My coworker is Tongan and I'm Hawaiian. My sister works with us and she's Korean (I have a lot of adopted siblings). People here in Utah are so culturally retarded it's hard not to mock them. We'll stand around and take shots at each other and laugh our asses off for hours. We're different races, but raised in a predominantly white community. My husband calls me a coconut...because I'm "brown on the outside and white on the inside." I know nothing about Hawaiian culture, I'm known as the "Hawaiian Cowgirl" I'm a country girl actually!!!
You can tell people are interested in your racial background, but they don't know how to ask politely. There's "What are you?", "Where are you from?" and I tell them, Centerville. Then they say, "I mean where are you FROOOM?" with a lifted eyebrow tyring to hint what they mean. The best is when you play stupid. Then I usually say, "I was born in San Diego then adopted and brought to Utah." HAHAH!! Then they act as if they got the answer they wanted "Ooohh, yeah. California, that's cool!" Some people, usually middle aged single white ladies who love the wine bottle too much just come up to you and say "ALOOOOOOOOOHAAA!" I then say, "Howdy!" One time a lady said that and started doing that stereotypical hula thing with her hands while singing "Aloha Oe". I gave her a crusty and stood there staring until she stopped. She said "I just got back from Maui and my mind is still on vacation." I said "Neat" and walked away LOL!! It doesn't offend me at all, it just surprises me people would do and say stuff like that, so I react the way I do to make them feel stupid. My coworker and sister have shared stories of people walking up to them speaking spanish. One white lady said to my coworker, "Well, you have brown skin, so I figured you spoke spanish." He said SHE was offended and walked off as if he said something offensive to her. Recently we were talking and someone walked up to us, put her hands on both our shoulders and just blurted out "Oh, New Zealand! You two remind me of being back in New Zealand, I love it there!!" He said back, "That sucks. You must have got on the wrong boat and ended up in Tonga, because I'm not from Fiji." I busted out laughing. She turned red and stared laughing, she apologized for her ignorance and continued on.
My sisters name is Sue...like Susan, and people ask her all the time how to pronounce her name. "Sway?" "Sowee" tyring to make it sound all 'Asian-like'...NO..."It's Sue. You can call me Susan if it's too hard to pronounce." LOL She'll say anything to custmers, I love her because she's so blunt. Some people say all sorts of offensive or try to say something 'intelligent' about China and Japan and she always has an awesome comeback about how awesome it would be to know more about China if she wasn't Korean. LOL!!
Anyway, it's funny to make fun of each other with Utah ignorance. We've concluded it always rich, white, female Utahns that say stupid shit like this ALL THE DAMN TIME. It surprises me because they all claim they travel a lot. So wouldn't that make you more knowledgeable about ethnicity and the way you should act in public? I hope they aren't doing that in the countries they visit. They're an embarassment to the US!
No it's not racist. Everyone just needs to losen up and learn to make fun of themselves and lay off of others.
Is it racist if a person makes jokes toward their own race?
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My coworker is Tongan and I'm Hawaiian. My sister works with us and she's Korean (I have a lot of adopted siblings). People here in Utah are so culturally retarded it's hard not to mock them. We'll stand around and take shots at each other and laugh our asses off for hours. We're different races, but raised in a predominantly white community. My husband calls me a coconut...because I'm "brown on the outside and white on the inside." I know nothing about Hawaiian culture, I'm known as the "Hawaiian Cowgirl" I'm a country girl actually!!!
You can tell people are interested in your racial background, but they don't know how to ask politely. There's "What are you?", "Where are you from?" and I tell them, Centerville. Then they say, "I mean where are you FROOOM?" with a lifted eyebrow tyring to hint what they mean. The best is when you play stupid. Then I usually say, "I was born in San Diego then adopted and brought to Utah." HAHAH!! Then they act as if they got the answer they wanted "Ooohh, yeah. California, that's cool!" Some people, usually middle aged single white ladies who love the wine bottle too much just come up to you and say "ALOOOOOOOOOHAAA!" I then say, "Howdy!" One time a lady said that and started doing that stereotypical hula thing with her hands while singing "Aloha Oe". I gave her a crusty and stood there staring until she stopped. She said "I just got back from Maui and my mind is still on vacation." I said "Neat" and walked away LOL!! It doesn't offend me at all, it just surprises me people would do and say stuff like that, so I react the way I do to make them feel stupid. My coworker and sister have shared stories of people walking up to them speaking spanish. One white lady said to my coworker, "Well, you have brown skin, so I figured you spoke spanish." He said SHE was offended and walked off as if he said something offensive to her. Recently we were talking and someone walked up to us, put her hands on both our shoulders and just blurted out "Oh, New Zealand! You two remind me of being back in New Zealand, I love it there!!" He said back, "That sucks. You must have got on the wrong boat and ended up in Tonga, because I'm not from Fiji." I busted out laughing. She turned red and stared laughing, she apologized for her ignorance and continued on.
My sisters name is Sue...like Susan, and people ask her all the time how to pronounce her name. "Sway?" "Sowee" tyring to make it sound all 'Asian-like'...NO..."It's Sue. You can call me Susan if it's too hard to pronounce." LOL She'll say anything to custmers, I love her because she's so blunt. Some people say all sorts of offensive or try to say something 'intelligent' about China and Japan and she always has an awesome comeback about how awesome it would be to know more about China if she wasn't Korean. LOL!!
Anyway, it's funny to make fun of each other with Utah ignorance. We've concluded it always rich, white, female Utahns that say stupid shit like this ALL THE DAMN TIME. It surprises me because they all claim they travel a lot. So wouldn't that make you more knowledgeable about ethnicity and the way you should act in public? I hope they aren't doing that in the countries they visit. They're an embarassment to the US!
No it's not racist. Everyone just needs to losen up and learn to make fun of themselves and lay off of others.