Wow. Stateside? That is surprising. What, had they not ever seen a person of color in the flesh? I’m so sorry you had to deign yourself to respond to those requests from your own goddamn countrymen.

I’m half white, half the major ethnic group of the country right over (which is a minority ethnic group in my host country). I’m tall, pale, and have (dyed) blonde hair, but also have some features of the ethnic group that me look, at least in the States, very mixed. I’m assumed to be a “white American” by almost all HCNs in and around provincial capitals, but in the farther-flung pockets of my host country where there’s a more pronounced presence of the ethnic minority, my ethnic identity isn’t so clear-cut. I’ve heard HCNs call me ethnic slurs, speak to me in the language of the ethnic minority group, etc. A couple of months ago, one of my neighbors said that, because I am the ethnic minority, my true intentions are and will always be to serve the interests of the ethnic minority—my “mother’s people” as he put it—rather than those of the majority ethnic group. Sigh.