Trump’s “Where are you from?” Moment

Flopping Aces ^ | 10-16-15 | Wordsmith

[Starman417]

This showed up in my FB newsfeed today, regarding something that occurred earlier this week while I was in Colorado:

Things got awkward on Monday when Donald Trump asked an Asian-American college student if he was from South Korea.

A 20-year-old Harvard economics major identified by NPR as Joseph Choe had launched into a query about South Korea during a question-and-answer session at the No Labels-hosted Problem Solver Convention in New Hampshire.

"I just had a really quick question about something you said earlier this summer," Choe said in video captured by C-SPAN. "Basically, you said that South Korea takes advantage of the United States in terms of the defense spending on the Korean peninsula. You said that they don't have to pay anything. However, I just want to get the facts straight and say that --"

Trump interrupted to ask, "Are you from South Korea?"

"I'm not. I was born in Texas, raised in Colorado," Choe responded.

The GOP presidential candidate shrugged as awkward laughter from the audience escalated into full-blown cheering for Choe.

"No matter where I'm from, I like to get my facts straight, and I wanted to tell you that that's not true. South Korea paid $861 million," Choe said before Trump cut him off again.

I don't believe Trump's question was totally unreasonable. Watch the video. In context, the student is defending/standing up for an Asian country. Choe looks rather Asiatic. Is it completely unwarranted to question motive and bias through possible ethnic ties? After all, people all the time do show loyalty, favoritism, connection, etc. to their ancestral country/ethnic origins.

Incidentally, this isn't the first time Joseph Choe has spoken out on behalf of Korean interests. He seems to be involved in Korean politics and interests. Back in April, he confronted Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe regarding Korean comfort women:

A Korean-American Harvard University student is gaining attention in South Korea for a question he asked Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe regarding comfort women.

Harvard student Joseph Choe put the Prime Minister on the spot during his April 27 visit to Harvard University’s Kennedy School when he asked him to clarify his position on the Japanese government’s involvement in coercing Korean women and girls into sexual slavery during World War II.

Yes. Joseph Choe is an American, born in Texas and raised in Colorado. But he is ethnically tied by ancestry to Korea; and seems to have an interest in Korea. Whether it is relevant to the larger point or not on American military expenditure and bases in Korea, it at least provides Trump with a contextualization for where the source of Choe's interest in the topic may be coming from.

So basically, Trump's instincts were correct and he had Choe's number correct.

[DiogenesLamp]

After many years of marriage, I can’t identify different origins of Asians visually.

Seriously? I can generally tell Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Cambodian and Filipinos apart.

Koreans are sometimes a little tougher because some of them resemble Chinese and some of them resemble Japanese. Sometimes you can look at them and see distinct Korean characteristics, but sometimes you can't.

Probably your difficulty stems from not seeing representatives of other Asian groups. In my town, the various Asian groups are very cliquish. They pretty much only hang out with their own groups.

The Japanese hang out with other Japanese, the Koreans hang out with other Koreans, (Japanese and Koreans often hate each other) the Vietnamese hang out with other Vietnamese, and so forth.

They do interact a little between the groups, but mostly they just hang out with their own group.

Your wife probably hangs out with mostly Chinese, so you don't get to see many people from other Asian countries.

Just a guess.