Wow... I never knew that. And here all along I thought people were trying to be friendly to me when they said "Ni hao ma". Just wondering, I know a little bit of Spanish and greetings in other languages and if I meet someone who speeks that langauge I will try to greet them or thank them with it such as saying "Gracias" to Spanish speakers, "Selemat" to Malay speakers or "Asasamalaikum" to Muslims. Would people really take that as offensive or mocking? My feeling is it was being respectful.
to clarify, when I heard it, he was behind me and was walking away as he said it. this is the standard way peope use it as a taunt or insult. if they wanted to be polite, they'd look at my face and say it instead of hiding behind my back and doing that. again, i don't know if he said it or not, which is why i acknowledged my overreaction to that. but as for the ne hao ma stuff itself, that is a definete putdown. put it this way, do you go behind random mexicans and yell "arriba la raza"? How could that ever be passed off as being polite or not mocking?
^ Well I don't go up to random Mexicans yelling "arribe la raza!" or anything else for that matter so I will agree with you context matters. OTOH though you admitted that you weren't completely sure there weren't other Asians around and I presume you weren't looking directly at this person when he said it so you can't be sure he was directing it at you. The thing I don't understand though is why a greeting in someone's language by someone who isn't of that ethnicity would be offensive. I guess its all in the delivery Regarding the presumptions by non-Asians regarding particular ethnicity I've experienced that quite a bit but in general don't find it that offensive. For whatever reason I'm frequently mistaken for being Japanese even in Asian by other Chinese, and even in Japan by Japanese. Just the other day I was talking to a white person who thought I was Korean and the Vietnamese deli I go to people always try to talk to me in Vietnamese. In general I consider these honest mistakes since I'm not pure Han Chinese, speak with an American accent and have a very unusual name for an East Asian. Like you though I've had to deal with racist slurs and stereotypes all my life but in general try not to get upset about questionable things like what your situation sounded like. Regarding racial stereotyping though the one thing that really does piss me off is people who think that I only like the Rockets because of Yao. I've been a fan of the Rockets for longer than Yao has been alive.
I've had different people say that to me while giving me a bow with clenched fists. It's somewhat offensive, but I guess they were trying to be funny or cute. So I say something racially cute about them and they get offended. I guess it is in the delivery. I think you overreacted, Hotballa. If the guy wanted to be racist, he'd say something like, "ching chang chong." Some people don't know what to think of Asians other than them being quiet or timid. It's their ignorant ass icebreaker. You either talk to them or rebuke them with a glare.
Hotballa, at first I thought you overreacted, but after the clarifications and a couple of the earlier incidences with those black teens, I changed my mind, I think you're just kind of fed up with those ignorant bastards, I can totally understand that. Did I read somewhere that the VT shooter endure racial taunts and humiliations while in the Virginia school system?
I'm a Filipino-American living in the UK, it's bad enough that no one, even Filipinos, can guess what I am. What's worse though is when a British person hears me talk and they say, "Are you Canadian?" But back to the original post, the whole "Ni Hao" thing is kind of worse here, because we get a whole lot of British people just randomly saying it to me and I'm not even Chinese. My own reply would usually consist of my fake british accent saying "Top of the mornin', to ya." Most of the time though they mean well so I just smile and let it go.
man I can't even joke about that. I need to let these things go next time unless they're all up in my face about it. pride + anger + ignorance = stupidity all around, I need to get myself out of that equation. Time to go re-read Acts.
I believe he did and while racism is a societal problem it is still up to the individual to restrain themselves from there worst impulses. Calling someone on what you think is offensive is one thing but letting it get to you to the point where you go on a random shooting spree is another.
I think society has gone too far when we routinely say something as innocuous as asking how someone is doing is offensive. Why don't we reserve our umbrage for the times when someone says something actually offensive. If a person asked me how I was doing, even if that was all the English they could muster, I would be fine with it. As for the counter-examples hotballa gave, those are way off base. Ni hao ma assumes nothing more than that you speak Chinese (Mandarin?). What up blood, assumes that the person you are addressing is some kind of gangster or thug. How was your vodka comrade assumes alcoholism and communism. A better example would be saying Wie gehts? to a person that appears German.
amen. its getting ridiculous how quickly people are getting 'offended' by such mundane things. personally, i find it offensive.
Why would you care either way? Is everyone supposed to know the difference between Americans/Canadians or Japanese/Koreans? Should we have to take standardized tests to make sure we know? Again, if I was in a foreign country and someone asked me if I was British (because of my skin color), I would laugh and say "no, I'm from America." That would be the end of it. I certainly wouldn't be angry.
