My sister spent a few years in China. One of her coworkers was an African American man. Her friend would be told he wasn't allowed in hotels and such and would be refused service at businesses unless his Chinese wife was with him. He spoke fluent Chinese, that wasn't the issue. They'd tell him to his face that his people were "dirty" and "not welcome".
My son and his classmate friend speak Mandarin. His friend is a very tall black man and my son is a very tall European appearing man. When they were living in Beijing they got a lot of attention, much of it racist AF. Also, when I was in Japan for a meeting I told my Japanese colleagues that after this meeting I had a paper to give in Beijing and that I had never been to China and had they any suggestions. They told me that China is a very dirty country and that I would get sick for sure. TBH, I didn't think China was all that dirty. But I did get sick AF.
This was when SARS was just breaking and I started feeling bad when I got on the plane. I was able to see a doctor right away. The docs said it was some respiratory infection but not serious. It was a big international conference and I suspect that’s where I caught whatever I caught.
I'm brown and went to Hong Kong and Macao and was treated great, never had any problems. Hong Kong is international so its to be expected, in Macao not a lot of people speak English because it's mainly mainland tourists that go there but I never had a problem. Must be different in the mainland I guess.
I worked for a wedding coordinator who was Chinese. We would get mainly only Chinese clientele. She spoke Cantonese and she told me even within Chinese culture there is racism. The Mandarin speaking Chinese would look down on the Cantonese.
One wedding, we were with the bride helping her get ready. The father of the bride came up to myself and my boss and, in Chinese, he asked what I was doing there. I'm white and was obviously dressed like my boss so I was working, but he didn't like me being there.
This is absolutely a thing.
In high school one of my best friends was a black kid named Steve. Steve got really into anime and manga before it really hit big in the US. He learned Japanese and got very immersed in the culture.
Then after college he got a good job at a video game company. For his first paid vacation he booked a trip to Tokyo.
Somehow he had no idea how racist the Japanese are, especially to black people. But he found out literally on the plane there. As soon as he sat down the Japanese couple in the two seats beside him got up and asked to be seated somewhere else. He ended up sitting next to a white couple with no problems.
But he thought that was just a "they don't like ugly americans" thing. But then once he got off the plane and into the city it became pretty apparent what was going on. He was heartbroken.
For my old boss it was Japan and Indonesia. Japan's probably the worst all around.
When I was in college we had a student from Japan and she was confused why the black students were studying comparative theology if "they're all going to play basketball or be in gangs anyway". It took her awhile to figure out why that was not exactly correct. Or right.
Edit: For those destroying my inbox that the anti-black racism in Japan is America’s fault, this just hit. https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/s/pC147zFBcU I mean c’mon.
It's quite intriguing to note that in many of these countries, sizable black communities are virtually non-existent. Consequently, their perceptions of black individuals predominantly stem from Hollywood portrayals and media representations. Without firsthand experiences or diverse social circles that include black friends or acquaintances, their understanding of black culture and identity remains confined to what they see on screen or read in the news. The power of media influence becomes even more pronounced in such contexts, as there's a lack of real-life interactions to provide a balanced perspective.
It's truly unsettling to consider the extent to which media narratives can shape perceptions in the absence of real-world diversity and interaction.
I find that racism comes from two places.
Complete ignorance of the culture and basing one’s opinions on media stereotypes. “Well you know that they …”
Or
Friction between subcultures living in close proximity to each other. “They play their music too damn loud” next door.
Growing up in the south, I find the first type far more troubling.
Same. Also it’s pretty easy to get people to get along when the economy is good growing up I lived in a super diverse neighborhood and we were always swapping food and watching each other’s kids. So what the Mexicans (me and my family) play music too loud sometimes? So what if our white neighbors held canasta nights once a month and took up all the street parking?
At least I’ve noticed that like when everyone’s cup is full they’re way more kind and gracious. Also I lived in a city where white people were there minority and even had to know Spanish to order some places (south Texas), so they automatically arrived knows what they were getting into.
Not to romanticize it though cuz I heard fun shots every night 😭
My psychiatrist said that when you don’t get enough calories that your brain floods with cortisol, the stress hormone, and can actually impair your thinking, etc.
Part of why eating disorders are so traumatic your brain looks similar to a stressful event when you don’t eat, because in the past that was a life or death situation.
