Jelita McLeod is half-Caucasian and half-Asian. This mixture of ethnicities has caused her a great deal of annoyances over the years that don't cease at the end of a conversation with a stranger. People are constantly going up to her to ask what race she is. It's amazing people feel they can ask for this information and that for whatever reason it's less private than other identity markers such as height and weight. She said that it's almost always strangers asking and some are far more clever in their wording than others. However they choose to phrase the question, her answer is always the same.
What does change are people's reactions to her responses. People often reacted as if they had guessed incorrectly and were disappointed in themselves. This sort of reminds me of when people guess dog breeds in public...I just never thought people would be guessing human breeds! Her least favorite reaction is when people suddenly don't feel a connection they were thinking they might have had if she had been the ethnicity they were guessing. For example, an Asian person might assume she's Asian and ask, only to be visibly disappointed with the response. Suddenly, because of her answer, she is not the same person as who the question was asked to initially.
What's interesting about all this is that people are clearly not "color blind" as most would hope to claim. If one were to truly identify as such, they would never ask anyone about their ethnic identity, for they wouldn't notice any differences between the individual and them self. Even though these strangers aren't necessarily asking questions because they are being racist, they are certainly highlighting differences between them and making this author feel super uncomfortable! This makes me feel for those with mixed backgrounds who appear as such - people will likely think about their ethnicity rather than being able to readily identify it and simply move on.
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