{"id":9301,"date":"2014-06-12T02:42:14","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T06:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/verastic.com\/?p=9301"},"modified":"2014-06-11T22:51:05","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T02:51:05","slug":"told-dont-like-foreigners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verastic.com\/site\/personal\/told-dont-like-foreigners.html","title":{"rendered":"He Told Me, “I Don’t Like Foreigners”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I was at the house of a client for a meeting. We were having general discussions about the subject at hand when suddenly he started talking politics, which somehow catapulted into America, the World Bank, and Dunkin’ Donuts. My client told me that his son’s girlfriend works at World Bank and that he does not like World Bank because they are foreign and they help foreigners. He went ahead to add, “I don’t like foreigners.”<\/em><\/p>\n

If he had told me this years ago, I would have been pissed off and I would have felt the need to defend foreigners. But it was Vera 2.0 who was sitting across him yesterday, and Vera 2.0 has come to realize that not all things need to be responded to. Vera 2.0 also knows that some people are crazy and have guns and won’t mind shooting anyone for any reason.<\/p>\n

When he told me that he did not like foreigners, I honestly was not fazed or offended. If anything, I was amused. I figured that either this man did not know I was a foreigner – which would be strange because of my accent – or he and I had different understandings of what it means to be a foreigner<\/em>. Also, he must not have known that the great United States of America was built on the backs of immigrants (AKA foreigners).<\/p>\n

For a brief second, I thought about schooling this man. I was going to say something along the lines of, “I’m a foreigner, and this isn’t awkward at all.”<\/em> In fact, my mouth had parted and was ready to speak. Then I remembered all the random shootings, and all the people who have lost their lives because they said the right thing to the wrong person. And I decided that I am not quite ready to die, and what does it matter if some old man does not like foreigners? I am a foreigner sitting on his uncomfortable dining chair having a meeting with him on how to better his life. And most of his plans are dependent on my help and input.<\/p>\n

From where I was sitting, I was the winner, the real MVP.<\/p>\n

\"Vera,<\/a>

Vera, The Real MVP<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

P.S.<\/strong> He does not like Dunkin’ Donuts because – according to him – it’s owned by foreigners.<\/p>\n

P.P.S.<\/strong> I really think that he has a warped sense of what it means to be a foreigner. Perhaps, his idea of a foreigner is a non-American who does not live in America — not necessarily American immigrants. I might be wrong.<\/p>\n

P.P.P.S<\/strong> He did not look like a violent man who would hurt me, but none of the lunatics killing random people looked like lunatics until we knew they were lunatics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I was at the house of a client for a meeting. We were having general discussions about the subject at hand when suddenly he started talking politics, which somehow catapulted into America, the World Bank, and Dunkin’ Donuts. My client told me that his son’s girlfriend works at World Bank and that he doesRead More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"twitter_14738191_14738191":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[561],"tags":[1058,848],"class_list":["post-9301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal","tag-foreigners","tag-lifestyle","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHe Told Me, "I Don't Like Foreigners" - 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