I was simply born into this body; I didn't get to select how I looked, as if I were in a game. This is my real-life avatar.
(Photo by Dominic Kurniawan Suryaputra on Unsplash )
My mother, who also looks out of place as others have stereotyped us, has a Chinese father and her mother is Peranakan Chinese - a mix from an interracial marriage.
Almost everyone on my father's side appears Eurasian. On their tomb pictures, my grandparents look more Eurasian than Chinese. Perhaps a DNA test could give me an answer. Officially, we are all registered as Chinese, and however unpure we may be perceived by others, we are still Chinese.
He was secretive and reluctant to say much about his background, and I didn't truly want to press further, yet it only made me even more curious.
My father once almost got arrested, suspected of kidnapping because he, a person perceived as being of a different race, was carrying a child (me!) who was fairer than both my parents. Wrongful racial profiling.
There's this outdated cultural aspect here that often regards people of different races with a perceived inferior status, as* half-caste*, or even inhuman, as I've experienced in some cases.
For my entire life - and this is no exaggeration, as I've always looked this way, and for more than 40 years, some people have simply not progressed in their outlook of the world.
I've either been met with stares when I speak their language - which is my language too, yet they act as if it's foreign to me - or they would outright treat me with disrespect or simply ignore me.
In restaurants, I'm ignored when trying to ask for a table; even worse, once a waitress accidentally spilled food on me, and the manager apologized to my companion, not me.
In some less upscale boutiques, staff spook to me harshly, demanding 'What do you want?' when I was looking to purchase a bag - I think they'd be better mannered if they were to speak to a robber trying to rob their shop.
People frequently refuse to acknowledge me, pretending not to know how to speak to me, as if I speak in ET language - despite the fact that in our country, especially when most Chinese who've gone to school, can speak at least three languages.
It's such a stereotype, and the irony of racism and discrimination from people within my own community is pure madness.
One thing I must emphasize is that these experiences mostly occur with individuals holding a certain chinoiserie mindset - those who never go beyond their own narrow worldview or try to understand other races, often sitting in some higher places looking down at others.
These people are thankfully just a minority; most people I know are very well-mannered, civilized, and treat individuals of any skin color as human, with respect.
It's just that I seem to be consistently unlucky, encountering a disproportionately high number of these underserved treatments.
If you are one of the unlucky ones like me, we can sit down for some coffee and compare notes.
©Britt H.
Thank you for reading this.
Freewrite Writing Prompt Day 2776: such a stereotype by @Freewritehouse . Thanks to 
