For those of you who hae been a visible minority, what has your experience been?

18 comments

1. I.lived for 4 moths in Tunisia, obviously non Tunisian. I was viewed as an easy target to people that wanted to take my stuff. A friend of mine caught a conversation between 2 guys wanting to take my camera. And at a different point someone said they can take a photo of me with my camera. Other than two situations as a guy, I had a good time.

   Colleague of far east russian descent had some.issues as a woman.

2. 2 of my long time flatmates are of African descent, born and raised in Germany, and they definitely have gotten a number of awkward comments just in the time i’ve lived with them.

   “Wow you can speak German really well!” from out super old landlord, or “This apartment is so international!” from a couple different people (I am the only non-German out of 5 people living here), stuff like that.

3. Immigrant to Morocco. I was treated as a curiosity for the first few months, and then my neighbours got used to me.

4. Germany, Düsseldorf and Meerbusch specifically growing up was okay. You get the typical ching chong comments here and there, kids running up to you doing chinky eyes then running away, etc. Nothing unexpected. Some racist teenagers here and there but nothing violent. I used to get more upset about racist taunting but eventually I think you just get used to it and they are more or less harmless. I’m sure minorities in my country deal with the same thing, so I think it’s just a cost to accept of living in Germany and it would be hypocritical to be upset about it. I had an Eastern European friend that had it worse off, to the point where her passport is German, her mom is German, but due to how she was treated as a kid she says she can never identify as being German and just calls herself Bulgarian. We did go to a kind of snobbish school though, so I’m not sure how typical of an experience that is. Funny thing is that a lot of the racist kids would think that they’re not racist. Like asking if all Chinese people shit on the streets, but it’s not racist to ask because it’s a real thing that happens in China, for example. One of the most racist people I knew growing up is now a fervent #BLM and George Floyd internet activist despite never having been to USA

   London was great, I didn’t experience anything negative from being a minority. The only similar other places in the West that I lived and can say that about is California and Vancouver. So by far the best in Europe when it comes to that IMO.

   Norway was where I had by far the worst experiences, and the only place that I have been physically threatened, and spat on for my race. With the major caveat being that this happened during the beginning of the covid times. Was fine before and after that with just the very very occasional idiots.

   I don’t think any of them are racist countries though. The vast majority of people obviously would condemn those sort of actions.

5. They know I don’t belong but no one guesses right. And once they know, a bunch of false racist stereotypes fill their brains. I learned through life that people just see what they want to see.

   I’ve been asked if I was European, in the US. “Yes, why?”. “Your shoes”.

   Also in the US, if I was German. “Close enough, only one country in between”. (maybe ‘cuz green eyes? because I’m the ugly clone of Tom Cruise).

   I was the tallest guy in the Beijing metro. Never, ever, had I towered over people around me.

   A Scandinavian: “you people have darker skin”. “WTF?”. Had to put my arm next to his to show him I was whiter than him, for his brain to then start melting.

6. Just to clarify, I’m of mixed White and South Asian descent, so I’m more of a semi-visible minority. I would say 40% of people think I’m from India/Pakistan, 20% think I’m just a nondescript white guy who happens to have dark hair and eyes, and the remainder think I’m from some other country on the Med/Middle East (Italy, Greece, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran and Egypt are all popular guesses). Indian people, for their part, think I’m Kashmiri – my height tends to set me apart for them as much as my skin colour does.

   Growing up in the SE of England I never felt like I was discriminated against or singled out because of my race, and the worst thing that anyone’s shouted at me on the street was “Harry Potter”, “four-eyes” and the occasional “cunt”. The only slightly annoying things I get are a) people trying to define my racial identity on my behalf and telling me I’m not who I think I am, and b) well-meaning people asking me if I do a certain thing because of my religion/culture. Having said that, it also helps that I come from a middle-class background, talk posh and “look intelligent” (whatever that means).

   My sister for whatever reason claims to get a lot more abuse on the street and has to deal with casual racism in the workplace on a regular basis. I think there’s some intersectionality at play here somewhere.

   Edit: I’m seeing a lot of stories about people’s experiences in North Africa on here. All I have to share about my own experience in Marrakesh was that I was with a bunch of other Indian-Canadians and we had a lot of hawkers shouting “Indiapakistan! Indiapakistan!” at us, and one person started quietly humming [Kabhi Kabhi Mere Dil Men](https://youtu.be/BVnz6oSupUM)when we walked past him.

