When visiting foreign countries, if you were told you don’t look like an American, how would you react?

42 comments

1. Indifferent. I’ve lived in Europe and I was told that.

2. I would probably just ask what they meant

3. This happened to me in Morocco. When I told a guy who was trying to sell me something that I was American he said, “No, you look Mexican.” I was pretty surprised that he actually got my ethnicity correct, considering that Moroccans probably don’t see too many Latin Americans. I wasn’t offended, but I suppose I might be in a different context, since the subtext there could be that brown people can’t be American.

4. As an Asian-American guy, I have gotten this a few times. It used to annoy me a lot, but lately I have become mostly indifferent to it.

5. I’ve had this happen indirectly and far more politely — I’ve been asked for directions while in the UK. The minute they heard me speak they had no trouble believing the “Sorry, I have no idea”

6. I’d be surprised, since I’m white. I’ve had the experience of people in Europe not accepting that Asian-Americans were American, but not white people.

7. I’d say “I’m not. I’m a Martian.” And I’d walk away.

8. I’m a minority so that’s what I expect lol

9. I’ve been told this based on how I dress.

10. “Well I’m Korean-American.”

11. Wouldn’t be surprised at all. I remember an interaction with another American while I was studying in France. They actually came up to my group of friends and asked us directions. They were trying to speak to us in French. My friends sort of looked at me and smiled. Eventually we all started talking in English to them and I told them I was American and they looked confused. I’ve been told by some British tourists here in Florida that I don’t look American and they guessed that I was probably Irish.

12. I’d laugh, I got this a lot in Europe, I look like Mac from Super Troopers. Mostly it was a segue to telling me that Americans are fat.

13. When I lived in Saint Petersburg, Russia, people often mistook me for a Finn, apparently because I’m a huge blond guy who speaks Russian with a funny accent. I never minded it too much, sometimes I’d even play into it if I ran into someone I figured didn’t like Americans.

14. I would expect it because people expect American to mean white

15. I was once told in Spain that I don’t look American, I look British. I was deeply insulted. I joke, I didn’t care, though I asked why and was told I look like Sherlock Holmes. I’ll take it as a compliment lol.

    Edit: grammar

16. With surprise. Our clothes and shoes give us away pretty easily.

17. I show them pics of my guns at home to prove it.

18. I was getting on a plane in Bogota, Colombia and a young woman told me that I didn’t look like my passport photo. My stomach fell into my ass for a second, but fortunately I was wearing the same sweater I was wearing in the photo and I was able to persuade her and made it on the plane.

    I studied in Brazil and there were a few drunken nights in weird places where I felt like I could have been singled out as American and that might not work so well for me, so I’d tell people I was Mexican, which always made me friends.

    No one has ever told me I don’t look American, and I’ve never actually been harassed for being American. If in the case someone told me that I didn’t look American I wouldn’t react in any way negatively. Typically it’s Americans telling other Americans that they don’t look American, which is much more annoying than when a foreigner does it because Americans should know better.

19. I would ask, “What does an American look like?”

20. I’d probably say something vague about how the US is a nation of immigrants. The only reason they’d say that is that I’m Asian American, I very much dress and act and talk like a stereotypical American lol.

21. I’d ask what they think an American is supposed to look like.

22. People think I’m German when I travel abroad so it is a non issue. I don’t really care; I’m tall, female, fair skinned and I’ve got black hair. I either blend in or I stick out.

23. I would assume they think American = white American.

    I would probably say, “There are a lot of Americans that look like me.”

24. I would cut myself slightly, but enough to draw blood, and they would see that I bleed red, white and blue. God bless America. USA! USA! 🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲

25. I’d likely just find it funny, and wonder what they think an American should look like.

26. Meh. It would just be an indication to me that the person had never spent a lot of time in the States. You’ll find Americans that look like pretty much anyone if you travel around.

27. I have had that said to me often.

    Swedish, Russian and Australian is what people usually said. I assume it’s how I styled my hair or the color of my hair or something that associated with other countries. (I wear braids sometimes so many I had in braids and that is perceived as someplace else)

28. As a standard issue honkey white Midwesterner that dresses like and American I’d be kind of surprised and wonder what the hell they meant.

29. Been told this in Japan. The “are you sure you’re American” or “you sure you’re not from Africa”. Not even people being rude either, they just can’t seem to believe that a Black person can be from America and not Africa for some reason, as if they don’t see American movies and TV shows with Black people in them.

    But this barely happened, but just enough to annoy my friends and I.

30. I have lived in three Latin American countries. Locals seemed to know on sight that I was a gringo, but visiting Americans always attempted to speak to me in Spanish.

31. As long as they don’t confuse me for a Canadian I’m cool

32. I don’t think I’d have a reaction bc I don’t think I’d care.

33. I’d ask what an American is supposed to look like, and promptly dismiss their answer.

34. Indifferent

35. Considering how ignorant non-Americans are about the US believing everything they see on tiktok and the internet, it wouldnt surprise me if they couldnt comprehend the difference between ethnicity and nationality.

36. I studied in the Netherlands for a semester and on the last day of class I mentioned to my (also foreign) professor that my family was flying over from the US to meet me. He said “oh you’re American?? I just assumed you were Dutch.” I talked to him every day of class in my clearly not Dutch accent and wore an ASU sports hoodie and backwards baseball cap to class everyday… I didn’t have much of a reaction but I was pretty surprised he hadn’t picked up in it immediately, much less over 6 months of interaction.

37. Lol, As a blasian in the UK. This happens all the time.

38. Well I wasnt born in America anyway but I would ask them “What are we sposed to look like?”

39. I know many people who have been to Europe who have been told that there. Europeans still don’t seem to understand that Americans can have any background or multiculturalism.

40. Here in Uganda, a lot of people kind of assumed I’m Ugandan because I’m black. If people knows that there’s a foreigner was coming, then they can pretty quickly identify me as an outisider. I’ve had a person ask “where are you **really** from?”, but most people can tell I’m American immediately when I start speaking.

    I was talking to someone here and show them a picture of me with a few other Americans, we all of us looking different than each other. I didn’t think much of it, but they really notes how we all didn’t look like each other. So I’m assuming they have a wider view of who an American can be.

41. “well, this is what Americans look like”

    Diversity, mfs

42. As a visibly brown Latino-looking person, I’d probably start by asking why in a snarky tone.