Passing

[kimpossible]

Sorry if this topic seems to exclude anyone. By all means, tweak the topic details to share experiences or thoughts that capture the idea.

Have you ever tried to pass as white to avoid possible anti-Asian prejudice? This includes letting white people assume you're white, point is the same: gaining social benefits.

[Craig]

What about those of us that are trying to pass as 'Asian' ?

[kimpossible]

What about it? Share. As I said, tweak the details in order to share a story along similar lines. I think it's most likely there are more social benefits derived from passing for white like avoiding prejudice, stereotypes, glass ceiling but I've done what you're talking about. In Taiwan I get less attention and minimize my victim potential walking around on the street if my hair is really dark brown, so I dye it before I go.

[maldito]

Originally posted by Hello_Hapa@Apr 15 2003, 06:08 AM
By all means, tweak the topic details to share experiences or thoughts that capture the idea.

Have you ever tried to pass as white to avoid possible anti-Asian prejudice?

I always wondered why some Filipinos (namely those that have ties to Hawaii) would deny that they're Filipinos and use "Hawaiian" instead. Well, I can't say that they actually "deny" that they're Filipinos but say that they're Hawaiians. As if there were any benefits for being Hawaiian. :D

[SunWuKong]

i've told people on the streets that i don't speak chinese, so they'd get off my back with trying to sell me stuff. does that count?

[thaite]

That's funny, cuz whenever I'd be on the college campus I'd pretend not to speak English to keep away from the Christian groups that like to follow minorities all over the place.

[golden_buns]

Originally posted by thaite@Apr 15 2003, 12:48 PM
That's funny, cuz whenever I'd be on the college campus I'd pretend not to speak English to keep away from the Christian groups that like to follow minorities all over the place.
Damn, I should have done that to save me some precious time. Instead I got mugged by a mob of mormons who wanted to convert me, and after their long speech of why I should convert they asked me to do a prayer with them. I told them I didn't know any prayers in english, so they insisted I'd do it in my native language, and since I couldn't remember any prayers in Spanish, I just recited the Colombian National anthem and they finally left.

[AliBabaIncorporated]

what's the benefit? passing as white means I'd have to avoid discussing roughly four-fifths of my lifestyle. I'd become an incredibly boring person with nothing to talk about besides work. That isn't gonna get me any social benefits.

glass ceiling is as much or even more due to style of socialization than to race.

[Fireblade]

man.. I'm always being mobbed by whatever religious group out there... ESPECIALLY those damn "church of latter day saints/jesus christ" ppl. One group said asked if I believe in god, and all, and then asked what church, blah blah blah. Basically they told me that the church they go to is good too, and full of "good christians"...

that to me is an oxymoron, because there is no such thing as a good christian, if you were born with sin... then with sin you will carry. Don't associate yourself with being holy if you're already condemed. <_<

now I speak in chinese, and ignore them, and walk away. If they bug me still, I turn on them, and ask them if they believe in Satan or Budda. It's kinda funny, cuz they start to be unconfortable, and run away as soon as they can.

[BeTheReds]

I've never let white people assume I am white to gain social benefits.

I may have inadvertently recieved some by not revealing my ethnicity, but you know, I'm not gonna walk around to ever stranger I meet and say hey, I'm actually 1/2 Korean so treat me like you would treat a Korean.


In Japan, I was mistaken for Japanese one day when I wore a stocking cap and sunglasses. On the train when I took them off, the school girl siting across from me turned to her friend and shouted "Hey! He's White! How Surprising! I thought he was one of us!". So perhaps I was treated more like a Japanese person thruout that day, again, not to my knowledge.

[SunWuKong]

rice cracker is shy so i'm posting this at her request.
it's a discussion of the book Passing from a personal perspective.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mavin/message/840

[kimpossible]

rice cracker is shy so i'm posting this at her request.


*doh* are we that bad? :sad:

[coagulated fat]

More on the desire/refusal to "pass" for white, an excerpt from Leaves From the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian by Sui Sin Far:

I am living in a little town away off on the north shore
of a big lake. Next to me at the dinner table is the man for whom
I work as a stenographer. There are also a couple of business men,
a young girl, and her mother.
Someone makes a remark about the cars full of Chinamen
that passed that morning. A transcontinental railway runs thru [sic]
the town.

