Who is SHE?

First post. No pressure.

If you identify with an EGOTAS (ethnic group other than Anglo-Saxon), ask yourself a few questions.

Do you have no friends from your own ethnic group?


Do you go to the University of Sydney? Did you go there because you didn’t want to go the University of Hong Kong in Kensington, Sydney?

Do you thank your parents for sending you to Grammar, Knox, Xavier or SHORE so you could be like 'them'?


Do you enjoy living in the Sutherland Shire, the North Shore (outside of Chatswood) or the Northern Beaches (outside of 'Dee Wong') in Sydney for its lack of ethnic diversity?


Do you avoid driving down Beamish Street in Campsie or anywhere in Hurstville, Ashfield or Western Sydney whenever you have white friends in your car?


Do you go to Commerce lectures and resent that no one speaks English?


Do you do an Arts degree and compliment yourself on your English language abilities?

Do you identify yourself as Phoenician?

Do you avoid Bamboo, the Roxy or Shanghai Nights? Do you think that these terms refer respectively to a plant that Pandas eat and Asian builders climb, a brand of ladies surf wear, and a week of ethnic festivities?


Do you secretly apologise to elderly people on the train or bus when a bunch of ‘your people’ launch loudly into ‘your language’?

Do you have double eyelids?


Do you celebrate the fact that you need to ask for a fork in Asian restaurants, or to tone down the chilli in your curry?


Do you cringe when people do the Zorba dance outside of a wedding?


Do you get angry when you hear the French language outside of France and its territories?


Do you exaggerate the Australianess of your English when speaking to Caucasian strangers?  When you do, do you advertise that you really hate refugees?

Are you relieved and proud that you can easily cross the border without joining a separate line thanks to your first-world Australian/American/Canadian/British passport?

Are you secretly glad that you are half-white?

Are you embarrassed by your parents’ accents and the smell of your pantry?

And in the interest of social inclusion, ask yourself the following if you don't identify with an EGOTAS:

Do you refuse to watch a movie unless it's in LOTE (languages other than English)?

Do you feel the urge to teach or work in a 'Remote Area Location' whenever you meet someone 'Indigenous'?

Do you want to work for Ausaid, USAid or World Vision to 'make up' for Colonialism? Did you make a donation after studying Colonialism?

Did you join or even start up a charity or NGO after volunteering in Africa or doing that Contiki tour in Southeast Asia? Did you adopt a child on these travels?

Do you get excited by the mere prospect of going to Lakemba or Cabramatta in Sydney (and does visiting these places inspire you to move there?) Have you since started teaching English in Asia?

Do sausages, peas and carrots give you nausea?

Do you chase people down the street to ask them what country they got that kaftan from?

Is your furniture suite Javanese?

Is your chocolate fair-trade?

If you answered yes to any or all of the above, then you are a SHE (Self Hating Ethnic), and perhaps you should read on...