Welcome to Saturday Morning Cartoons, a segment where four artists take turns delighting you with their whimsy, facts and punchlines on Saturday mornings! Our esteemed cartoon critters are Cameron Glavin, Anna Bongiovanni, Megan Prazenica and Yao Xiao. Today’s cartoon is by Cameron.
HAAAAAAAAAAA
I usually just say Everywhere, if I bother answering. I’ve had people literally try to start guessing games with me or “detect” my accent. It’s super obnoxious!
Haha, word! My accent is one that marvels, even me! I love leading them off the guessing game by throwing the most obscure heritage of mine into the conversation.
It annoys me sooo much when people act as if I have an accent just because I’m not white. The only accent I have is Californian, and these people can rest assured that my stuttering does not prevent me from having a much better grasp of English AND Chinese than they do!
this is wonderful XD
<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 THIS COMIC.
i love this so much. least favourite question – “no, where you from FROM?”
OHIO
I created an account just to comment. I have All The Feels about this. As an ambiguously ethnic person, I refuse to answer these questions as well. You don’t know what you’re asking when you ask someone their background. I have friends who are white-looking but are products of abuse and rape. I have friends who have been subject to the worst kind of treatment by members of their own ethnic/religious/cultural groups. Everytime someone feels the need to satisfy their cursory curiosity by poking into subjects that are really none of their concern it brings me and them back to that place. It reminds them of rhat pain. Ask yourself if it’s worth satisfying, for you what is, simple curiosity if it means causing another person distress. Do you really NEED that information? Is it going to change anything about how you treat that person. If the answers is ‘I didn’t mean anything by it (intent doesn’t make a material difference)/I was just curious(you don’t have the right to know everything especially as it concerns the private information of another person and especially since you don’t know WHAT you are asking; you ask what is your background? The other person hears ‘tell me about your abuser/tell me informayion that requires you to delve into intensely personal subject matter in order to answer your ‘simple question’/I have no problem telling you my background! (Your comfort level in answering this type of question has no relevance to mine and often it’s because you are a member of a majority and have not been ‘othered’ your whole life) bottom line, if it is freely offered that’s one thing, if not mind your own beeswax. Please. Really.
LOVE THIS SO MUCH!!!!
<3
Hahaha. Some white dude in my class thought he was so clever the other night when he asked me, apropos of nothing, “Hannah, are you first generation American?”
No dude. All of my people came here on boats. Some of their own volition. Many not so willingly.
Oh man the clever ones! I feel like those are the same white people that when asked say that they have some Scandinavian, Germanic, and 1/18th Cherokee in them. Oh and they’re all related to that one dude from Napoleon’s army.
^This is me. Love you too <3 :-D
My favorite are the ones who guess up a world tour and when they finally get it smugly say “I knew it!” Well done.
Yes!! I especially like the ones who feel like after they’ve gotten an answer have to mention that “oh I have a friend/dude in my classes/mom’s friend’s husband from [country], and we get along really well!”
And then the rest of the conversation…
‘yes, tell me more about your holiday to [south-east asian country]’
‘i’m very happy for you that you like [name of quasi-asian dish]’
Again, SUCH a great comic. All the love and appreciation, your no. 1 fan
Love this, I’ve been there too. I love the way you describe it as ‘someone’s personal exotic puzzle to solve’, that’s exactly it!
Embarrassingly, it actually took me a long time to realise this wasn’t a thing everyone was asked! I just assumed it was like a discussion point. It wasn’t until one day I was talking to my brother, who inherited none of the ‘ethnic’ features, and he said that no one had EVER asked him where he was from.
Does anyone know how to cross stitch? “Don’t answer stupid questions” is obviously the best mantra of all time (regarding race, sexuality, everything), and I’m going to need it embroidered and framed on my wall, asap.
One thing I’m so excited about in moving over to the US is that when people ask me “Where are you from?” it will be in reference to my accent, and when I say “New Zealand” it will be an ACCEPTABLE ANSWER