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Do you "look like" you're from where you, in fact, ARE from?

6 years ago
Hi everyone!

There was a comment on here recently about one of us who "looks" Latin American. I'm sure no harm was intended, but a lot of people do still casually talk in this way without being aware of how factually erroneous their utterance is: of course, where we're from is nothing more and nothing less than an accident of history; and how we "look" is, merely and simply, an accident of biology.

My best friend was born and grew up in England, just as I was/did. He's English/British. I'm also English/British. My parents were immigrants to England; my friend's parents were also immigrants to England. But I'm FROM England, and he's FROM England. However, the fact that he is brown causes a lot of people to ask him a question which I've never been asked: "Yeah, but where are you REALLY from?", to which he habitually responds: "I was REALLY born, and I REALLY grew up, in Chester, Cheshire, England."

Do you ever get asked this question? How do you usually respond to it? How successful do you tend to be at opening people's eyes to the fact that such questions are utterly anti-factual nonsense?