There are times you find yourself in the awkwardness of apologizing for people whom you have no affilitation with other than a
piece of identification. Those are the times when you are introduced to other people and when you tell where you are from, they reply you with either
silence or
insult. Then you start babbling about your country and your ancestors. Not because you really feel sorry for what other people have done -because you are not them- but rather you want to erase the
stereotypical associations coming with your
nationality so that you can at least chat with people you have just met.
But no... even if they honestly have no negative feelings about you, deep inside you feel stigmatized and want to correct this. So your babble and make stupid apologies to correct the whole history and become insulting yourself.
From now on, before I get any inferiority complex because of some disgusting people who lived 200 years ago in the same land, or people who have born in the same city that I have born, I should tell myself "I am not my nationality" and believe it!