Asking someone where they are from

fez said:
Why would you ask someone with black skin, wearing traditional african clothes who says they are from England where they are really from?
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Africa is, you know, a continent, with many different subcultures. Someone from Nigeria is going to have different traditions than someone from Eritrea or Sierra Leone etc. Different food, different values, different music! I personally can't tell the dress apart that well, so it's a fair question. And you'll find that most people are proud to answer it.
 
Bassmansam said:
Bassmansam said:
Now your twisting it, when you said white people at first i thought you meant white Brits. If a russian white person presented himself to me in traditional dress then yes i would ask about their heritage as i would be curious to know. This person may be born in England but i would bet my mortgage that they have heritage in Russia.
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I never mentioned white people you did.

Bassmansam said:
No i wouldn't ask a white person the same because its not as interesting to me as i've seen them all of my life. If i was in conversation with black person dressed in traditional african clothing then i would ask them where they are from/ or where there heritage is from.

Its human nature to be curious about things that are not common.
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110% said:
Everyone is ignoring this "I knew we'd get there in the end."

Why was she trying to get somewhere, if it was just interest in the heritage, or just curiosity?
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I think one possible scenario is SH is an uptight snotty person and thinks she knows best (old woman, serving the queen for decades, limited wider experience of the real world - so highly likely she is quite a stuck up arrogant person in my opinion).

It was probably also poor wording of the question. In asking where she was from, where she was really from, SH was probably trying to ascertain her heritage. So clearly, when the answer was 'Im British', that didn't fit with the answer SH expected, and she continued to press to try and get the question answered that she thought she originally asked. From SH perspective, perhaps the black woman from the charity was being arrogant in not answering the question SH thought she had asked, which is how we end up at the slightly angry/condescending sounding 'we got there in the end' comment.

Its a faux par, but not serious in the grand scheme of things. Im sure SH would have met many people not of UK origin in her time serving the queen, but probably all of them at official functions like this and none in a real life scenario. Perhaps SH is used to being in these formal situations with foreign strangers and forced to make small talk of this nature.
 
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Tony Edwards said:
Some sort of animal print? You do know what traditional african clothes look like right?

traditional african clothes - Google Search

www.google.co.uk
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If I saw a white woman wearing that I would be surprised, the colours and the patterns, her hair style, her necklace, everything says "african descent".

I would go as far as to say that perhaps she identifies more strongly with that part of her heritage than she does with being British....
 
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i dont see it as offensive, people ask me and i say it as it is, im uk born and bred parents are from kenya and their parents were from india and their parents were from the primordial soup
 
110% said:
I never mentioned white people you did.
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What is the problem of asking a Russian where they came from? If someone has a foreign (non-traditional British) surname then what is offensive about asking?

If my parents turned up in Finland and I was born there. I'm sure with my foreign sounding surname at some point it would come up in conversation, where my family background is from.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I've had this many times, I still get them now and again.

It's not out of malice but it can get quite tedious. It's normally seen as like a conversation starter, they want to talk about your background. The problem is if someone says they don't know, they don't know.

I have no idea beyond where i was born, my parents don't keep a family tree and i haven't taken 23 and me. If I tell you I don't know, then i don't know.
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My dad asks this question a lot, normally to older asian people he may meet, but only because he is interested due to the fact his parents spent a lot of time in Sri Lanka in the 40s, he does it as a conversation starter and if they say Sri Lanka, well that's them getting a a long family history story.:D
 
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110% said:
I never mentioned white people you did.
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But its not common to see someone in traditional russian dress walking around Kent is it? So if said person did present themselves to me i would ask. If i meet a white person with a Kentish accent i'm not going to be as interested. Simples..
 
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Bassmansam said:
But its not common to see someone in traditional russian dress walking around Kent is it? So if said person did present themselves to me i would ask. If i meet a white person with a Kentish accent i'm not going to be as interested. Simples..
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She wasnt wearing traditional african clothing. Christ. You lot are as bad as the 83 year old.
 
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