1) During a hotly contest endorsement campaign, I was told by a delegate to "go back home to the country I came from!"
2) Conversely, while attending a congressional district convention, a really nice elderly man shook my hand and welcomed my kind to the Republican Party.
(Seriously, these are my choices? Being shipped back to Korea or being the country's official Republican delegate?)
3) As a field staff, I worked with a candidate who had some interesting beliefs about Democrats and renters. Specifically, this candidate believed that the Democrats were going to apartment buildings, rounding up illegal Asian immigrants and other non-registered voters, and bringing them to the polls where they would commit voter fraud and of course, vote Democrat. After hearing this story a few times I finally looked at her and said,
"That is ridiculous. They are not doing that."
She looked at me incredulously. Then a look of understanding passed over her face. She softly patted my hand and said:
"Oh no [freetobeme350], not Koreans. ASIANS."
At this point my jaw dropped to the floor. How do you respond to this? Not only does she think the source of my comment was some racial defensiveness instead of a fair analysis of her crazy conspiracy theory, BUT SHE DOESN'T REALIZE KOREANS ARE ASIANS!
I gave her a long look. Speaking very slowly, I said:
"You know that Koreans are Asians, right?"
She nodded, but her eyes had the same glazed look of pity.
"Korea is a country in Asia..."
More nodding.
"Asia is a continent..."
At this point I must have given up, walked to the bathroom, and tried to drown myself in the toilet because this was the person I was working 12-hour-days to elect. Whether good or bad, that candidate did win her election that year. I'm still not sure what I think about that.
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HILARIOUS!!!!! and so very SAD!!
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