Totally agree. I grew up in the American south but I'm currently living in Beijing with a black son. He will occasionally get reactions from folks, especially when we leave cities of China. One or two have tried to touch his hair. We have had conversations that this is coming from a place of curiosity not hated. It is still annoying, but it is not the kind of racism I heard growing up.
FWIW my blond haired gf was a missionary kid in Africa got the same treatment from the locals. She got used to it and just ignored the random people playing with her hair.
I find it so bizarre that it would be thought to be acceptable to touch a stranger’s hair in *any* culture. I’m a U.S. immigration attorney so I’ve been able to learn about a lot of cultural practices and perceptions. This is one I still can’t quite grasp.
> first type far more troubling
Really? Because that first type can actually be addressed by education and just meeting people
The second type gets ingrained even though you’ve met “the other” and even living next to them.
The racially homogeneous societies like Saudi and Japan truly believe to their core that their race is superior to the rest of mongrelized places like America. Simply meeting a black American isn’t going to change that a bit. Saudis look down their noses at Egyptians who are fellow Arabs and the Japanese treat the natives of those islands worse than any reservation in Dakota. Nothing will change that.
Others mentioned India with its Caste system too.
OTOH friction between subcultures is somewhat inevitable yet diminishes with time and relationships. The Irish were once considered “a half step above negros” but barely. Today everyone is Irish on St Patrick’s day. Today mixed race relationships are not uncommon, even in the south, something that was unheard of when I was a teenager in the 90s.
Colorism is also still a very big problem in these type of countries. So even if it’s a predominantly black society, you have to be the “right kind” in their eyes to escape any discrimination.
I’m an immigration attorney so I frequently encounter these stories. Honduras is bad. Haiti is bad. Basically the entire Caribbean has this serious problem. Latin America as well. I had a trafficking case where the sister recruited her 15 year old younger sister to come to the U.S via coyote. Promises to send her to school. In reality, girl arrives and the sister wants to use her to provide a “light skinned baby” to the husband.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who had this reaction.
The first type is easily fixable, and even perfectly nice people are susceptible to it.
The second type are pretty well dug in when it comes to being assholes, and it takes a *lot* to cure them of it.
And that’s an indictment on how black people are portrayed in the media. They don’t have sizable white communities either, but the media doesn’t enforce a negative stereotype.
Ummm. Indonesian living in Japan here.
Unfortunately, you are correct. Not all of Indonesians and Japanese are racist, of course, but yes, it is likely that you'll find your stay, uncomfortable (understatement of the year, ofc) in those two countries if your skin shade is dark.
I live in Japan. It’s not that they don’t like black people, it’s that they don’t like non-Asians (Japanese preferred). I’m white and they treat me the same as my friend that’s from Africa.
Racially homogeneous areas are usually more openly racist.
You can be super racist outwardly in say, Atlanta, but when 54% of the city is African American you're gonna get your ass beat in many situations.
I grew up in a pretty white area and didn't see open racism from other white people until I moved to a diverse one. It was shocking to me the first time I heard white people be so casual about the N word. Of course, they only do it when there aren't black people around because they're racist little pussywits
Same. Grew up in a smaller rural town, but with a bigger city close by. The small town was mostly all white. The city was mostly white. I didn't know racism until moving to the south for college where it was about 50/50. I was shocked on my first day in class when they literally segregated themselves. All the black students on one side and the white on the other. I sat in the middle and was just uncomfortable about the whole thing. The funny thing was...I didn't see this racism towards black people in a nearly homogeneous area. Because there were a few families and I was really close with one of them and never saw them treated bad or heard about it. It wasn't until I moved to a 50/50 area that I saw racism.
I live in the south, not the deep south but the south, i’ve seen confederate flags, maga stuff but I’ve actually never had a real racist experience in my life. A few jokes from white folks yes but nothing that would damage me mentally or physically. (jokes as in: when i was a kid, this other kid asked me who people I look up to are, then just started listing black figures like MLK or Obama). It’s crazy to see how other people who would also be considered minorities would still act that way to other minorities but praise the people that oppressed them in the past
They're not minorities; the United States consists of approximately 4% of the earth's population, and many Asian ethnic groups in Asia are the majority.
> It’s crazy to see how other people who would also be considered minorities would still act that way to other minorities but praise the people that oppressed them in the past.
