So, I’m mexican,
in november i went to work to nagoya, over there there was this weird guy from nepal who always was talking to me and another mexican coworker about our country, how he saw a show about pablo escobar (he’s not even mexican lmfao)and that mexico was filled with drugs and gang wars and was asking us:
“Do you have drugs??
Have you ever hold a gun? Do you have a gun??”
I’m not sure if he was trying to be insulting and obnoxious, I didn’t care about what he said and ignored him, he was very weird. My friend on the other hand started insulting him too.
Well, now in kyoto there were another 2 nepali guys who started spewing the same lines. I again cared very little but my friend complained to our boss about it and he had to tell them to stop saying weird things to us.
I’ve met a lot of nepali people but this got me wondering, is there an anti mexican sentiment in nepal or something?
I’m not saying that all of them have it obviously but, 3 people already had a problem apparently 🤔
19 comments
Maybe ask these guys directly why they think that.
Japanlife -> proceeds to ask about Nepal
How am I supposed to know man…
Could it just be ignorance? It sounds like a dumb question to ask, but not inherently malicious.
How much do you know about Nepal? Did you ask them about Nepal or shared what you know about Nepal?
Majority of world gets their impression and opinions of far distant places and culture through their education, News and media. I wouldn’t consider the questions you were asked as racism, just their impressions of your country might be like and curious enough to ask questions.
As I have gotten older, I am more appreciative of such people who ask such questions. At least they are curious and open enough to ask instead of continuing to carry on with incorrect/wrong impressions and assumptions.
Well…? Do YOU have a gun? Have you met Pablo? 🙂
I wouldn’t read too much – imagine the degree of ignorance here without any malice whatsoever needing to be involved.
Just ask them if they meditate every day and how long they have been at school with the Dalai Llama…
maybe they just live in Nagoya for too long.
I am Japanese and in US I got asked a lot of questions like “do you drink sake?””do you drive Toyota?” (Well I was a teenager then)
Your situation is basically same as mine it seems.
Ignorant but not harmful.
It might be the only thing they know about your culture whether it is true or not. I remember when I first came people asked me if I can surf. I think they were watching the Netflix series Narcos. The show does tie in with the Mexican cartels.
To give the benefit of the doubt, pretty much the only stuff we see in the news about Mexico *is* about the drug cartels, drug smuggling, Danny Trejo, and people getting murdered 🙁
That’s probably all those guys know too.
I don’t know whether or not Mexico has more of a cultural presence in the Spanish speaking world?
Disclaimer: Not American or Nepalese.
They were probably looking for a conversation starter to get to know you better.
Nevertheless, you feel uncomfortable and you should have them instructed by the company as I think it is a noncompliance.
As someone that was born and grew up in South Africa, eventually you just get used to really dumb questions.
Of course I rode elephants and lions to school, duh!
They are stupid and ignorant. That’s it.
Just say the truth and it would be over
Nepalese look at Mexicans and be like “Look at me, I’m the captain now.”
You have to tell them, “No silly, I’m from the land of El Chapo!”
Anyway, if you want to do a Tit for Tat you can also ask them about how the royal family all got m*rdered in Nepal.
Soooooo… Is life actually yellow tinted over there?
I do think this is racism. If you feel it was racist, believe your experience. If this happened in November and you’re talking about it now it hasn’t left you in some time and I’m sorry you have to deal with this. You don’t need our validation to know because you were there and we weren’t. To experience pain regarding being subjected to racism might be something to talk about with a trusted person, maybe not an open internet forum because of the amount of gaslighting that one may encounter, but I get the desire for a second opinion. To say a person is ignorant (as many people are saying in this post) is not a free pass from subjecting one to harmful opinions. I think it’s incredibly vulnerable to share this in a post. Thanks for sharing your experience.
Nah dude it’s an honest question based on a show that’s based on a real story. Of course this makes people curious and they’re asking you a question. How is that racist? If you haven’t had that experience you could try to explain.
Mexico has a number of do not travel areas due to risk of violent crime and kidnapping because shit happens to tourists too regularly.
So your country has a reputation, why do you cry racism?
May I ask where you work? Some kind of programming job?
Also I joking asked a person from Columbia if they had any cocaine because I watched “narcos”.
I don’t ACTUALLY think they had any cocaine, but that’s literally the only point of reference I have for that country