Shades After 071
This is one of those pages that just took aaaages and I have no idea why. Trying out that new crosshatching for a gradient effect- though I just checked the Patreon monthly level and we’re half way to the goal for me to get the latest version of manga studio and then I can gradient backgrounds to my hearts content!
I love her response – “in a hospital!” Such a perfect reply, lol.
I know, right? Little kids are so literal! :D
“Where does milk come from?”
“The grocery store!”
Oh, boy, the older sister is in full teenage bad mood. Take cover, everyone!
I’m waiting for the older one to make a snide, racist comment… Not that the “what about your parents” comment wasn’t vaguely racist. But still. Bracing for the worst.
It’s a bit more then vaguely racist. You never see a white person ask a white person that question. Not to impressed with Chris’ oldest right now.
I actually kind of get that question. Usually it’s “When did you move to Ireland?” or “What part of England do you come from?” My response that I was born here and have lived here all my life always throws them.
I blame my accent on BBC Radio 4.
TRiG.
In and of itself, the question is not racist or rude at all. I both ask and am asked that question all the time. I am white and ask the question regardless of ethnicity or race. Moreover, I kind of like getting the question. It’s pretty much standard small talk, at least in NYC. However, the older sibling seems to be acting like she’s trying to catch him at something nefarious so I think she is meant to have something negative in mind.
Actually, I do. Tall redheads aren’t common where I live, so as a pale person, I’m often asked this by other white people. It’s odd when I’m in a larger city and have the same accent as the locals, but still has happened a couple times. Once it may have been because I was eating with chopsticks.
Maybe the curry had something to do with her question? I also figure she might be innocently trying to make conversation, and not realise it’s rude.
Okay, apart from everything else, I cannot help but be amused comparing Anwar’s expression in the third panel to the teenager’s expression in the fourth panel.
Chris’ clones
teenagers! Oiy. I suspect a snark-war coming up.
Snark-war = Anwar in snark mode?
Good one! I was thinking a snark based war though
They are going to try and out-snark Anwar? Oo
Those poor damned fools. *shakes head remorsefully*
That kid has NO idea what she’s getting into. Anwar’s had JD to practice with, after all!
“Just the place for a Snark!” the Bellman cried,
As he landed his crew with care;
Supporting each man on the top of the tide
By a finger entwined in his hair.
“Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice:
That alone should encourage the crew.
Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice:
What I tell you three times is true.”
– From The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll
I hope Anwar says “In a hospital” in response to that silly racist claptrap. Or, I hope his parents were born in the states, too, so he can shut that one down, too. XD
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought the story was set in the UK?
We have a Birmingham over here, too! It is our Second City, if you will.
That’s irrelevant, since this story is absolutely and unambiguously set in the UK.
…Wow. I thought that level of racism was more-or-less limited to the Golden Years crowd.
I sincerely hope that she’s either being smart because her mum was ragging on Chris and Anwar’s relationship (I remember them meeting, and it being a little…tense) and she feels like she has to defend her mum, or she’s just in a full-blown teenage snit and calling out the one thing she thinks she can dig into him for. I hope she’s not really like what we’ve seen of her mother.
Well, taking into account that her first reaction to “non-white man at the door” was “hey, delivery guy”, I would prepare for the worst.
I didn’t even take the delivery guy thing as racist, but yeah, in retrospect it totally was. I thought it was because he had curry on him, but come to think of it as far as she knew it was just a bag and she assumed. I supposed she could have smelled it but yeah…
I’m not sure it was racist. She has no reason to assume that her dad would have invited anyone else over on the rare day his kids are over. In that context, it makes perfect sense to see an unexpected person at the door and assume dad had some food delivered. The “Indian guy = food must be curry” assumption could be racist, but like you said, he had a curry on him, so I don’t think it’s a stretch to believe that she was clued in some other way… maybe she could smell the curry, or the bag had a logo we just didn’t see, or something else of that sort.
Here, however, yeah, she’s being fairly racist. Pretty sure she’s doing it to be purposefully antagonistic, though. Not that that makes it better, but it is a different motivation.
yep, i was cringing from the last page.
Haha, oh man I *wish* it was just old people who did the Why Aren’t You White dance (popular steps include “where are your parents from”, “what about your grandparents”, and my favorite “I love exotic women”).
Hey, just wanted to ask a question there. I know many non-white people were born in primarily white countries, like Anwar here, but if you wanted to inquire about someone’s racial origins, how would you ask? I want to know because I really don’t want to offend anyone in asking that question, and I like to know people’s origins. I don’t mind those questions, but I know they can be insensitive to some and I want to ask in the most respectful manner!
I think the most respectful thing you can do is waiting for them to share. Usually, people who are proud of their origins and/or open to talking about them volunteer the info :)
or you could share first with an opening line like “I’ve been doing genealogical research and found out I have ancestors here and here” and see if they bite.
