ARE ANY OF YOU AMERICAN?

It's really a minor thing, seeing as this blogger does not look different. But I've recently been told that my ass is going to be deported, based on my accent. Which it isn't, because I was born here and can prove it. Still, it rankles. What kind of pissy son of a bitch let's his bigotry rise to the occasion when incorrect about something?

I shan't mention this to my apartment mate, who is Asian American, because crap like that happens to her somewhat more than me. Once someone asked her angrily how come she spoke English so well. Almost as if it was an evil and deliberate plot, rather than having grown up speaking the language because she was native-born.

It's not the majority who are asshats, strictly speaking it's probably not even a significant percentage. But one of them can colour your entire day, and I am often reminded that I am foreign despite never having had any other citizenship or natal country.

Okay. I am a Dutchman as well as an American. And I have an accent.
More than that, I don't wave the flag, and hate football.
Your president and religion suck. Totally.


Years ago one of the directors of a company at which I worked was totally convinced that I was an illegal alien who got the position with fake papers.
I received my first electronic paycheck, finally, after a five week delay.
Long after I left the firm her son-in-law put the profits up his nose.
But, of course, he was a real American. She had checked.


If I mention the Netherlands more than the average person, that's because I lived there for a while as a youngster, and my ancestors came from there centuries ago. Neither that, nor my accent, are proof that I am English.
Or Irish. Or Australian.



Evenso, I have it good. As long as I don't speak.




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