would you be offended if you were mistaken from the countries in category A vs countries in category B or vice versa? Why? Why not? which country would offend you the most? or would neither offend you?
There is a deeper meaning behind this thread than appears obvious. I will reveal all at the end.
Category A: Person from Nepal, Sri Lanka, Mauritaus, Mali, Maldives, Haiti, Tanzanian, Burundi, Madagascar, Samoan, Comoros, Cape Verde, Tuvalu and Maldives.
Category B: Italian, Greek, Iranian, White American/British, Spanish, Jordanian, Saudi Arabian, Colombian, South American, French or Emirati
Re: Does this offend you? Or would you not be offended at all?
There was a thread on whether people have been taken for being Pakistani. So i thought why not a thread on if people have been mistaken for other nationalities. Does it make a difference if one is mistaken for a subcontinental country or from particular continents compared to others? Do we have an automatic hierarchy of beauty or assumptions in our mind when we think of countries. What if we see on surface level is not the same on a deeper level? I have removed contentious countries so political issues don’t make an impact. All countries are neutral countries.
Being offended is not a requirement. One can say they are not offended by either classification. But basically people are free to say what they feel within the bounds of the GS guidelines.
There is also a commonality between countries in category A compared to B which i will reveal soon.
Come on yaar general mein naye threads banana hai. kuch kar ke dikhana hai. Some mystery and some suspense.
Re: Does this offend you? Or would you not be offended at all?
ok i guess the moment has passed for such a thread. If you feel it is not appropriate then you can delete it No offence was intended..I just wanted to mention other subcontinental countries rather the typical ones and see if it made a difference to whether people would mind being mistaken for them.
Re: Does this offend you? Or would you not be offended at all?
Post number 7 appears to be a trick post. Meant to confuse OP. The said poster surely is aware that one doesn’t have to be from a place to be mistaken for being from that place.
Personaly, as long as folks place me in this yug, as opposed to say tretayug, that would be a good day.
Re: Does this offend you? Or would you not be offended at all?
but what if you were mistaken as someone from one of those places based on known physical characteristics? Based on your knowledge of how people from there are like, would you be offended?
Re: Does this offend you? Or would you not be offended at all?
Personally, I’m not offended by being confused for either of the two categories. Contrary to popular opinion, not everyone has the means or opportunity to travel and meet different people or lives in a diverse area where they are exposed to different cultures/ethnicities, so it stands to reason that people who don’t may not know what different ethnicities look like and I think it is unfair to hold them responsible for things they’ve never been exposed to.
Re: Does this offend you? Or would you not be offended at all?
i assumed people here would be pakistani, indian, bangladeshi or afghani so i chose other countries from the subcontinent. Countries without any history
Re: Does this offend you? Or would you not be offended at all?
anyhow, I won’t be offended. People usually mistake me for spanish or just walk up to me and start talking in spanish lol. I would just correct them but sometimes it gets terribly annoying. I would say Latin American lol
To answer your second question I don’t know. I will be amused I guess. I have been mistaken for Greek, Hispanic, Turkish, Israeli, Arab for when I used to wear a Hijab. Once for an Indian cause I had Henna on my hands & even a native American.
But I might as well be mistaken for countries in Group A & as I said I will be amused. Its interesting to note what’s going on in the person’s mind who is judging your country of origin. Depending on what country/group they mistake you for will give you great insight on the kind of general knowledge they have.
I wouldn’t be offended though. They are just countries. As long as no one thinks I look like an ape, I will be fine.
Re: Does this offend you? Or would you not be offended at all?
Okay, first of all…how likely is it for a Pakistani to be taken as a Haitian? Even if it is a very dark skinned Pakistani, there is still a marked difference between the features of the two races. Same with Burundi. To an extent, same with Nepal…if you take the eyes. How often would a Desi be taken as a Nepali? You did not factor this in, it seems.
The most common assumption assumption I’ve gotten for my looks is Indian, a few times a person guessed correctly that I’m Pakistani, A few times I’ve gotten Arab..more specifically Saudi…I’ve gotten Hispanic…and maybe even Trinidad or Guyana. These guesses didn’t bother me. If someone thought I was Haitian, I think I’d be more confused/surprised by their deduction skills than offended. I think some of the countries on your list don’t make sense for the reason I’ve mentioned above.
Now, though there will be exceptions…I think the general tendency of people would be to feel more pleased with the latter group. I don’t know what the purpose of the this thread is though it appears to be a favorite and redundant topic. Is it to prove that people are biased? Yup, they are. You already knew that, OP. It’s not right and even the best among us have biases, sometimes we’re not even aware of them. But, yes, people are biased and you already knew that, don’t think an online experiment was necessary.
Re: Does this offend you? Or would you not be offended at all?
I have an agenda? Guess i havent been called indian agent recently for no reason. All great answers so far. Let’s see if more people reply first..if i mention the real reason then the answer may change. or it may not.
maybe you can do the honours.
PS. Sri Lanka should not be in category A anymore.
Re: Does this offend you? Or would you not be offended at all?
True it would be rare for people to be mistaken for a Haitian or Nepali. Nepalis are also desis. But even then people from those countries have diverse features and people do migrate from different countries to different places. Some people in the US cannot differentiate desis from arabs or middle eastern people. Some people don’t even know how those of other cultures look like. Now if someone like that mistakes you then how would you feel is what i am after.
Why do you think people would be happier with the latter group? I guess it includes more well to do countries. We all have biases but how many of us question why those biases exist? What do we know about those little known countries that makes us prefer to dissociate with them and be associated with 1st world countries? Maybe category A may have different features but what if they have a heart of gold?
Re: Does this offend you? Or would you not be offended at all?
And why my post was ignored. I offered comments relevant to OP. Just because u receiving other responses don’t mean u cast others aside. U r off my MCF list.
kuch kar ke dikhana hai. Some mystery and some suspense.
No offence was intended..I just wanted to mention other subcontinental countries rather the typical ones and see if it made a difference to whether people would mind being mistaken for them.
Let’s see if more people reply first..if i mention the real reason then the answer may change. or it may not.