Nooooo. Don’t do that. The “I’m Irish & German & Italian” thing is honestly not… just don’t. If you want to know a polite way to ask, then ask a person of color directly how they would want such a subject brought up, and be aware that PoC are NOT a hivemind who all have the same opinion as to what would be polite.
My best method would honestly be to wait until you know someone a little better. You’ll better be able to gauge what they’re comfortable with.
Some people will naturally be better at phrasing questions like that, so it’s best to wait until you’re a little familiar with someone before you ask.
I typically don’t ask unless someone says “…my country” or “..where I’m from” ect
its really nonessentail information so I wait for it to come up. Although I also serm to have less “curiosity” about these things than most other white people.
Kiapdx- likewise not all white people are some mono-culture from the land of Whitelia, aren’t we also allowed to have roots? I’m also part Cherokee (for real) and I hate how I get that eyeroll look when I say it. The Cherokee got around a lot, the reason so many people say “I’m part Cherokee is because it’s true, we’re not trying to hitch a ride or get a pass, we want to be able to be acknowledged as what we are. The remainder is Scotts-Irish, why is that my fault I’m so pale?
I get the impression that you’re going to get very different answers to that question from people living in different countries, so you might want to state where you’re from.
(I field that question all the time, and I’m pretty white. I’m also Irish, but with no Irish ancestry that I know of.)
TRiG.
Generally, I’m not particularly interested in people’s racial origins, but am in their personal origins. In that case, “I’m trying to place your accent” can perhaps be a good way to begin. (I have conversations about my own weird hybrid accent all the bloody time.)
TRiG.
If they have an accent I ask out of curiosity (and that tends to happen for people of many different skin tones). I think that’s pretty acceptable, though someone correct me if I’m wrong? Otherwise I just assume that they ae from the country unless they say anything to suggest otherwise.
Yup, this is how people try to circumvent sounding overtly racist. Rather than ask where the color of your skin comes from, they’ll come at you sideways and ask where you were born… and if that’s somewhere local, then they ask where your parents are from… and if that’s also local, they usually get frustrated.
I feel like POCs aren’t *allowed* to just be “American” or “British”, they have to be from somewhere else. Which is a load of bullshit of course, particularly in the US since 99% of the population is an immigrant or a descendant of one, but for some reason we have to emphasize the foreign roots of POCs. Which is dumb because I have white friends who are either only first generation American or not even that but nobody asks them about their heritage, but Latino, East Asian, and Middle Eastern friends who have been here longer than my family has and they’re always asked where they’re from.
I just always say London and then smirk because I KNOW they’re chomping at the bit to say ‘BUT WHERE ARE YOU *FROM*’ and I just keep saying London until they stop. It’s annoying, so bloody othering. Just ask me ‘why are you Black?’ and be done with it*.
*Don’t actually ask me why i’m Black.
My husband does the same thing. And he has a very slight “not from around here” accent so people know he’s not from the local county he always answers and it confuses people to no end. If he’s feeling charitable he makes them guess where he was born. I don’t think anyone has gotten it right so far.
I also do the same thing when people ask if I’m gay.
“What do you think?” I ask smugly.
Then I watch with amusement as they flounder around and realize that I’ve just made them feel the same way they just made me feel: put on the spot.
This. I’m American, and I honestly don’t understand “African American” or “Asian American”. You’re just American. You might have history/family in different parts of the world, but what type of American (again, I’m from the US, I can’t speak for other countries) shouldn’t be defined by how you look.
That said, allegedly my family is from German/England/Scotland, but the only place I feel any affinity towards is Scotland because my Gran was FOB.
my boyfriend’s “favorite” question to be asked (by full-grown adults that should know better, no less) is “So, what ARE you?” his usual response is “a human” but sometimes he gets cheeky and says he’s a velociraptor :3 in my experience, white people in a predominantly white culture are very bad at not being racist, even those with good intentions such as myself. if you haven’t been taught correctly or been exposed to other cultures/religions/ethnicities much, it’s really easy to say the wrong thing… i’ve flubbed up here and there, but i’ve learned from my mistakes, and i think that’s the important part :)
Reminds me of when we had a black girl join our school. She was the first non-white person I’d ever met, and probably the same for most, if not all the class. We were in year 4 and 5, so around 10 years old.
One of the girls in my class eventually asked, “Where does Crystal come from?”
The teacher looked puzzled and started explaining about minerals and molten rock in a very basic way.
“No, no, no. Not crystal, Crystal! The girl!”
There wasn’t any harm meant by it, for us in a small village out in the Suffolk countryside, it was just curiosity. I don’t think I met another non-white person except yer mother until I was 12 and went to a day and boarding school with many overseas students. Even so I didn’t knowingly meet anyone who practiced Islam until I moved out at 17.
Cultural and racial awareness isn’t inate, especially if you live with people with less than favorable views. I don’t see anything racist in the younger kid’s words, after all she did call him “Mr ‘War”. The older one perhaps so.
