Not trying to be contrarian or anything, but this also doesn't seem like the right attitude to me... Like, what does the blood in your veins have to do with anything? Using terms like that, wouldn't that exclude the author from being a 'real' American as well?
It does rais the question of 'why' we are mad at Frank. I don't think the point should be that 'Frank, isn't Vietnamese, so he should keep his mouth shut' but rather that we shouldn't try to determine for others, what it means tot be part of a community / ethnicity. And let people decide that for themselves.
I have a friend who is half Japanese / half British, grew up in England and now moved back to Japan, but barely knows anything about the country and I know someone who's parents are both American but she has only ever lived in Japan. Both carry that as a part of their identity, and no one should be trying to determine who is the 'real' one, because how you identify with your heritage, is also more then just the colour of your skin or where your parents came from.
Think we are getting away from the conversation here
First and foremost the whole point of being an American "is to be an immigrant from a different county that wants to come to America for any reason, though chief of those is better opportunities, to chase the mythical American Dream."
I say this in air quotes because the current administration is trying their damndest to make the above not true (unless you are white that is), but that is the proper definition of an American.
As such there is NO one American blood(except for the people we stole the land from in the first place but this is a digression) . This would be like asking what the original flavor of Dr. Pepper is. It supposed to be a mish mash of cultures and ideas. In the first place.
Frank here thought he could educate this Vietnamese person on his heritage thinking he was qualified to talk about their issues because he loved in Vietnam for a bit and has a Vietnamese wife.
I don't really care how long he was in Vietnam because it's not the same as actually being apart of that race and experiencing its ups and down for himself (hence my the in blood statement).
If he really gave a shit about actually educating writer man about his heritage (which isn't up to him to decide seeing as he never grew or has personal experience being Vietnamese) then he could have introduced his wife to the writer and let her do the talking. Then maybe everyone could have learned something and Frank wouldn't have made an ass of himself.
But Frank didn't care about the culture in the first place! Frank wanted to get his rocks off by demonstrating his "superior knowledge" for Vietnam to a Vietnamese person! And then when he thought that writer man's knowledge was insufficient (it's not) he came to the false conclusion that He isn't a very good Vietnamese person.
This is why we are mad at Frank.
the last two paragraphs are Frank completely overstepping his bounds and why I mentioned the blood in the post. He shouldn't be trying to do any of this because it's literally not his issue.
I do see the point that my initial post was rather I'll thought out especially compared to this one, so I'll revise it.
...Man, I've heard that exact same line from racist people telling me I'll never actually be Canadian no matter how I grew up here. Like I don't mean to be confrontational here, but maybe don't use this exact line in the future?
Like I understand the thought of "Hey, don't try to tell someone from the country you immigrated to about their own culture in a condescending tone because what the fuck you weirdo" but "Unless you got the blood in your veins it's not your place!" is literally the kind of shit immigrants are bullied with here, usually a step before "Go back to your country!"
Like, Frank is an idiot. But can we like, not?
Ok, I can see how my wording maybe problematic but let me point out something
Those Canadians are high tier dumbasses because Being Canadian is an
nationality, NOT a race. So long as your papers are good that's it. They might claim you won't fit in, They might even hate looking at you (some of my experiences there) but that wouldn't make you any less Canadian.
It's very different to say someone doesn't belong to a nation (this is a legal term) than to say someone doesn't belong to a
race.
The whole reasoning behind my initial post is that Frank was too busy thinking about showing off than to actually think about weither or not he should even be having this conversation. The race would speak on its own issues for themselves, similar to Right now, people who are Caucasian that actually gave a shit were standing aside and letting us speak for ourselves. Rather than trying to lord over people.
I wanted to express that if Frank gave a shit he would have let Vietnamese people express themselves instead of trying to teach them about their own culture
But I'm no Frank. I get what you guys are laying down. I'll scrub the original post and you guys can leave the quotes unaltered.
