Probably should have mentioned that in my original post...
I'm a (white) Swede who was raised in the Middle-East. I am presently working on my 4-year degree in the US. Trivial as it may be, I kind of find it irksome that some people mistake me for an American (until I tell them otherwise) when an American-born Asian would be more likely to be pegged as a foreigner.
And yeah, especially when some of the local populace hold beliefs that don't mesh well with the existence of people who are not part of their categorical group. Now, I've already been raised in a region that is rampant with inequality, human rights violations, and a lack of freedom, but even then... Some of the things that I hear coming out of people's mouths here leave me dumbfounded. Whether willful ignorance or just a plain lack of insight into society, it can be quite perturbing.
Europe is definitely more progressive in some of those aspects...besides the Neo-Nazis that crop up here and there. I never really notice "race" when I watch British programming; it just feels natural.
On a tangential note, I keep thinking about how I have no black friends.
(I don't really have any "white" friends, either. White people are kind of, erm...yeah.)
Anyways, howdy to Black GAF.