My wife is Thai and I’m white. How can I stop people from making racist assumptions about our relationship?

‘It won’t be comfortable, but the more you do it, the better you will get at delivering swift, hard verbal blows and moving on.’ Composite: ediebloom/Guardian Design

Dear Ms Understanding,

Thanks for your articles. My wife is Thai and I’m from an Anglo/Spanish background, which is relevant, because on occasion, another middle-aged white male (ie more than one individual) will say to me something like “I’ve thought of getting myself a Thai wife too”. I find it really offensive to the both of us for all the easy (and wrong!) assumptions made. My reaction has generally been blinking disbelief and silence though internally I wouldn’t mind letting them know that my wife has higher tertiary qualifications than me and that we met in an educational setting.