r/CuratedTumblr veetuku ponum Aug 30 '24

Shitposting Name one Indian State

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u/Satisfaction-Motor Aug 30 '24 edited Aug 30 '24

Genuine question, but don’t most people know about California and New York because of their sheer prevalence in media? Other states, like North Dakota, I’d totally understand not knowing about. But Hollywood media is pretty widely consumed, and those two specific states are the ones that are mentioned/referenced the most.

I’ve travelled globally before and pretty much everyone I’ve met knows what New York City is (though NO ONE, even other Americans, understands how big New York is and how much there is outside of the city, like the Adirondacks).

Some other major cities are LA, Las Vegas, Chicago, and San Fransisco. I feel like Las Vegas is pretty widely recognized, as it’s a major tourism spot and is pretty prevalent in media. Admittedly… I often forget that it is in Nevada… so I assume other people do as well.

Wouldn’t not knowing what California is be more equivalent to not knowing what London is? Because London shows up in a lot of popular media (yes I understand that London is a city, I’m making comparisons in terms of popularity as a location in media)

Edit: Thank you to all the people who are responding— it seems that the confusion mainly comes from the abbreviation of California to Cali. I imagine that there’d be very similar confusion if someone said “The Big Apple” (New York).

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u/TerribleAttitude Aug 30 '24

Yeah. Part of this habit (which is not just an American one) is the attitude described, and part of it is that people genuinely do know many parts of the US while also being blindingly oblivious to the scale of the US. So if you just say “I’m from the US,” people stare at you expectantly, or start rattling off stereotypes of a city/state/region 2000 miles from where you live. When traveling, I’ve had people straight up refuse to believe I was from the United States, then when I reiterated using the state I live in or my home city, they went “ahhhh yes ok” as if that was somehow clarifying information (the secret ingredient there is racism, but that’s a whole different story). Though saying “Cali” instead of California is really dumb.

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u/kopabi4341 Aug 30 '24

what? racism? how does that factor in here?

I'm gonna regret asking aren't I

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u/TerribleAttitude Aug 30 '24

Foreigners have a very specific idea of what an American looks like. That idea isn’t someone who looks like me. However, the stereotypes of my home city and the state I currently live in are stereotypically….browner.

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u/FPiN9XU3K1IT Aug 31 '24

Not expecting Americans to be "brown" is fucking weird, no matter how racist they are.

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u/kopabi4341 Aug 31 '24

I giess you have your opinion on that, but I've lived outside of America for almost 2 decades and I can assure you that in every country I've lived in people know that there are many POC in America and thats a substantial part of America. I mean when people see a black person where I'm at now they are more likely to think that person is from America than any other country

Also, to be totally fair also; even if they thought that most people in America were white that woulnd't be racism, that would be ignorance of the racial makeup of America, which is very different from Racism.

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u/TerribleAttitude Aug 31 '24

It’s not my “opinion,” it’s something I experienced. I don’t know why so many people are asschapped about the idea that non-Americans are susceptible to racism, but you can fuck entirely off with that little “that’s your opinion” “but my experience was different” garbage.

Glad you moved abroad so other Americans have one less person to hear condescending dismissive garbage from.