Anwar should take a page from the youngest kid’s book and reply “A hospital”
It’s funny, down here in southern California, people will straight up ask “What ethnicity are you?” just like that, no beating around the bush. Yet somehow his kids’ attempts at subtlety come across as way more insensitive. Probably something to do with that nasty hostility.
Well the little one probably doesn’t know big words like “Ethnicity”, and on her part it’s probably just plain old curiosity. When I was her age I asked dumb questions like that because I was curious why there were people who didn’t look like me and my family. I remember being in first or second grade and asking a classmate if she was from China, and she glared at me and screamed in my face “I’M. KOREAN.” And that’s the day I learned there were other East Asian countries besides China and I should learn the bloody difference if I wanted to live XD
But Chris’s oldest is just being a little snot. I doubt she’s being racist, I think she’s just pissed that this jerk is crashing in on her dad-time since she doesn’t get to see him a lot anymore. We don’t know what his relationship with his kids are like, he could be a great dad and loved by his kids and the fact they can’t see him as much probably hurts them just as much as it hurts Chris.
But yeah, people asking “where are you from?” and not being satisfied with a local answer KNOW that asking for your ethnicity is kind of rude but they don’t want to *be* rude, and really that kind of dishonesty is more annoying to me than just straight up asking what ethnicity you are. Funnily enough thoguh, where I lived we asked EVERYONE their ethnicity, whether you were POC or White. I think because we were such a mixed community as it was it didn’t seem like such a big deal. Asians would ask me what my ethnicity was (Irish and Italian) and I’d ask theirs and we never took offense, unless we got it wrong. We also had International day where we were supposed to bring in food from our ethnic background so we always ended up learning eachother’s heritages’ whether we asked or not. But food is a great way to break the ice and appreciate each other’s cultures. :)
Older kid’s intent to be racist is actually irrelevant. The end result is that she’s saying a racist thing that Anwar has to deal with, which is not okay. (I have no doubt that Anwar can shut her down with a well-placed snark bomb. He’s probably learned several good snarky comebacks to this question over the years. But he shouldn’t have to.)
No, obviously what’s she saying isn’t okay, but I don’t think she’s saying it because she’s racist. I think she’s just mad that this stranger is crashing in on her dad-time and race is the easiest target she could think of. If Anwar was white she’d find a different reason to pick on him.
I am 100% sure the elder one is being a little snot on purpose, and trying to be offensive in order to get a reaction.
The younger one strikes me as younger than 8 and is probably just not aware what she said can be rude (cause in my experience children don’t learn that until 8-10 depending on how they’re raised).
I hope we get their names & ages soon so we can all know for sure.
Hmm. This could get interesting. I feel somehow that ‘War will know how to handle this, though Older-Mini-Chris is pushing it. Then again… that’s just what teenagers do, right?
I really dont see why it has to be a racist thing from Chris child to ask that. I mean, she is a teenager, as long as I know, teenagers can be curious, right? And the delivery guy thing, why couldnt she just assume based on the few clues she had? Is not like she was having lot of time to figure out who Anwar was. If I see a chinise person on my door, carrying a bag of something that smells like food, I would think he is de Chifa delivery guy.
I guess it is something common for people in the USA, Canadá, UK, France and so to be very carefull about racist comments. People tend to offend faster in this countries, I think, cause, at least in Perú, we dont take much offense when someone call us negro/a (used for black people), cholo/a (used for people with ethnic features), gringo (used for foreigners, but not every foreiger). We take offence when the intention is to be disrespecfull. I dont know if Chris child is trying to be disrespecfull, guess we will have to see a little more of her interaction toward War to conclude something.
Also, I think that the way Blue Coyote suggest to start a conversation about origins is cool. Even asking with a direct question is cool. There is people who will feel confortable talking about it, someones who will not, but there is not a formula to start that conversation. When I ask about it, I just say my motive: curiosity. When someone ask me about it, I really dont mind responding at all.
Honestly I’ve been asked where I’m from almost my whole life, with the exception of between the ages of 10-21, because I just lived in one city and took on the accent.
But I’ve moved around a lot, and my accent is a bit weird.
I’m white and I’ve only ever lived in Western European countries. I’ve gone to international schools. Every job I’ve had – after being hired – I’ve been asked where I’m from. Because everyone else – or almost everyone else – was from somewhere else, most of the time.
After you’ve lived in a place for 3 years, it’s usually simpler to just say that’s where you’re from, whether it’s technically true or not. I know nothing about the city I was born in! My family moved away before I could speak! My identity has *nothing* to do with that place.
And I’m a language teacher, and every single student I’ve ever had has asked me where I’m from. It’s small talk.
It’s only when they don’t believe you and go “No REALLY where are you FROM” that it’s racist.
So wait, does Anwar have a Brummie accent? XD