I live in Alberta , finding someone , other than first nations people , who was born here , is pretty hard . Polite curiosity is fine , repeating the same question over and over until you get the answer that fits your preconceptions isn't . It really isn't a difficult concept to grasp . It is usually one of the first questions you'll be asked when meeting someone new here . Mostly because we're all from somewhere else .
On a more humorous note , and this thread needs one , a friend of mine faced a reverse situation many times when we were in the North . We were working on the Arctic coast in what is now Nanavut , a beautiful place full of amazing people . Tod was born in Alberta but is third generation Japanese , or as he insists , Aino , his people were from Hokkaido originally , so he does look very similiar to the Inuit people we were working with . So much so , that they would walk up to him and speak Inuit ( generally to ask where his people were from , first nations always want to know what tribe/band you belong to ) and he would have to correct them and tell them he was ethnically Japanese . Long story short , they didn't believe him and continued to try and speak Inuit with him , just slower so he could understand . In the end , Tod would just answer them in Japanese , which ended further conversation . After a few days of regrouping , they started to talk to him in English and everything worked out fine . The Inuit are probably the kindest and most open hearted people I've ever known , so there was no ill intent , but it was funny .
In the end , try and look at things from both sides and have some empathy for your fellow humans , the world has enough hate and division . It doesn't take much effort to show a little understanding and we'll all be better off for it .
Grandpa ramble over , AB
