Eh it depends on the person and how much they identify with their roots. For some people ancestry is a fun hobby. For others it is something that they are trying to escape because throughout their lives people have judged them via stereotypes associated with it. So the easiest way is to ask: do you identify with your ancestory? Probably not that directly, you can allude to your interest.

The way I do it is I ask “Are you from [city we are currently in]?” The immigrants and visitors say no and I get to ask where they’re from. The locals say yes and don’t get offended. There’s no presumption, no implication.

There’s sort of a racist undertone to that kind of question that can put people on guard. I think you just need to be cognizant of that when you frame a question.

The annoying version goes like this:

White person: Where are you from?

Brown person: Calgary

White person, squinting at their skin: Ok, but where are you from?

Brown person: Still Calgary.

White person: visibly frustrated

The annoying/racist part being that white people are assumed to originate from North America, but literally everyone else (including indigenous people, lol) are immigrants.

The basic question is fine and I’ve never seen someone upset about being asked. But if you go into more detailed questions, keep in mind they might mispercieve what you’re asking.

If we just met, yes it is rude. We’re strangers, my life story is none of your business. If we’re more than acquaintances, I expect it would come up naturally at some point in conversation so not rude (hopefully).

I’m a visible minority so I have to weed out the people who are just trying to satisfy their curiosity about why I’m not white. Those people don’t ever accept the answer that I’m from Vancouver, or that my parents are from Winnipeg. I will never be Canadian enough for those people because of how I look.

Nobody ever asks my white spouse out of nowhere whether he speaks X language even though he’s given no indication that he does, and nobody ever asks him where he’s really from.

A friend of mine gets asked that all the time, cause he’s brown-skinned with dark, curly hair in Germany. There’s the implication that although he’s a German citizen and was born and lived in Germany all his life, his “roots” are somewhere else, and therefore he isn’t a “real German”.

If you get asked that question constantly due to your looks, it gets annoying quickly, cause it implies the question whether you fully belong in this country, so keep that in mind.

I have a job where I meet the general public, and I ask about peoples’ heritages all the time. I have never been accused of being racist or insensitive because I’m truly interested for the right reasons. I love to know where people are from, what it’s like there, their story of coming to America, etc.

I think moving your entire life to a new country with a different language and culture is about one of the bravest things a person can do. I genuinely want to hear about that, and people don’t mind sharing under those circumstances.

It’s when they get the side eye, along with, “So where are YOU from?” that gets the defenses up.

“We are all African.” — Richard Dawkins

So here’s the thing. I wouldn’t view it as impolite in all cases. It just… depends on the context a lot.

I have no love for my cultural heritage at all. The reason I came to Canada was to get away from… all that, right? So if you’d ask me excitedly about my “roots”, I would give exceedingly one worded answers hoping that you’d drop the topic. I don’t want to glorify the culture I grew up in, because there’s nothing to glorify. Ah, now if you wanted to have a sociological discussion about it, I would be very interested in talking with you. So as I said, “context”, right?

Often, racist white folk also tend to ask about “culture” as a sly way to remind non white folks that they “aren’t really Canadian” or whatever. Yeah, it makes no logical sense to do that, but well… It happens. So you know… It depends.

Yeah, it’s stupid. I hate it when people ask me question like this. I am not from anywhere, I am from here.

Usually some drunk idiot I meet though insist that I need to tell them the origin country of my great great grandparents. I want to punch them.

After arriving to a new country and seeing different ppl (I.e. non-white) asked the question “Ok, but where are you really from?”, I realised asking about roots could be seen as rude by association.

I defaulted to asking, if the conversation heads that way, “Did you grow up around here?” As I see this question assumes you’re a local, and at the same time it’s broad enough for others to respond however they want.

It heavily depends on context. I love to chat about mine but I won’t if I sense that there’s a risk of discrimination. The amount of information I divulge depends heavily on how close we are. If you ask it out of the blue and you’re not someone I trust well, it comes off as rude.

Hello from Ontario

I have kind of the reverse situation. If I were anymore white I’d be transparent. I’m from the States originally, but I speak Dutch with some degree of fluency and …am very white.

In everyday interactions my roots don’t often come up. But if I talk to someone long enough after 15-20 minutes something about my grammar or accent will tip people off to the fact I ain’t from around here.

Mostly people just complement me for my Dutch and add that most Americans don’t bother to learn it (this however is changing rapidly since we have had so many people from N America move here and immerse as quickly as they can the last few years.)

But once in a while they will ask some rather pointed questions about things like religion - assuming I’m a crazy xian - or racism - assuming because I’m white and from the States I must be a racist - etc.

My wife (100% Dutch, couldn’t possibly be more Dutch) works with refugees, and I’ve helped on many occasions over the years. One of them has become a good friend of ours. And to the refugees it definitely matters where someone is from and it’s the first thing they will ask one another. It is sometimes critical to segregate people from different places or cultures, for safety. I think because of this they don’t mind when whitty asks them where they are from also. Most will want to talk about their home country.

But, these are refugees, not someone whose parents immigrated here three generations ago and just happen to have brown skin. Asking a non-white person where they are really from is Not Done. But once you get to know someone they will probably bring it up in conversation.

All that said, some Dutch people can be hella racist despite our reputation for tolerance.

It is all in how you do it. I ask people about their family history all the time.

As a man, I’ve learned to never say anything about a woman’s hair, beyond “Love it!”, or “Looks great!”

As a Chinese American, I don’t find it offensive. I mean at this point I kinda just embraced my background, I mean I still have a Chinese name as my legal name and I still speak Cantonese and Mandarin (with very basic fluency tho)

Unless you say it like: “Oh, your English is very good! Where are you from?” and the person clearly has a native-accent 🙄 (don’t do it like this)

(hasn’t happened yet, usually people are either much more overt like using racial slurs, or just not display racism at all)

I think you should just ask something like: “What is your ancestral background?” more direct and IMO sounds a lot better. But I think the context is key, you need to feel the vibe in the room is good before you ask that, don’t just walk up to someone and ask that as the first question.

But I was born in China, so I am technically speaking not “from” here, but if you are in the US and ask an Asian person born and grew up in the US that question, they might not like it. You should probably frame it like: “Hey I’m just curious, what is your ancestral background?”