My employer shakes his rugged head. "Somehow or other,"
says he, "I cannot reconcile myself to the thought that the Chinese
are humans like ourselves. They may have immortal souls, but their
faces seem to be so utterly devoid of expression that I cannot help
but doubt."

"Souls," echoes the town clerk. Their bodies are enough for
me. A Chinaman is, in my eyes, more repulsive than a nigger."

"They always give me such a creepy feeling," puts in the
young girl with laugh.

"I wouldn't have one in my house," declares my landlady.

"Now, the Japanese are different altogether. There is
something bright and likable about those men," continues Mr. K.

A miserable, cowardly feeling keeps me silent. I am in a
Middle West town. If I declare what I am, every person in the place
will hear about it the next day. The population is in the main made up of
working folks with strong prejudices against my mother's countrymen. The
prospect before me is not an enviable one -- if I speak. I have no
longer an ambition to die at the stake for the sake of demonstrating
the greatness and nobleness of the Chinese people.

Mr. K. turns to me with a kindly smile.
"What makes Miss Far so quiet?"

"I don't suppose she finds the 'washee, washee men'
particularly interesting subjects of conversation," volunteers the
young manager of the local bank.

With a great effort I raise my eyes from my plate. "Mr. K.,"
I say, addressing my employer, "the Chinese people may have no souls,
no expression on their face, be altogether beyond the pale of
civilization, but whatever they are, I want you to understand that
I am --- I am a Chinese."

There is silence in the room for a few minutes. Then Mr. K.
pushes back his plate and standing up beside me, says:
"I should not have spoken as I did. I know nothing whatever
about the Chinese. It was pure prejudice. Forgive me!"

I admire Mr. K's moral courage in apologizing to me; he is a
conscientious Christian man, but I do not remain much longer in the
little town.

[BeTheReds]

I've been smart filtered! No looking at that site for me.

[BeTheReds]

More on the desire/refusal to "pass" for white, an excerpt from Leaves From the Mental Portfolio of an Eurasian by Sui Sin Far:


Happens to me sometimes too.

Deal.

[Cipherous]

no offense but wouldn't it be easier if you looked more white instead of Asian?

[BeTheReds]

no offense but wouldn't it be easier if you looked more white instead of Asian?


Wouldn't what be easier?

[kimpossible]

I think what Cipherous is saying is: for a mixed race Asian who doesn't look Asian, isn't it easier for you to look white (with respect to acceptance)?

But Wouldn't what be easier? was also my first reaction.

[Napoleon Chynamite]

I think Cipherous meant that it would be easier to live in the U.S. looking like a white person than an Asian person for a variety of different reasons.

But I dunno, maybe I misinterpreted.

[Tao]

I think what Cipherous is saying is: for a mixed race Asian who doesn't look Asian, isn't it easier for you to look white (with respect to acceptance)?

But Wouldn't what be easier? was also my first reaction.
i'm guessing the racism part...when living in america.

I know my cousin who's in his 30's right now, grew up relatively "normal" in the sense that he wasn't made fun of as looking mixed. Since he looks either italian or jewish, he fits in with mainstream america very well.

[nonamerasian]

My guess would be that it would depend a lot on personal identity, if anything.

[BeTheReds]

My guess would be that it would depend a lot on personal identity, if anything.


Yes, this is true. Who someone wants to be accepted by and who accepts them may be totally different.

[Mr.Lum]

i used to pass for black, and latino(PR usally) and then i was like "fuck that im me". i cant pass for just chinese. it impossible. i can for full polyneisan tho.

[rice cracker]

I can easily pass for white, unless I'm wearing makeup that emphasizes my subtle Asian features.

[Chester]

I can easily pass for Japanese.

[ModernLogic]

I can pass for a cross between an owl and a bungee cord.

[SynRG]

It seems I can pass for nearly everything except what i actually am.

I've been suspected of being everything from Mexican to Arab. I also get suspected of being mixes that aren't Asian.

Personally, I think I look more white than I do Asian. It also depends on what I'm wearing and how I spike my hair. People here in China though can figure out I'm at least hun xue'er so that's pretty cool.

[ModernLogic]

It seems I can pass for nearly everything except what i actually am.

