So I'm having a really big issue with this, and I'm not sure if I should just get over it or somehow learn to work with it, or learn to avoid people causing me emotional distress altogether.
I was born in Russia and might have what some people consider an Eastern European look. A lot of people who think I'm Eastern European have never been to Russia, nor have they spent a lot of time around Russian people. In the various cities I've worked where there are 'Russian girls', it wouldn't be so readily obvious to them that I was originally from Russia. I'm completely Americanized, have spent the majority of my life in America living all throughout, worked in America before entering this industry, have been educated in America in secondary and postsecondary schools. I have a slight accent but also a very distinctive voice that I do not think is due to race, unless one is a racist and wants to make it so. So the issue I'm dealing with, have been for a long time, is a lot of what I perceive as racism. A lot of it is at work because that is where I come in contact with the most people, but also, a little bit outside of work when I come in contact with people that apparently lack any sense of cultural sensitivity and worldliness.
For example, on a job in LA, I had someone ask me whether I speak English, when I felt that their direction wasn't clear. I'm constantly told I have an accent by strangers, which confuses me because loved ones (close friends/family throughout the US, who are of American origin) would not corroborate it to be true. I've been in situations in the Bay Area where I would be asked when I'd be "going home;" approached by strangers, obviously American, in a nightclub who'd start speaking to me in Russian (broken but still somewhat understandable); had an Asian-American in the Bay Area point to my face, and tell me that my face was not American; stuff like that. People constantly comment on my facial features, hair, pry into where I am from/born. I find it incredibly rude and intrusive.
Anyhow, I understand that this behavior is pretty low, and a lot of good customers, big spenders or not, won't be so crass. But is there any way to deal with it better?



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