Quote:
Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction
The internet exposes these idiots all the time. Typically, it's the reverse though. I see people mistaking Indians and Pakistanis for Middle Easterners. Or even mixing up Arabs and Persians (as well as other Iranian groups of people).
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Arabs and Persians I can understand. It's inexcusable, but understandable. Both cultures are similar enough, the religions are similar and the languages look and sound similar to North Americans (though technically Farsi is more similar to English than it is to Arabic, but that's another argument altogether). Arabs and Indians/Pakistanis/Sri Lankans/Bengalis is just pure ignorance. Different cultures, religions, languages, alphabet, food, etc. That's on top of the fact that South Asians don't look Arab at all. It's like confusing an Italian with a Norwegian because they're close enough to being the same thing. In fact Italians are more similar to Scandinavians than Arabs are to South Asians.
I remember growing up, a lot of white people would be surprised when they hear that I'm Arab, because "I don't look Arab". Then I would introduce them to a bunch of other Arabs and their reaction would be something like "there's no way you guys are all Arab". It would just confirm to me that what they have in their mind as "Arab" is actually South Asian.