I've been suspected of being everything from Mexican to Arab. I also get suspected of being mixes that aren't Asian.

Personally, I think I look more white than I do Asian. It also depends on what I'm wearing and how I spike my hair. People here in China though can figure out I'm at least hun xue'er so that's pretty cool.

What's a hun xuer?

[thaite]

Went to a Thai cultural festival this weekend. Apparently I can't even pass for Thai anymore. :confused:

[SynRG]

What's a hun xuer?

"Mixed-Blood" (混血儿 ), it's the most common (albeit, generic) term for Eurasians here, or any other mixes for that matter.

[amietron]

people always think i'm korean or chinese. it's not often that they say, "japanese?"

[BeTheReds]

Stay on topic !

[SunWuKong]

"Mixed-Blood" (混血儿 ), it's the most common (albeit, generic) term for Eurasians here, or any other mixes for that matter.

you meant to write 混血兒, right?

[Napoleon Chynamite]

People always think I'm Korean or Japanese or mixed maybe b/c my ass is fucking pale. Obviously I could pass for Chinese also (since that's what I am). I'm pretty fuzzy...I think if it weren't for my lack of melanin, I could also pass for Filipino ^^

[Emperor_Mike]

I pass for Chinese and I'm happy with that. I don't like my background being the evening's big point of speculation. Northern England and especially Scotland is one large melting pot of people with stupid and annoying questions.

[AngryABCGirl]

you meant to write 混血兒, right?

lol breaking it back out with the traditional.

[SynRG]

lol breaking it back out with the traditional.

I'm in the Mainland, my computer can't type traditional :( , otherwise i'd way rather use it.

[SynRG]

I think it depends on how you present yourself (your whole appearance - clothing, makeup, posture, accent and demeanor).


Hi Anne! Didn't know you posted here too!

but before I get zapped for bring this thread off topic.... I think your totally right. When i was in highschool, I was a skater who wore a cap every single day, had bleached hair and a wallet chain past his knee. There was no way in hell unless you stared at me straight on in the face you could tell I was Eurasian, or even Azn for that matter.

However, nowadays my hair is black, shaved on the side with a fade and spikes on the top (thank god for LA Looks Sport X-Treme hold). Throw on a black cK shirt and pants that actually fit me and holy crap, suddenly I look way more Azn.

I think all mixed race ppl can "tweak" themselves so they pass for one or the other... at least to some extent. I mean look at Mariah Carey and Christina Aguilera, when each of them came out at a first glance there was no way IMO you could think they were anything but white.. but later after they got big they seemed to do everything they could to bring out the "other" side of their race.

[BeTheReds]

I look asian from the back.

I scare old ladies when they ask me for directions to somewhere.

I turn around and they are all like. YYYAAAAAAR!!!! He's not Japanese!

[kimpossible]

Hah. I've had a few of those moments too. I had one woman pass me on the sidewalk then realizing I wasn't really Asian she turned around to start walking backwards with her jaw open.

[rice cracker]

Yes, I have in the past, when I lived in Luverne, MN and went to high school there. Why? Because it was just easier to be white than to be this Asian example, in a school with a grand total of 4 (counting me) Asian students. My friends knew, and even then, they would pester me with questions. I wouldn't come out and say "Hey, I'm half!" to everybody, but I wouldn't avoid answering if someone asked. Overall, it was just plain easier to let people assume I'm white.

[Cipherous]

Wow, it must be awesome being a hapa.

You can sneak into clan meetings with the KKK and go out for hot pot with your asian friends the next morning.

[rice cracker]

Wow, it must be awesome being a hapa.

You can sneak into clan meetings with the KKK and go out for hot pot with your asian friends the next morning.

Your sarcasm is so welcome.

And guess what, I didn't have any Asian people around, let alone friends, to go have hot pot with. So yeah, living like a white person was terrific. Imagine if I had stayed in this small town. :rolleyes:

[Cipherous]

Your sarcasm is so welcome.

And guess what, I didn't have any Asian people around, let alone friends, to go have hot pot with. So yeah, living like a white person was terrific. Imagine if I had stayed in this small town. :rolleyes:

well I was just joking.

hot pot is easy...just throw whatever vegetables and meats into chicken broth and walah! you have hot pot.