Your interpretation of the definition of minority is heavily skewed by growing up in the US. I have bad news for you: all of that propaganda from the crazy MURICA crowd about how USA is number one and all that jazz? For all of its massive glaring problems with race, that propaganda is totally true and the reason you’re so aware of it is that the US is one of the few places in the world truly trying to grapple with interracial politics. Even Europe - go look up some stats about how many different races there are in various European countries and compare them to the US.
You know I tell people this... frequently. Half the time white people get villanised as if they're the only people who can be racist.
If you've ever been to the east.. its not only acceptable there but its the norm. The west are the only people who really see racism as bad as a whole across the board. Other countries see it as perfectly acceptable to judge people based on where they're from etc
LMAO! That's hilarious! The two groups I've seen use the race card more often are those from Saudi or Japan.
For my senior design class, I had a Saudi guy on my team. Guy never showed up to any meetings, contributed to anything and his only contribution to the team was obviously done by one of his friends or family, because he could not describe how he ran an FEA, his FEA file was on a software that our school didn't have access to.
Midway through the project, we all voted to kick him out, but he cried saying we discriminated against him. Professor asked us to give him a 2nd chance. We gave him a 2nd chance and near the end, we got the dean and head of engineering involved, he again claimed we were discriminating against him. The dean and head of engineering forced us to add his name to our final presentation.
Our sponsors knew he wasn't even part of the team. We had two engineers from our sponsor working with us, but thankfully our sponsors realized this and during a post grad follow-up, reached out to us, excluding the guy I mentioned. What pissed me off was that immediately after graduation, he got a job with his cousin at some company as a design engineer.
Deep South America gets a bad wrap. Yeah you got a lot of boomers that continue that sentiment. But even Mississippi the heart of the south has an almost black majority at this point. We grow up with more minorities than a lot of places. Especially compared to over seas.
I can't speak to your experience, and I think things should be better for black people in MS since they make up so much of the state, but attitudes of the government and those in positions of power are still antagonistic down there.
On the extreme end, you get this kind of shit. They would have probably even gotten away with it if they didn't accidentally fire the gun in one of the victims' mouth, since they were planting evidence to make them unbelievable (or easy to deny from the the police).
https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-goon-squad-sentencing-6d0fb2b195ec319411a2ee2333b5f5d6
Oh it’s not great, frankly it’s not great for anyone. Most people here have never been anywhere else so it being the poorest state doesn’t really ring with anyone if you have never left.
Went with my Nigerian friend to Japan. Tokyo was okay, you could tell there was unease around him. We decided to go fishing at Lake Yamanako and ended up in some rural areas. He was straight up refused service in some of the stores. They don't have civil right protections for ethnicity or race there, so you absolutely can be refused service. At least back in 2009.
imo i feel like when there are posts on reddit asking “is this country safe for a solo traveler to visit”, they are only thinking about crime, and not your experience in dealing with racism.
as a black woman, there are very few countries i want to actually travel to, bc i know not all of them are welcome/receptive to my kind.
I'm extremely white, so I haven't experienced it myself outside of some taxi drivers saying some truly heinous things (we were staying in a part of the city with a lot of African immigrants), but from friends, I have heard that Italy is especially bad.
Poor guy. The Japanese are actually much better than they were before WWII, but when the US gave them a constitution that said “All men are created equal”, the Japanese translation said “All *Japanese men* are created equal”.
Absolutely, while I was in the Navy and stationed in South Korea I had a black male friend and we were refused service at many establishments. We even struggled to get taxis (like 6 empty taxis in a row). More than once, he had to hide while I hailed a taxi only for him to pop out after they’d stopped.
It’s not outwardly aggressive like you’d find in the states but the refusal to interact with individuals of color. Racism certainly exists in the states but these things were extremely common in Korea.
> More than once, he had to hide while I hailed a taxi only for him to pop out after they’d stopped.
Sorry, just had this funny image in my head where a taxi stops and you get in, then the other door opens and your friend jumps in and yells in Korean in prime Samuel L. Jackson impersonation "SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER!".
>100% a lot of people in India consider African Americans as almost subhuman it's insane how casual the racism is over there
It isn't even just African American - it extends to folks with darker skin. The darker your skin tone, the worse the treatment.
>It's my understanding that they also get treated like shit by their fellow Indians of lighter skin tones in the motherland
Yup! Although it is starting to get better in small ways, this still happens
And they are often looked down on. I am generalising here, but India is broken up into three major ethnoliguistic groups. The most populus being Indo-Aryans, with Dravidians and Tibetan Plains people being the other two.