7. I was born in Norway, but my parents immigrated from Pakistan. I am in my early 30s and it’s mostly been fine. I can’t say I’ve really felt racism in real life, but on the internet it’s a different story.

   A lot of times especially in the past few years I just feel like a burden and unwelcome. There’s a reason I left the “Norge” subreddit, because in the end I couldn’t handle seeing random comments talking shit about immigrants and Pakistanis and all that. Not only there, but on Facebook, Twitter… every fucking where. Which in turn has made me a bit bitter on the internet since two years ago or something.

   As a brown person, if you criticize Norway (the same way as other citizens) or say that you don’t like monarchy, you get told to leave the country and go back “where you’re from”. So I stopped voicing my opinion because clearly only ethnical Norwegians can say something negative. Even though I was born here, went to school here and have been working and paying taxes since I was a teenager.

   In real life my life has been fine except for when I went to VGS (Videregående Skole) in west Oslo (also known as vestkanten). I didn’t get any friends the three years I was there. I used to catch my classmates sitting in a fucking circle and shit talk immigrants/Pakistanis. 98% of them were ethnic Norwegians.

   But in work life and other than the VGS experience, everything has been fine. I can’t say I’ve felt any racism. I’ve had great bosses and colleagues and very few people have shown me any dislikeness.

8. I was in Africa for a while and overall people were very friendly and nice, the only downside is that as a white person they give you higher prices so you have to be careful in stores

9. Polish in Scotland and theres loads of us here. Maybe not so visible, but people can guess by accent or name or know me at work, and I have quite “eastern” phenotype I was told.

   Never experienced even a slight discrimination or anything of the kind. Only have nice conversations with people about my country etc. Nobody ever disrespected me based on my background.

10. Mexican in Norway. Pretty good actually, treated way better than I would have due to race back home. I know I might be just very lucky with my experiences but hey its the ones I’ve had.

    In the us I was of course seen as “latino” racewise, and in mexico I’m definitely not what you’d expect from the upper class but (and maybe norwegians are just playing it down) in norway I’m just a bit tanned. So subjective really.

11. When I was 7 my family had a trip to Morocco. My younger sister and I both have the red hair, blue eyes combination, which I understand is pretty rare.

    We mostly stayed in our hotel complex (pool, beach, what more could you need) but on a few occasions we went into the town to visit a souk, see a friend of my grandmother, that kind of thing. Whenever we did that, we were absolutely bombarded with local people touching our hair, holding our hands, all sorts of physical contact.

    If we were older I would’ve thought they were trying to sell things, but we were too young to have any money or anything, it was just genuine curiosity at our complexion. There was no harm in it, but it was a LOT. It made us and our mother pretty uncomfortable. I also don’t think it’s related, but I know that as an adult now I’m not overly fond of physical contact from people, let alone strangers, and especially regarding my hair. I actually cut it very short a few years later, and I’ve never grown it out.

    Here in Ireland, people might comment on the particular shade of my hair, or the eye-hair combination, but funnily enough the only person I’ve met who’s just reached out and touched it on meeting me was a manager at my work, who happens to be Moroccan, which I honestly just found kind of amusing.

    When it came to prices and things, we were well aware that being a tourist means you’re charged higher prices. My grandmother’s friend was a godsend – I’d never even heard of haggling but he’d come with us shopping and essentially cut prices in half for us. He also invited us for a meal in his home – I absolutely loved it, because we were encouraged to eat with our hands and it felt like I was being allowed to break rules.

12. I am half-Chinese. I haven’t really encountered any racism or discrimination besides e.g. a kid in elementary school calling me the n-word (to which I responded by teaching him the “correct” Asian slurs), or some people first addressing me in English because they assume I don’t speak Finnish (which has literally only happend about two/three times).

13. I’d consider myself semi-visible (very Eastern European looking, immediately identifiable as Eastern European from my surname, but native English accent). I’ve never encountered anything negative whatsoever abroad, but I’ve occasionally had passive aggressive comments about my name/some idiot trying to be edgy as a teenager. Probably around 5 incidents in total.