[rice cracker]

well I was just joking.

hot pot is easy...just throw whatever vegetables and meats into chicken broth and walah! you have hot pot.

Gah, my dad's idea of Asian cuisine was throwing hot dogs in some ramen noodles.

[Cipherous]

Gah, my dad's idea of Asian cuisine was throwing hot dogs in some ramen noodles.

I used to do that. Ramen ain't bad.

add some eggs, carrots, vegetable mixes and its fine dining.

back to the topic at hand though

hapas stuck in anti Asian surroundings. What do you do?

[AngryABCGirl]

It seems like life could be easier if you could pass as white.

[SunWuKong]

Gah, my dad's idea of Asian cuisine was throwing hot dogs in some ramen noodles.

believe it or not, they serve this in many low-end restaurants in HK where they give you your food in about 5 minutes.

[SunWuKong]

It seems like life could be easier if you could pass as white.

what if you're surrounded by more Asian people than white people?

[rice cracker]

I've merged the two threads regarding passing for white.

[SunWuKong]

I've merged the two threads regarding passing for white.

baby, i think that was your first merge.
it was beautiful.

[rice cracker]

p.s.s. the idea of passing never really came up for my situation (asian and white community). but i'm sure i've "adapted" so to speak, in different environments when necessary.

Elaborate?

[Chester]

but i'm sure i've "adapted" so to speak, in different environments when necessary.
So've I...and I'm not even hapa!

[Ron]

Ok, here's my breakdown, just found it out (over again!): My Dad is 50% Scottish, 12.5% Spanish, and 37.5% Native American Indian. My Mom is 50% Thai, 25% Indian (Indians from India, not Native Americans), and 25% Shan Chinese. Also, please note that my Dad appears as White, and my Mom appears as Asian, thus I may term myself a hapa.

Also, all experiences below are relating to White/Asian hapas. A lot of my hapa friends (almost 1/2 of them) are some mix other thah White and Asian, but I'm mainly pertaining to White and Asian experiences below, because, Whites are the majority in this country, and a hapa passing as White has different experiences than a hapa passing as Black, etc.

Now all my siblings and I look Asian. Even my directly younger brother, who I thought looked White (we grew up in a mainly Asian environment in Hawaii as kids), actually looks quite a lot more Asian than a lot the hapas on this board.

Passing as White invokes some jealousy. I was slightly jealous seeing some other hapa kids in our Minnesota middle/high school ages trying to actively pass as White, almost like abandoning their Asian heritage. But what could they do, wear a shirt that says "I'm 1/2 Asian, 1/2 White, you uncultured Midwest mofos!" But then I realize that they weren't on a higher dimensional plane that I was on :biggrin:, i.e. I realized that I'm 1/2 and 1/2, not one. I also got help that a kid gave me a nickname of "Scasian", which I resented at first, but accepted it later on, knowing that they'll only call me Scasian if they want people to know I'm 1/2 and 1/2, not when addressing me or chatting around at all. That helped a lot in people getting to know that I was 1/2 and 1/2. This got a lot of other hapa kids I knew into promoting their 1/2 and 1/2 image, but hey, what can I say, I was an activist back then! But I always went along as Asian if we were discussing an important debate in any government/civics/etc related class, such as racial relations, racism, etc. But that didn't matter anyway, as by then, everyone knew I was hapa, even though at first class, I may appear Asian of some sort.

Even so, I bet a lot of hapas were jealous of us in Hawaii (previously living there from age 3-12, before moving to Minnesota for ages 12-18, now I'm living in Thailand for a bay area college credits program) for looking a lot more Asian than them, probably thinking we're the "lucky Asian ones." What hapas try to pass as mainly involves the environment, it's that simple. The genetics are all annoying in the first place, it's hard to find someone who looks blatantly mixed. Seems like most of us are appearance-wise looking more White or Asian.

But then again, why should I comment? I'm not even a real hapa, I'm the multiracial person you've all been striving for!:biggrin:

[rice cracker]

Ron1, why were you jealous of the hapa kids that passed as white? It sounds more like you felt sorry for them.

[Proxy]

Ron1, why were you jealous of the hapa kids that passed as white? It sounds more like you felt sorry for them.

