Quote:
Originally Posted by costello
I think that's pretty much what he said.
I was reading through one of those links I posted earlier and found this: "You have repeatedly been the recipient of stares or longer than passing glances from strangers."
The thing is my son would tell me that people were staring at him. And I'd suggest that he was 'imagining it' (i.e., 'being paranoid'). Then I paid more attention and noticed that some people do stare at him. And I'd think, "WTF? What are you looking at?" I mean to me my son is just an ordinary-looking guy. He's not exceptionally short or tall or fat or thin. He's not doing anything particularly odd. Why stare?
Now I wonder if it's that race thing. People trying to puzzle out his race or how he fits in with the family. I know when he was young some people either assumed he was adopted or that he was lost from his real family when they saw him with us. And how does it feed into his paranoia? Is it a contributing factor? Even if it isn't it must certainly exacerbate the problem. And having your mom telling you you're imagining it can't help. 
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While I have no doubt that race is a big part of this I can say my little sister is totally white but she's punk, heavily tattooed, nose ring etc. Some random Japanese kids asked if they could take a picture with her. I think the thing is if you aren't part of an oppressed social class then these things are genuinely more amusing than irritating. I guess I'm just trying to apply CBT logic to this. If you think its bad then it will be. I can see why its bad to ask people what they are... but personally I would answer I'm a scientist.