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Thursday, January 04, 2007

Comments

Randy

I had a friend of American Indian Ancestry that had a difficult time returninng across the border after a day trip. Even though she spoke perfect english if she had not had some friends with her They cetainly would have detained her for addtional questions and this was many years before 9/11.

Mari

Hi there
In the U.S. I could experiece good and bad too. Actually many people say CA is nice to live for non-white because there are many Asian too. But I felt exactry it was salad bowl, don't mix each other. I won't/can't judge anything by such short staying, but that is my one of strong impression.

abraxis

That's funny. I'm of colour and I've never had a problem at either San Ysidro or Otay Mesa.

Of course, I've got that California accent...and I usually wind up bringing back Cuban cigars too!

bshock

My wife's Japanese friend from college once had a similar problem returning to the U.S. after a road trip to Mexico. The U.S. border authorities were extremely suspicious of all non-caucasian people trying to cross the border, and in the case of my wife's friend, they thought she looked like a Mexican native.

I am embarrassed to admit that I have made similar errors. I once worked at an IT company that employed a majority of Mexican-Americans. One of my coworkers was a young man who I just assumed to be of Latino heritage, but when I finally had a chance to speak with him, I discovered that his mother was Japanese.

I apologize if this anecdotal comparison of Japanese and Mexican appearance sounds racist in any way. It simply seemed like an odd coincidence to me.

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