14. Well I am in the aparently 30% of the people who can make their nostrils bigger at will, so its fair to say my life is pretty cool.

15. For what it is worth, an expat friend told me that compared to what he experienced in the US on holiday, europe was very accepting.

16. I’ve been asked by the militars (carrying shotguns) to leave a bus in Dominican Republic. They stopped the bus (we were on the western part of the country and asked the «morenos» (literally dark haired ones) to leave the bus. Black guys went out. Then, they saw me and said «el rubio también» (literally, the blond too). My hair is black, so I remained sitting. They insisted and other people on the bus told me they were talking to me. I exited the bus, too.

    The bus left. The made me show all that I had with me. Unpack my bags, everything, inside the barracks. No idea what they did with the black guys, but I think they left long before me. They checked my passport for a long time and well, I had to take the next bus, at least an hour later.

    Notes:

    1 It seems in DR moreno (dark haired) means black (people) and by black they suspect Haitian.
    2 It seems in DR rubio (blond haired) means white (people) and by white they mean European or white USian
    3 If a USian has read it, according to you everybody on the bus was black but me. For Dominicans, everybody was by default a standard Dominican except the black ones and me. For me, there were a few black guys (the «morenos», lots of mixed people, and me.

    ——

    I’ve been told, as if it was a good thing, that I didn’t seem to be Catalan, by a Madrid taxi driver.

    ——–

    Whenever I’ve been in East Africa I’ve got no problem. I’ve just been taken by Palestinian or Israeli, but that’s all. Maybe because at that time my Swahili was more or less acceptable, so people was more open to me.

    —–

    When in Burkina Faso I’ve felt as if I was an Euro note with legs. So many people trying to get something out of you! I know it’s a very poor country, but so is Tanzania and they let you be.

    ——

    In Qazaqstan we were a very international group, with people from all around Europe and some from the West Indies. One, from Antigua, was a strong black guy about 2m tall, if no more. People stopped us on the streets to take pictures with him. They even handed him their babies to get the photos.

    ——

    My nephew has a Chinese mother and a Catalan white father. When he was a little kid, if in Catalonia and just with his father everyone (Catalans) assumed he was a kid adopted in China; if in China and just with his mother everyone (Chinese people) assumed he was a western kid and his mother was the nanny.

17. I don’t know where to start or what to unpack. I’m adopted from Thailand. I try to look at it as a positive thing, that I’m not the go-to person when other Danes who don’t know me, turn to anyone else for…help or whatever.

    It’s a shame that I’m not allowed to use analogies like “banana” or someone Danish who’s adopted from a sub-Sarahan African country can’t use the analogy of a coconut or flødebolle, because it’s very descriptive of a lot of our experiences. Many of us are poorly prepared for adult life feeling perpetual “foreigners in our own country.

    “Oh, but your adoptive parents are Danish? That’s where you get your last name from? Why don’t you have a Danish first name or even a Danish middle name? Why are both your middle names foreign?”.

    Good questions – the last two. My adoptive father is American, no I’m not a dual citizen. But I lived in the U.S. with my American side of my family during my impressionable teenage years and a bit as a toddler, so sometimes I’m very obviously un-Danish: loud (though younger Danes are becoming quite loud too), my mannerism, gestures and facial expressions are very “American” (what people assume all Americans behave like) to other Danes. Sometimes I hold attitudes that are “different” but I don’t know if they’re personal quirks or culturally different from other Danes.

    Casual racism and covert racism is so hard to prove and it’s easy to overthink myself into thinking I’m paranoid and crazy, because the majority of Danes can easily agree among themselves that some of us are too sensitive or that we should be grateful that they’re making an exception.

    Being an obvious foreigner in the U.S. was frustrating, but at least the white people there couldn’t claim to be natives. Before they even heard my Danish accent, SE Asians in the U.S. and Americans of SE Asian background could just tell that I wasn’t quite like them, for reasons they couldn’t put a finger on.

18. Something I forgot to add: Both in Denmark and the U.S. – if people don’t expect to be able to understand me, then their mental hearing filter tells them that I must be speaking incoherently with a foreign accent, when I’m not. I have very clear pronunciation in English even if people can at times hear a bit of Danish accent – when I’m tired or stressed. My Danish is fluent and very close to rigsdansk.