Rice you look like a normal asian girl to me. How did you manage to pass as a white girl? Your hair, your eyes.... seems like a normal AA chick. :smile:

[rice cracker]

Rice you look like a normal asian girl to me. How did you manage to pass as a white girl? Your hair, your eyes.... seems like a normal AA chick. :smile:

It's kind of funny, non-whites can usually tell I'm mixed, but whites almost never see it.

As for a normal AA chick...yeah...sure...

[SunWuKong]

oh by the way. sorry for completely steering the discussion off track.

[Craig]

oh by the way. sorry for completely steering the discussion off track.
This discussion has had almost nothing to do with passing since about page 1 (or at least my page 1).

[SynRG]

Once in Taipei when I was 17 I got pulled over driving w/o a license. I pretended not to speak any Chinese (known to us bratty expat kids as the "dumb foreigner defense"). He let me off w/ a warning.

Once in Minneapolis when I was underage but had an ID (Taiwan Drivers License) I pretended not to speak any English. Funny thing was, since Taiwan (or the Nationalists, anyways) reset their calendar back to "0" in 1911, my license said I was born in "69." I got in to the club.

Those aren't so much passing for a particular race as they are just passing for a foreigner, tho. I guess it's not really the same.

[yoMAMA]

Once in Taipei when I was 17 I got pulled over driving w/o a license. I pretended not to speak any Chinese (known to us bratty expat kids as the "dumb foreigner defense"). He let me off w/ a warning.

Once in Minneapolis when I was underage but had an ID (Taiwan Drivers License) I pretended not to speak any English. Funny thing was, since Taiwan (or the Nationalists, anyways) reset their calendar back to "0" in 1911, my license said I was born in "69." I got in to the club.

Those aren't so much passing for a particular race as they are just passing for a foreigner, tho. I guess it's not really the same.

Wow! :biggrin:

[rice cracker]

Interesting article about passing, be it black for white, gay for straight or Jew for gentile:

Living A Double Life

(CBS) For those who make assumptions based on skin color, three women (Lavinia Ferguson, her daughter Patricia and granddaughter Mikaela) are living reminders of just how meaningless race has become.

Patricia Ferguson's birth certificate says "negro." Mikaela's birth certificate says "Swedish."

"I tell people that my father is 100 percent Swedish, but my mother is everything," says Mikaela.

CBS News Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports the women are like many Americans today: products of families that can best be described as colorful.

Lavinia Ferguson, with the help of archivist Kathleen Thompson, traced her family back to 1830, when her German and Caucasian great-grandfather, James Connor Bowman, moved to New Orleans, where he fell in love and married a black woman.

"If they put anything in front of me today, all I worry about is which box I don't check – Caucasian, yes; Indian, yes; black, yes; Hispanic, yes," says Lavinia.

Yet, Lavinia remembers a time when one box, and how it was filled out, determined everything -- livelihood, neighborhood and quality of life.

Lavinia notes, "My mother, and this would give you a good example, she got an excellent job at the time with the telephone company. She had a beautiful speaking voice. And she won awards and commendations. She was just doing fine. But apparently, someone became aware and made a report. They came in one day and they said, 'Eunice, we've gotten some information here that says you have colored blood. Is this true?' And she said, 'Yes.' And they said, 'Well, you know, in that case, we have to let you go.'"

Until the 1950s and 1960s, Jim Crow laws denied blacks the same jobs, rights and educational opportunities that whites took for granted. But the fair skin that Lavinia's family and others had allowed them to surreptitiously slip across the color borders, a process known as "passing."

"It was a way of life," explains Lavinia.

But it wasn't an easy way. Movies and literature are rife with stories of people who passed into the white mainstream, only to be doomed to a lifetime struggle to conceal their true identities.

"Lost Boundaries," a movie made in the 1950s, was about a doctor (one of Lavinia's relatives) who successfully passed as white until he tried to enlist in the Navy during World War II.

Lavinia, who says she had never passed herself, is ambivalent about those who do.

"It's a rejection of so-called colored blood, our black blood, and living as white and rejecting all of the background ancestors who were not white," says Lavinia.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New York University professor Brooke Kroeger says that passing is not a thing of the past, nor is it simply a black-and-white matter.

"We had Jewish passing for Gentile in much the same way," Kroeger explains. "Certainly, gay passing for straight is a common one and has been for a long time. Lower class for upper class. I think that's something we see a lot."