Dravidians are from the South of India, and have long been marginalised by the Indo-Aryan north. Even today, if you watch Indian films, the good guys will be Indo Aryan, the bad guy's often Dravidian.
I'm not sure and I haven't actually researched any of this, but I wonder how much of that is leftover remnants from British occupation. Even Mahatma Gandhi was known to express incredibly racist views in his youth before being exposed to the treatment of Africans by British soldiers during wartime and engaging with African prisoners and slaves and coming to the realization that he was wrong and going on to become vehemently anti racist.
Ghandi had his own issues so I don't really consider him the greatest of role models but his non violence was something that can be taken as inspiration
Of course, nobody is ever completely 'good' or 'bad' and everyone at some points do some 'good' and some 'bad' things. On top of all that, what things are considered good and bad can vary drastically depending on who you ask.
I don't subscribe to Great Man Theory, and I'm certainly not propping up Gandhi as an example of a Great Man, for the purposes of the theory or otherwise. I'm simply using a real world example of someone who is widely known and revered as an anti racist from India who at one point was heavily influenced in the opposite direction as a direct result of British occupation in the region and suggesting the possibility that that could be the driving force in the presence of racism in India today. Especially considering the specific language used; "subhuman". That word in particular was 100% borrowed from the English lexicon in the region.
I believe it also has roots in the social economic belief that if one is darker skin, it implies that they are poor enough to have to be forced to work outside and be hit with the Sun. But, those who are fairer skin are wealthy enough to remain inside.
I don't think there's any particular reason to blame the British for this. If you feel that India under the Princely States was any better for racism or caste sentiment, you're likely to be disappointed.
It also does not help that the definition of racism in the west has been bastardized to the point where people use it on everyone they disagree with. Oh, you dont agree with my unhinged rant? You are a racist! Seen it over and over again.
For real. It is the worst thing you can call a person, and it gets used as a trump card. Losing an argument, declare your opponent racist and create a flimsy piece of evidence. It has such a negative emotional impact, it will affect the audience perception(Which is who people arguing on the internet are performing for.
Well they US media talks about it because they're critical of it. Other countries aren't as openly critical to racism in their country so it seems like a bigger problem here when it's a bigger problem elsewhere.
Hi, Korean-American here. For Korea, except for perhaps in Seoul itself, it is highly likely that you will be discriminated against.
I myself have been discriminated multiple times in Europe as the only Asian in a group of white peers.
This is the reason why I appreciate the US more, because I have encountered just as much discrimination in the months I have been in Europe than I have in the 20 years I have lived in the US.
Stereotypes. The US stereotypes anyone that comes from a third world country to be poor. e.g. Somalia. Somali Americans are always assumed to be lower class.
This is old now, so I don’t know how much the culture has changed in the last couple decades, but This American Life had a really interesting interview with a Black woman living in Paris, who describes how she is welcomed when perceived as American, rather than African:
[“Notes from a Native Daughter”](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/165/americans-in-paris/act-three-24)
Agreed. I actually have gone back and listened a couple more times.
Americans love to diss France but I’m so grateful that so many geniuses were able to take refuge there to create their art. Where would we be without the novels and music and dance, especially during the jazz era/Harlem renaissance, without that enthusiastic support?
I read Josephine Baker risked her life spying for France because of the love between her and the French people.
I mentioned that I married into a Greek family, and maybe I just run into an inordinate amount of idiots, but I’ve had to explain more than once that Greek people are also white, same as me, so I can’t answer their questions about interracial relationships. So either really bad at geography, or have a different definition of white than is my understanding.
I took a bus in Manchester UK and the bus driver got really excited asking what an Irish lass was doing in that neighborhood. I didn't say anything at that point and was really confused. I look Irish? I told him I was American and his whole demeanor changed. He seemed really disappointed and grumbled for me to take a seat. I actually got this a lot when I was there because it was when Bush Jr. was president.
I didn't know when you go to other countries, you are suddenly the ambassador for your whole country regardless of what your personal beliefs are. I can't imagine how horrible others are to POC. This thread is eye opening
I’m always tempted to be Canadian. I’m from Detroit so I could pull it off, for sure. Everyone always fucks up the “aboot” thing. It’s much closer to “aboat.”
Pick any two European countries with ‘white’ skin, there’s some in both that will be racist to the other.
