I suppose the question then becomes how to tell the well-meaning folk from the ones who were apparently born in a barn in Outer Redneckia. It's one thing for someone to ask about your lineage when you're discussing heritage/culture/race, and quite another for someone to ask completely out of the blue.

I think Alex handles it quite a bit better than I do - my first instinct is to ask what rock they've been hiding under. Toledo has a sizable Arab-American population spread throughout the city, and we're pretty much within rock-chucking distance of Dearborn, MI, which boasts a Arab-American community, something like a third of the city's population. It just strikes me as common sense that there will be families of mixed race about. I'm always astonished when someone treats it as unusual. He lets loose with some flip remark in a tone of voice that implies "you idiot", and carries on with whatever.

Being taken aback is certainly an understandable reaction. It's such an intrusive line of questioning to begin with, I don't know how one would go about being polite about it.