Being Misunderstood

Ok, now i may not be an expert in identifying which part of the world a person comes from, but what i do know is that i should not assume. If i am not sure, i rather shut up than get myself embarassed. Honestly i cannot differentiate between someone from USA and England. Oh yes, the accent could be a big give away but minus the accent, they all look alike. The same goes for someone from China and someone from Japan or Korea. Maybe im a little ignorant, but i know im not the only one.

Something really funny happened a few weeks ago. I was with a group of friends and were just chatting along and then out of the blue one lady changes the topic and says, "hey, i just noticed that your birthday falls on 9/11 and your from the middle east. Wow...!! What are the odds of that?? ha ha ha". There was dead silence in the room. Some of my friends felt offended and thought that i might too. I smiled but was laughing inside. No one said a word and neither did I. We left and soon it got me thinking, "what did she mean?" "Did she think that the attacks came from my country." "Did she envision me wearing that black jacket you see in the picture above?". I still laugh when i think of that and so do some of my friends. I just call it ignorance. One comedian one said, "75% of american children cant find earth....... on the map on earth." This topic came up again among my friends today. We were out at starbucks sipping on coffee and somehow the topic turned to someones someone who long ago knew someone who was an immigrant and was illegal. Hearing this one of my friends commented, "He should be Deported" and almost immediately she turned to me with an embarassed look and began to apoligize. Her face turns red. Why on earth was she apologizing to me? Did she think i was illegal in this country? Did she think that i deserved to be deported? Surely there was nothing in that to offend me, but there was plenty to keep me amused for a long time.