We're not "all the same"

Classes ended Tuesday, and we had an optional review session for one of our classes on Wednesday. This class is taught by a visiting prof, whom I've always thought was a little eccentric, but generally a nice guy. He sometimes seems like he doesn't know what he's doing, and he's not good at answering questions posed in class, but I'm not here to critique his teaching. Anyway, I decided not to go for the review, because I was pretty familiar with the material, but my friend did. And here's what happened during that class.

First, some background information. This friend of mine is Canadian, born and raised in Canada, although his parents are from Taiwan. Next, my prof likes to digress and give lots of unrelated anecdotes in class, and he's commented on more than one occasion on how impressed he is by the diversity if the student population in McGill.

So now, back to the review session. He's teaching, and then he goes on another of his tangential spiels, which results on him talking about the diversity and of how he doesn't get that back in the university where he's from (south of the border). Then he starts giving examples, by pointing out students in his class, with whom I (or rather my friend) assume he's spoken to before. "Like you, you're from Paris, and you, you're from..." Then he gets to my friend, and he says "from China".

So my friend is really mad, and goes to speak to the prof after class, partly because he had something else to speak to the prof about anyway. My friend tells the prof that he really shouldn't be telling people where they're from, and then he points out that he is Canadian, born in Canada, and that his family is from Taiwan, not China. And then my prof says:

"Oh, to me they're all the same"

Never mind the whole Taiwan-China issue, my friend was just too taken aback to react. Honestly, I'm glad I wasn't there. Because if I was, I would have lost it and probably shouted at him.

No, we're not all the same. Not everyone of Asian descent was born in Asia, and not everyone from Asia is from China. And you're a prof. You really should know better. And if you don't, then you really should know better than to say stuff like that.

Living in Montreal, cosmopolitan city and all, I have experienced racism before. Usually, I am unaffected. But I am truly astounded by the ignorance displayed by my prof. And in the course of apologising to my friend, he said numerous other things that just further proved his ignorance (which my friend told me but I can't remember exactly).

When my friend related this incident to me, I was pretty shocked and also angry as well. But I don't have the eloquence or the lucidity to say everything that's in my head right now. Also because I think the issues of race, ethnicity and nationality are complex ones. I'm also unsure if I should feel sorry that my prof is so ignorant and doesn't know it, or if I should be outraged because his remarks were so insensitive.

As of now, I still have not collected all my thoughts on this, and with exams looming, by the time I do, the anger might have passed. I'm still trying to get my head around the fact that a professor can be so ignorant.