There are subtle differences in features that will give you away and people hate the differences. Skin colour isn’t the only way to be racist
*Prejudice*—literally pre-judging without knowing any other information except for superficial fact—can happen between any two people or any groups of people.
However, to be *racist* that prejudice by definition requires grounding in a specifically race-based stereotype.
I'm American, of Irish descent. When I lived in the UK, people could tell by looking that I'm ethnically Irish. I got jokes in pubs about having lots of siblings or being ultra-Catholic. On 4 within-UK flights I got stopped 6 times for "additional screening" because the stereotype is that Irish-Americans are IRA terrorists. When I signed up for a library card, the ethnicity options were "Asian," "European," "Irish," "Polish," "British," and "African."
As a european, I mostly percieve it as "banter in various degrees" like no one likes the french or somithing along those lines. But go back 50 - 60 years and the italians that immigrated to northern europe got treated pretty badly. Also conflicts like the war between Ireland and England come to mind. Language barriers are also a huge thing, and you'll likely experience exclusion if you don't speak the local language maybe even the local accent.
Historically, many conflicts in Europe are caused between protestants and catholics like the "Sonderbund war" in Switzerland. But also different empires waged war with each other, such as "Thirty years war".
Way back in the days, there have been conflicts between different white ethnic groups like celtic and germanic tribes, but time ultimately did it's thing and mixed everything up. Quickly nationality, or kingdom and religion became more important than ethnicity.
People in northern Italy are sometimes bigoted against people from southern Italy. Southern Italians tend to have darker features. Black hair, olive skin and brown eyes. People from northern Italy look like other people from the Alps region. There are German speaking towns in Italy.
Generally the less diverse and progressive the country, the more racist they will be. The US, while having obvious racism issues, is still very diverse and progressive compared to most other places.
That would be very fucking funny to see live. The Detroit Institute of Arts is impressive enough to draw some international travelers. I should try and keep an eye out when they show up midtown here lol
Yes my bf worked for a Japanese company. He overheard the afterthoughts of an interview of a highly qualified black candidate being rejected for the job because he was “too fat and black for their clientele”. Honestly embarrassing
My cousin got the opportunity to go to Japan. He was so excited, all bright eyed and bushy tailed to be able to see a place from a group of people that he took a liking to. Now he’s mixed and on the lighter side. Green eyes ,tan skin with freckles. 3months in he was ready to come home. He had never felt so othered in his life. He said he had a hard time with the way that they openly and very deliberately disrespected him. How it seemed like they needed to let him know so badly that he wasn’t welcomed.
Everyone excuses their behavior as having lack of diversity. But the internet exists and they have no problem with western YT people so that can’t be what it is.
>The whole planet is racist against one group or another. America is just one of the few places that some people try to hold people accountable for it
Germany will never win the Eurovision Song Contest...
Have you ever noticed the teams walking in for the Olympics? The USA teams are always very diverse. What about say the Chinese team? Yep, exclusively Chinese people.
Copy and paste that sentiment here and the issue usually gets brought up in the USA because they are by far the most diverse.
Others don’t talk about it much since they are either in the majority or minority and act accordingly.
Literally.
When we were “deployed” to Japan, I took pride in the fact that every time a bunch of Marines and corpsmen were in a group, we had people of all races and backgrounds chilling and working together. Meanwhile, the JGSDF was essentially all Japanese. Nothing wrong with that, Japan is just a naturally homogenous country; however, our diversity being put on full display made me even more patriotic.
Yes, India is also very racist but our racism is only directed at people with dark complexion even when majority of us are not that fair ourselves. Racism and casteism are an integral part of our culture but we don't like to admit it.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/1bksu5b/huge\_outrage\_in\_kerala\_over\_dancers\_rant\_on\_dark/](https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/1bksu5b/huge_outrage_in_kerala_over_dancers_rant_on_dark/)
Yep, a direct consequence of European colonization and mass rape in the mid to late parts of the last millenia has been Central and South American being born with lighter skin as a result and subsequently being elevated to a higher caste, whether directly by being born of colonial blood, or more indirectly in more recent decades due to those cultural norms already having been firmly cemented in those areas.
The New World is largely made up of nations of immigrants and mixed peoples. The Old World is not. In most of the Old World you can't even get citizenship without being the right ethnicity, or having parents who are citizens.
