Racially Ambiguous Man Attacked With Hyper Accurate Bigotry
CAMBRIDGE, MA—Well aware that his perplexing face would be grounds for confrontation with a stranger, a racially ambiguous man had his evening commute interrupted when he was attacked with incredibly thoughtful and accurate bigotry.
Andre Kim Carvalho, who is Vietnamese and Brazilian, says people are often unsure of his ethnicity. That’s why, when a woman on the subway told him to “get out of this country,” but repeated the phrase in both Vietnamese and Portuguese, Carvalho said it made him smile.
“Her remarks were offensive, but she acknowledged my family history, so it felt less like a crime of hate, and more like a crime of intellect,” he added.
Several commuters who witnessed the incident said they were so impressed by the political correctness and of the polyglot, racist tirade that they began snapping in agreement.
Municipal data has shown a 50% increase in reported incidents of cultured bigotry. However, many residents feel there should be more efforts by the city to confront the issue of unsophisticated discrimination.
A commuter named Miriam said she prefers to see racism coming from someone who is well-traveled or can speak multiple languages.
“Whenever you see a racist trying to guesstimate another person’s ethnicity, it makes you wonder who’s really the victim here,” she said. “Is it the ethnically ambiguous person everyone wants to bang or their harasser who knows nothing about the cultures of the world?”
Carvalho claims it’s been several months since he’s encountered any uninformed prejudice.
“I had an altercation with a man at the grocery store who called me a Mesopotamian,” he recalls. “I was shocked that he couldn’t think of a modern civilization. It felt like hate crimes overall were becoming lazy.”
Several local advocacy groups found the news of Carvalho's most recent incident of prejudice especially encouraging. Organizations like Stop DUMB (Dull, Uneducated, and Mediocre Bias), which provide homogenous communities with free access to every season of Anthony Bourdain’s Parts Unknown, said Carvalho’s story is further evidence that the recent additional funding from the state is having a positive impact.
The mission statement of Stop DUMB aims to familiarize average citizens with other cultures so when they feel compelled to express their racist beliefs, they can do so without embarrassing themselves.
Carvalho says that he hopes to hear about more incidents like the one he experienced on the subway.
“It’s this kind of conscientious xenophobia that reminds you this would be a nice place to raise a family someday.”