Kroeger had no trouble finding such people when she wrote her book, "Passing: When People Can't Be Who They Are."

What's really the difference between passing and impersonation?

"Well, one big difference is that this is not done to harm people," says Kroeger. "This is done really to achieve ordinary ends. This is not like, you know, the suicide bombers next door borrowing your sugar. I mean, it's not like that. It's just people who just want to do what you and I get to do."

Kroeger calls passing a very reasonable thing, which might offend others because of the deception and denial of heritage.

"While there are people who will criticize someone who'll pass, particularly in the black community, most people will not 'out' a person," says Kroeger.

Kroeger explains, "There's a sense of being sort of delighted to see people get one on people who deserve it, who more than deserve it."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jim Crow laws were long gone by the 1980s, but in Baltimore, Md., David Matthews says, even as a child, he could see that barriers for young blacks were still there.

"You're like 'OK, I can be treated like this group of kids who the teachers automatically assume aren't going to do well. They're going to sort of get the minimal amount of attention,'" says Matthews. "The group of white kids, who are probably 20, 30 percent of the population in the school. But I just noticed that they got more attention. Teachers assume that they somehow had more on the ball."

Matthews, the son of a light-skinned black man and an Israeli mother, who walked every day to a school in a primarily white neighborhood, simply chose to be white.

"Walking those three blocks, I knew all I needed to know about where I wanted to be as I watched property values the Volvos as opposed to burned-out, you know, Cadillacs," says Matthews.

He began hanging out with friends who were almost all white and Jewish. But when Matthews entered high school, he says girls and their fathers wanted to know his background.

"Every girl I dated, the parent's first question was 'What nationality are you?'"

Matthews would say his mother was Israeli, but he wouldn't mention his father's race, categorizing the elder Matthews as Presbyterian.

Matthews, whose father is a newspaper editor, would just avoid mentioning which newspaper his dad worked at because he was the editor of the Afro-American newspaper, and that might have given something away.

And passing as white meant that Matthews, raised entirely by his father after his mother returned to Israel, couldn't bring most of his friends home.

"I think that at that point, I was in such denial," says Matthews. "I didn't know what a treasure I had in my dad. All the things he had been through and the circles he ran in. I mean, my dad was like a star and I didn't know it until I was an adult. Yes, I was just in complete denial."

David Matthews' father, Ralph, who is fair-skinned, says he would be highly insulted if anyone suggested he pass as white.

"My father's black and my mother was black. That's how they viewed themselves, and I grew up in the black community," says Ralph Matthews.

When David Matthews' father discovered his son was passing for white, the elder Matthews says he was bemused.

The father says, "I wasn't going to call him out. And he wasn't, in my view, passing ... He may or may not withhold information. I don't call that passing. I call that, you know, social strategy."

It was not until David Matthews went to the University of Maryland, and a young black movie director named Spike Lee came out with "Do the Right Thing," that Matthews finally realized the rich heritage he was giving up.

Matthews, now a 37-year-old screenwriter, describes himself as mixed race.

Some people in the black community may say Matthews was committing cultural betrayal when he chose not to tell society he was black.

Matthews says, "I see it as being efficacious. I did what I had to do in order to get along every day. So, I didn't see it as a betrayal."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"If you ask me, 'Is lying self-serving; deceit, problematic?' Yes. Absolutely," says Rabbi Joel Alter.

But he is hardly in the position to pass judgment.

Alter explains, "There's no question that I was passing at the seminary, because now I know I'm a gay rabbinical student and I'm at a seminary that won't knowingly ordain gay or lesbian students. So, yeah, I'm passing."

Alter, considered a model student at the conservative rabbinical seminary he attended in New York City, knew that honesty would end any chance of becoming a rabbi.

He was learning to be a man of God, but deceiving the very same institution, Alter says, he adores, which was uncomfortable.

"Every single day for five years I'm thinking, 'OK, I'm done. I have to leave the program. This is crazy,'" remembers Alter.

He stayed, and today he is an ordained rabbi. While he still regrets the deception, Alter believes it is the only way to force open closed doors.

Today, the conservative movement still does not ordain gay men and women.

Brook Kroeger refers to passing as deceptive, but conflicted and interesting.