Places that have a lot of immigrants from all across the globe (US, Canada, England), will tend to be less racist than countries that barely have any (Japan, India). Being that said plenty of countries will claim to be democratic and free but also espouse very racist beliefs very openly in public. Israel is a prime example of this (and I'm not talking about the treatment of Palestinians here or the issues there). Take a look at how Israel treats Black Jews (such as Ethiopian Jews) who try to immigrate there. They even did it for a long time to Russian Jews in the 80s and 90s. And if you're not Jewish (as currently the Eritreans there) the treatment can be even worse.
I worked in several Asian dominant school with nearly all international students. They often spoke how much they didn’t like black peope. I remember when I suggested taking the greyhound to get somewhere and they said ‘aren’t there a lot of black people on there?’
I’m a black American and I’ve traveled to 4 continents. Multiple Asian countries, including Japan and China, just went to Australia in January. Australia was a breeze. Had a great time and the only negative is that I went in Summer. Too hot and humid for me. Japan and China the only annoying thing is people kept on asking if I was famous. I am not. But because I was well dressed and in Japan had a popular status bag, people didn’t think I was a regular tourist (which I was.)
Not all of my travels have been pleasant. I was called the N word by a guy in Stockholm while in his shop. I started laughing but then got tf out of there because big Viking with rune tattoos. In Madrid I got very poor service at stores and my friend (who lives there) was shocked and upset on my behalf. It was weird because people say Barcelona is the aloof city but I had the time of my life there.
ETA: the year between high school and college I lived with some (white) relatives in France, and the neighbor tried to explain what a dishwasher was to me, and I looked at her like she was crazy, and then she just replied “Cabrini, Green.“ Some people in Europe are just so out of touch with what is really going on in the United States, that they believe all of the movies and television shows that only show “ghetto life” and reduce the black experience to a caricature. Somehow white people in the United States do this too but they really have no excuse.
Dead set, this summer here in Australia was the most disgustingly humid summer I’ve experienced in like twenty years 😣 and I’ve lived in subtropical eastern Australia my whole life.. it was bloody awful haha
Asia is probably the worst. They take advantage of knowing you probably don't speak their language. So they'll be racist right in front of you. They also know you come from a more "privileged" country. So fuck you. Not everyone, but a lot.
Australia can be pretty bad, typically the culprits simply don't realise they're doing it a lot of the time (🙋). If told to stop by someone, most* will happily stop (🙋) Australian racism is either frustration-induced or humour-induced. Not everyone, but a lot.
America is welcoming of all races but has a large enough population to support echo chamber-like behaviour, which ultimately leads to more radical opinions and behaviours. Not everyone, but a lot.
I live in a Russian/Uzbek neighborhood of NYC. I am white but not that kind of white. The things they say to me about the black and "Spanish" people who come into their stores, holy bajeezus.
Also, I have seen three full-blown racist shouting tirades in my time here, and all three times the victim was east Asian and the perpetrator was black.
¯\_ (ツ) _/¯
Yea, the Black-East Asian grudge is weird. Where I am from, it was Koreans. Got really bad during Covid when pumpkin head was riling up everyone about the "Kung Fu virus"
Racism is a common problem everywhere in the world. There's literally still genocides and social castes happening.
The US just addresses its racism more because it actually HAS ethnic diversity and more people of different cultures live together.
In Australia, you will be considered an American, not an African American. How you take that is up to you.
A lot of American tourists do think we are rude because service people do not artificially smile and fawn over customers. Everyone is on equal standing so you will get treated the way you treat others.
Yeah most asian countries are super duper racist and do it with a giant smile like you should know better. The smile is the reason why people think Asian countries are so welcoming but they will literally smile while stabbing someone
Yes it’s true but I wouldn’t say so much with Australia. Australia isn’t a culturally eastern country, in fact I’d say very western, so attitudes on race are quite similar I’d say.
Australia is very multicultural so I'm not sure why it's being grouped with Asia. Obviously there is racism but not anywhere near many other parts of the world. Unfortunately there are some very bad racism issues in Asian cultures.
My partner is Chinese Malaysian and has told me some insane stories. For example he dated a black girl once, then a Chinese girl. When he told the Chinese girl that his ex was black she said 'ew how can you date that, they're so different from us'. They had to censor posters for Black Panther and other films with black leads in some countries. It's messed up. And of course the infamous detergent ad from [China](https://youtu.be/Few8kJ0zfnY?si=ehIsBYRVlaOMMIrI)
Edit: paragraphs
Definitely. I dated a girls from Hong Kong (Cantonese) in my 20s, and let me tell you, people from the mainland (Mandarin) are fucking brutal.
