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I get unaccountably annoyed when people use the phrase "..., who just happens to be [race], ..."

I realize that this is just a dialectical feature of coastal white American English, which is meant to convey "race isn't important to me, but I feel a need to note it anyway." It's a set phrase, and I shouldn't try to parse it for grammatical meaning, like another sentence. But I do, and thus it annoys me.

Does anyone "just happen" to be their race? Did it "just happen" to them? Like they were walking around, happily white just like everyone else, and they tripped and fell in a puddle of Chinese?

Seriously? That happens?

Because most of the people I know get their race from their biological parents, anything but accidentally.

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There are 11 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

Of course it's accidental -- it's something that just happens to you without your consent, before you come into existence, that you had no conscious control over. "I just happen to be Asian" makes much more sense than "I just happen to be a Democrat" or "I just happen to be a lawyer". It's like "I happen to have been born on the East Coast" or "I happen to be in my 40s".

Also, I really don't parse this phrase as meaning "White is normal and everything else is weird", given that it *does* get used for white people as much as anyone else ("X, who happens to be white...").

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Uh, who are you and why are you here?

yrs--
--Ben

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You made a post about annoying practices regarding race on livejournal. Of COURSE you're going to draw random defenders of the practice out of the woodwork.

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He's, in my case, a friend of a friend, and thus may read your page for indie gaming things?

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Awesome. Thanks.

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Hi, friend of a friend of

psychotropek.

Usually, I use this space to argue with my friends, rather than argue with people I don't know. Since I don't know you, I'm happy to just let your comment stand without argument. If you'd rather have an argument, uh, get to know me better?

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Hmm, I'm running that phrase in my head, and the only way it doesn't sound totally stupid is when it's sarcastic, i.e., "John K. was going off on one of his rants in front of Francis, who just happens to be Asian, so you can imagine the look on her face."

I hear it a lot with people talking about gay and lesbian people too, and I think it might be a way for people to talk about their token black/Asian/gay friend slightly more indirectly, but the meaning is often unchanged.

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I think you can also use it about yourself: I've said, occasionally, that I just happen to be a chick, and blah blah blah. By which I mean that yeah, I have girl plumbing and all that, but I don't consider it a vast important part of who I am and I'm not going to go off on The Womonly Expherience or whatever. Being female informs my perspective on this issue, whatever it is, but I'm not part of the Ovarian Sisterhood.

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What would you recommend instead?

Seriously. It bothers me now that I think of it, but what is better?

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I dunno. I'm just ranting.

yrs--
--Ben

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Fair enough. It's rant-worthy.

My versions of your babies have strong opinions on the subject, as does Gabriel from the VN. ("MexiCA, not MexiCANA. Get it RIGHT.")

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benlehman

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