Kroeger says the reason for such deception is limiting a person based on superficial characteristics (skin color, religion or sexual orientation)seems equally wrong.

"The people in my book are really honorable, nice regular folks, and yet, it forces them into situations that require deception," says Kroeger. "That requires covering. That requires hiding parts of themselves that are central to who they are."

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/05/20/sunday/main618820.shtml

[kimpossible]

Once in Taipei when I was 17 I got pulled over driving w/o a license. I pretended not to speak any Chinese (known to us bratty expat kids as the "dumb foreigner defense"). He let me off w/ a warning.

Once in Minneapolis when I was underage but had an ID (Taiwan Drivers License) I pretended not to speak any English. Funny thing was, since Taiwan (or the Nationalists, anyways) reset their calendar back to "0" in 1911, my license said I was born in "69." I got in to the club.

Those aren't so much passing for a particular race as they are just passing for a foreigner, tho. I guess it's not really the same.

Way to work the system.

[SynRG]

Heheheh... thx :wink:

I felt sorta-kinda bad for the cop one.... but for some reason I didn't feel bad at all for the "get me into the club" one.. prolly 'cuz of my feelings about America's drinking age.

[BeTheReds]

Once in Minneapolis when I was underage but had an ID (Taiwan Drivers License) I pretended not to speak any English. Funny thing was, since Taiwan (or the Nationalists, anyways) reset their calendar back to "0" in 1911, my license said I was born in "69." I got in to the club.




Taiwanese Drivers Liscences are acceptable forms of ID in Minnesota? That guy could have gone to jail had you been an undercover cop.

When I was in DC last summer, I went to some club and they asked for ID. The only thing I had on me was my Japanese Alien Registration Card. I had to plead with the guy to let me in but eventually he did.

[Craig]

*bump*

Just thought I'd bring back a topic from the dead ...

[Anaestacia]

Sorry if this topic seems to exclude anyone. By all means, tweak the topic details to share experiences or thoughts that capture the idea.

Have you ever tried to pass as white to avoid possible anti-Asian prejudice? This includes letting white people assume you're white, point is the same: gaining social benefits.

Sure. Sometimes. I pass for full asian definitely among certain crowds.

[BeTheReds]

So... did you really answer the question then?

[jdmdrift]

You guys that are passing as white, im jsut not seeing how your doing it. i cant pass as full white, sometimes pass for japanese, but more often then not i just get plain out asked, "where are you from?" "whats your nationality?"
this is me,

[Chad]

just tell them you came from the land of seashell necklaces. i.e. 1997.

[jdmdrift]

eat a dick. yep 1997
http://www.hollisterco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_10251_10201_285189_-1_12574_12551

[Chad]

haha sorry dude. just joking around with you.
damn man, $12.50?? but then i couldn't eat twelve 99-cent burgers at burger king for lunch.
get some gold and jade bro, it will never go out of style.

[jdmdrift]

its cool man, nah i dont pay for that crap, i work there so i just "borrow" it ;)

[krazy-h]

i'm hapa but i look white to asian people, and asian or something else to white people. i always want friends and coworkers to know i'm half chinese. it's a part of my identity that's important to me and is a big factor in my life, so i think they should know it. also, this usually cautions them not to say any offensive things in front of me. plus, if they thought i was "just a white guy", they'd probably find it pretty strange that i eat chinese food all the time, can speak some chinese, have mostly asian friends and am interested in mainland chinese politics.

now that i think about it, when i'm in l.a. riding certain subway lines i try to pass as mexican. same thing goes for whenever i'm going through any area where it isn't in my best interest to look like a scared little white boy. but when i say i try to pass, i don't mean that i radically change my clothing or hair. at those moments i just privately hope that people see me as non-white

in china i can pass as local if i'm wearing sunglasses. this is a nice break from the usual stares. in thailand, people usually think i'm a local luk kreung(mixed person). back home in hawaii i usually try to get a tan so i don't look like a "haole" tourist from the mainland.

in general, i ocassionally try to pass as asian or hispanic, but never white. i think this is largely because i grew up in hawaii with mostly japanese american friends who occasionally made fun of my white dad. but lately i've been starting to be more accepting and even proud of my white ancestry. though "white pride" always sounds bad, doesn't it?