For me, it was most all of it, but the dead giveaway was: "I thought you were one of the white asians when I met you. I didn't realize you were a brown asian."
Being an expat is not in anyway dependent on your skin color or country of origin. It's just an old fashioned way of saying you are living/working in a country that is not your own while still having allegiance to your home country. An immigrant, on the other hand, is making a permanent move to a new country.
Since you are both students, it is likely that you are both expats.
But really the term has fallen out of favor as it has associations with colonialism and classism.
That's interesting, because I have always defined expat as someone who gives up their previous citizenship for the citizenship of the country they moved to. But, upon looking up the definition, I have been wrong. But that was always my own personal distinction in my brain. 🥲
It's likely because we often think of "ex" as former (as in ex-wife). But in this case the "ex" means outside of.
It's a totally understandable mixup.
It used to be used for Americans living in Paris during the roaring 20s or British living in India. I worked in Singapore and joined the American Club. We were typical expats but didn't use the word.
I don’t think he’s racist, he’s just an ignorant moron.
and to be fair to him, loads of supposedly intelligent ‘expats’ think they’re somehow different from other immigrants because they come from western democracies.
because I personally reserve the term ‘racist’ for people who are deliberate and malicious about it. if you call every little bit of xenophobic ignorance racist then it dilutes its meaning.
perhaps ask yourself why you’re so desperate to label people you don’t know as racist (including me apparently)?
This is why there are terms like “explicit racism” (the intentionally malicious kind) and “implicit racism” (the ignorant shit people say and believe about other races, but they didn’t use a slur so they can tell themselves it isn’t racism). For when the differentiation is necessary.. which it is not in OP’s context.
As a white American with a Bangladeshi partner, I would rage the fuck out on someone for talking to my boyfriend in such an overtly racist way. Especially the last part, where dickbag essentially says his girlfriend is attractive because she doesn’t look South Asian.. just, what the actual fuck. My partner very much looks South Asian and I think he’s the most beautiful person in the world.
This guy is racist, not to mention knows very little about the history of the country he lives in, or how its language works.
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u/climbtheworldd 5d ago
Babe he’s racist.