Ahmed - Where Are You From?

#Racism #Colonisation #Colonialism #Identity #BritishBorn
#WhereAreYouFrom #WhereAreYouReallyFrom

RT @mat8iou@twitter.com

The whole "where are you really from" story with the royal family reminds me of this clip from 9 years ago by @KenTanakaLovesU@twitter.com
#whereareyoufrom #whereareyoureallyfrom
https://youtu.be/DWynJkN5HbQ

🐦🔗: https://twitter.com/mat8iou/status/1598363096531324928

Seems like a good time to repost the funny & gloriously pointed #WhereAreYouFrom game by #bbc3… #SusanHussey https://youtu.be/RU_htgjlMVE

The whole "where are you really from" story with the royal family reminds me of this clip from 9 years ago by @KenTanakaLovesU@twitter.com
#whereareyoufrom #whereareyoureallyfrom
https://youtu.be/DWynJkN5HbQ

Seems an apt time to share this piece I wrote for #WritersMosaic #RoyalLiteraryFund (full text on link): https://writersmosaic.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Ming-Ho-Belonging-and-a-sense-of-place-Aug-2022.pdf #whereareyoufrom #nativism #colonialism #ethnicity #heritage #Britishness #home #place #memory #belonging #Welsh #Chinese #LadySusanHussey