Trying to rent Tokyo apartments as a non-Japanese (with some Japanese language when I started, in my 30s, with a job and valid residence status). Got shot down so many times. Technically illegal but good luck proving it was based on race to get any relief from it.
I look really young. Like I’m 40 but routinely pass for early 20s or even late teens if I do my makeup with that aim.
I get carded buying alcohol a lot. I hated it until I was about 27, and it really started to make me feel great! Especially once my gray hair started growing in (I dye it regularly so nobody really sees them, but I know they’re there). If all you’re trying to do is guess how old I am from how I look, I will love your answer.
But people often judge my experience or expertise as if I am only as old as I look when I am really twice that age. I hate when people assume I’m the office assistant or new hire when I’m the Assistant Director. I had physical therapy for several months due to a chronic shoulder injury, and the old ladies there loved to tell (not ask) me that physical therapy must be so easy for me as if my joints aren’t fucked and my pain and effort aren’t real. Still pisses me off so much.
And don’t get me started on the creepy old guys who see legal jail bait…eugh.
I’m Hispanic, used to live in a red part of NY. Have been profiled by cops many, many, many times.
One time the cops gave me FIVE tickets for driving without insurance, while they held my active insurance in their hands. I lost sooo many days of work and almost lost my license fighting that shit.
Another time they pulled me over and spent 20 minutes on the side of the road trying to interrogate me to give me a DUI. I was perfectly sober and was coming home from a long trip with my dog. They also kept insinuated that my dog was dangerous over the radio (shiba inu, she was curled up asleep)
I’m sure those cops are still on the job and only got a slap on the wrist though.
Slightly. Not in a terrible, life-altering kind of way, but just enough to make me think, “Oh, that’s what that’s like.”
I live in condo building and the average resident here is very old, very religious, and very conservative. No joke, several Lyft drivers have asked me, “So, is this a retirement home? I always thought this was a retirement home.” When I moved in as a 26 year old guy with long hair and a ponytail, I did not fit the vibe.
I was changing my bicycle tire in the parking garage and a woman stormed up to me, absolutely convinced that I did not belong there. She said that I needed to be a resident to be in there (so, assuming I wasn’t one), then started grilling me about what unit I lived in, how long I’d been there, etc. She must have thought I was stealing the bike, but taking a few minutes to change the tire first; you know, as one does.
It was an irritating but short exchange, and she left quickly. But it still put me in a mood for like half an hour afterwards. And it got me thinking: if you’re a minority, you probably get that all the time. Like, you don’t even have time to cool down from the last exchange before someone does it to you again.
I’m black. Been judged and profiled my whole life.
I wanna punch racists and Nazis so bad.
Why the fuck do you think you’re better or worse depending on your skin color or ethnic background?
This is basic biology, how you are is almost completely disconnected from what you look like.
I’m so sorry for all that stuff. Hope you found a way to deal with it.
I deal with it through a lifetime of developing thick skin, education, and comedy.
The occasional threat of handing out 3/5’s of an ass whooping helps as well.
Admirable
I’m Jewish.
I once heard someone use the phrase “Saul to Paul” in front of one of my Jewish neighbors and I wanted to just shrink down to the size of a molecule so that I could float away.
My brother and I got randomly selected for extra screening before getting on the plane. The entire line of random people are not white, what are the odds?
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Then why are you commenting?
Fair point, I can see how this does not add to the conversation. Sometimes I forget I am not legitimately supposed to answer with a negative.
It’s an understandable mistake regardless, but just for your reference, the “What is your story?” at the end informally indicates it only wants affirmative answers because that’s how you’d have a “story” to tell in this regard. There are often hints like that in a question like this.
My wife came to Canada because her and her pilot father Mohammad had their immigration status to NYC revoked in 2001. You can guess why. A win in retrospect, but not at the time
Not necessarily bad, there’s something about the combination of looking non-threatening and decisive walk that makes people ask for directions and/or assume I work there. It’s great for tailgating too. I’ve walked into at least two restricted areas just by accident.
Honestly, I’d more judge you for microwaving tea.
Holy shit I thought I was the only one who did that. Works great at bars and restaurants especially in college towns. If you pretty much act like I was already here then you can skip the charge and everything. Though of course I always buy bouncers a drink no matter what city I am in.
I look like I’m straight out of school, sometimes people explain things to me like I know nothing.
Not that I think they’re automatically malicious. Sometimes I find myself in the “explaining” position because I think not explaining makes me sound I’m cooped in an ivory tower.
it’s always a gamble when trying to share knowledge.
I’ll even ask people on the job if they know something and they just reflexively say yes when they absolutely do not.
LOL my brother and I were having a discussion just now about our Ivory Towers…He works in police and his real higher up always wear white shirts. I work kinda in the same field as an RN and I have to answer to a doctor who wears white or if I royally fuck up and the hospital has to take responsibility I answer to a room full of them.
I weigh like 115 pounds and I’m like 5’7. So I feel like those toxic masculinity dudes always want me to “prove my worth” a little extra cause of my size. Everywhere I go people call me “kid”, but I’m a father of 3.
I wanted nothing to do with those dudes, so I never ran into this problem. Masculinity standards are dumb and pointless; it’s a mug’s game.
I dont either, but the only place that even called me back for their IT position was a construction company and the name of the game is work or starve for us poors.
I’m a big guy and small guys are always trying to prove themselves against me ever since I can remember. this toxic shit has got to go.
Its probably some sort of vicious cycle. Especially if the small guy is still dealing with past biases. Now I pretty much announce I’m nuthin’ but a nerd so you won’t get far talking to me about sports. This seems to kill a lot of toxic competition unless they’re in my same department.
I grew up non-christian in a small town. It was bad.
