I'm a 5'0 tall and South Asian and he's 6'5 and Hispanic. I'm used to getting the occasional look, the height difference probably being more striking than the ethnicity difference. And even if it's a racial thing, I've never felt like it was disdain, but more like they were marveling at some novelty. No big deal. It's kinda funny to me.

We must have always been together in pretty liberal, progressive places. This past visit, we spent a couple days in a city with a pretty healthy South Asian population, with a lot of "traditional" perspectives. I grew up around it and deal with it in my own family, so I had an idea what I was in for. Good god. One guy turned completely around in his bus seat, just to give me the iciest, 10 second stare-down. Felt the chill hit me right in the chest. My SO got a few looks, but I think I got the brunt of it.. I couldn't go 10 minutes without some stranger giving me the evil eye.

Why the hell are you all so goddamn upset?! Are you mad because I'm one of "your" women? I'm Tamil-Sri Lankan, and you're probably from Bangladesh/India/Pakistan. You wouldn't arrange for me to marry your son anyways! Is it the fact that I'm a harlot for dating at all and "daring" to date interracially on top of that? Culturally, girls are supposed to be meek, push-overs whose lives revolve around pleasing their parents and upholding tradition. I'm guessing these strangers saw me as a threat, some floozy who'd influence their daughters too . It felt personal. Faces that remind me of family just judging the heck out of me. Little nervous about my extended family finding out about my SO, not sure how many of them would feel the same.

I appreciate my native language, the food (!), the history, but this attitude will always make me feel like an outsider. I'm almost proud for giving close-minded people something to be upset about. I feel like this attitude will follow me around for a long, long time, so maybe I'll learn to just tune it out =/

Anyone else out there dealing/dealt with something like this?