I've worked at this one Chinese restaurant for almost 7 years....
One time, I brought a pot of tea to a table of two. A grown man, late 40s, exclaimed, "Hey! You're not Chinese!"
How astute. And, classy, too.
But...this is America, Sir. Maybe I am Chinese...at least maybe just a little bit Chinese.
"How did you get a job here?!"
"Equal Employment Opportunity."
...And, I happen to be a kick-ass server.
Two weeks ago...
Me: "Good afternoon, how are you doing today?"
Old female WASP: "Are you Chinese?"
Me: "No ma'am, I am not."
Old female WASP: "Oooh good!"
I don't know what that was about.
I'm not the kind of server who introduces herself; I don't care about
you, you don't care about me--now, what do you want to eat? (You don't need to know my name in order for me to provide excellent service.) But sometimes,
the patrons are nosey and start asking me dumb things like,
"Where are you
from?"
"I grew up in New Jersey."
"No, I mean...where were you born?"
I always try to project a pleasant disposition in these
situations, but I'm pretty sure the customer can sense that I'm not
really smiling anymore...I'm baring my teeth.
"I was born in Los Angeles." I'm well aware that this is not the answer to the question they intended to ask. And, sometimes they just drop it.
Usually, however, they continue to pry.
"Are you from around here?"
"I've lived in Richmond since 2001."
"Are you Spanish?"
"No."
"Where are your parents from?"
"My mother is from the Philippines, and my father is from Chicago." Finally, an answer they're satisfied with; it's the key to understanding my complexion.
The question, "What are you?" still irks me, but at least the person is closer to saying what they mean to say. I believe the appropriate question is, "What is your ethnic background?"
Sometimes I feel like what they really want to say is, "Why don't your eyes look like those of everyone else in this restaurant? You don't fit in. I came here for an authentic Asian experience."
this is kind of random but on one of the shows I was watching, Breaking Amish, one of the girls was half Puerto-Rican and went to work at a Puerto-Rican restaurant in New York. It turned out that they only hired people that looked Hispanic (not necessarily Puerto-Rican) and then the girl ended up getting in trouble because she didn't know Spanish. Her boss got an attitude with her like "well obviously you look Hispanic, you should know Spanish" and I think she ended up losing the job. It made no sense to me and even though I understand that they wanted it to be an authentic Puerto-Rican experience I didn't see why they needed to make such a big deal about the appearance of their employees and get mad at them for not knowing Spanish. It sounds very similar to your experiences and I wonder how many places in the U.S operate that way or have people that think that way.
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