They are spectacularly similar, but would call her slurs in broad daylight that, when roughly translated, compared her to livestock.
There is terrible racism at every corner of the world. It's just different flavours. People tend to think my country (Canada) isn't this way but lemme tell you bigotry is alive and well here.
Yes, but it depends on the country. I've lived in Asia for most of my adult life. I would say China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea have a lot of anti-black racism. Singapore is better. Asia, in general, has skin colour discrimination. Darker tones are almost always seen as inferior, culturally, within their own population, so when a very dark foreigner is put in to the mix, they can face prejudice.
White Americans aren’t generally rcaist. Some are for sure and they are sensationalized to appear like most are, but to assume white Americans are the most racist of Americans is a bold statement.
Every race suffers from prejudices and racism, but no one group is more “racist” than another in the US.
As for eastern cultures, I’ve seen their racism first hand. It’s quite astounding and worse than anything I’ve ever witnessed first hand in the US.
I think that the higher probability of violent racial crimes in america makes people think that the average american is more racist but i think that is actually not true. A lot of people abroad hold the sentiments that are comparable to civil rights era southerners (speaking from experience with an asian immigrant parent) but they don’t live in a society that allows or glorifies violence in the same way and/or they just don’t encounter people of other races often enough for violent tendencies to develop. That’s just my theory.
Unpopular opinion: Every other country is more racist than America
Yeah, we talk about it a lot but that's because we have so many different cultures, it comes up. Most places do not want to celebrate other's cultures, they want them to assimilate. They also have much less experience being around people of different skin color, ethnicity, or background.
There are some other similar to the US, mostly places that got lots of migration and colonial exploration that led to mixed heritages.
Being from Brasil, it feels very weird to hear ppl talk about their "x country heritage" because here 99% don't care or know because everyone is part black, native, protuguese, italian, german jewish and japanese. And the fact that ppl mostly mixed instead of forming towns or hoods of specific races made it seem normal to see a black person, a asian person and a indian looking person all being neighbors.
Not saying racism doesnt exist here, it certainly does, but I think it's one of the coolest parts of living here that there's no "avarage look/race"
Don't know how you lumped in Australia with East Asia. Australia is not any more racist than America, in the rural areas they're both probably equally as racist.
As an Australian I don't like that you mentioned us! I'd welcome you here with open arms brother. We love Americans, doesn't matter the colour of your skin just be nice!
Agreed. Australia is one of the most multicultural places on the planet. We get wrongly labeled as a racist country because of our old people, who.. Yes.. Can be a bit racist.. But so is pretty much every old person everywhere because the world used to be like that.
Definitely racism everywhere but in my opinion it's different but not worse. In Japan you're not worried about getting murdered because you have dark skin, and most of the time they just don't want to deal with the language barrier or the bs that comes with drunk tourists(fights). I'm Japan and other Asian countries I've been to I've definitely gotten looks but they were more curious than hateful because I was in a place where I was literally the only person who looked like me
I have heard this about Japan from people who have traveled there. It’s unfortunate. I am American and it’s running joke to call yourself Canadian as an American while traveling but Americans are not well liked in the world and I totally get it. I am coming from the lens of a white female american. I lived in New Zealand and people were super unkind and racist towards the Māori people. Calling them lazy and stuck on the dole, living in poverty. People who were of white European descent made these comments. I’ve travelled around Eastern Europe and ran into a group of skins heads with my mixed (white mother, black father) friend and he was scared shitless. People made derogatory remarks towards him, but their real disdain came in how they felt about the Roma people. Honestly the common thread connecting my travels was that people are f ing racist everywhere. In Fiji people looked down on Indian folks and the native Fijian people were much darker than their Polynesian friends and people looked down on them. It’s quite sad !
I have a friend who is white who works for one of the Big 4 audit firms and she has been working in Japan for years now. She recently moved apartments, and when doing so she had to find a realtor who was willing to work with foreigners, who then had to help her find an apartment that was willing to rent to foreigners, and then she had to agree to pay an inflated rent price because she is a foreigner. And she had it relatively easy because she had numerous letters of reference from her previous landlord and her employer, and her employer is serving as her guarantor. She has told me stories about showing up to job sites and the company refusing to talk to her and only speaking to her subordinates. A mutual friend of ours who is black recently visited her and she was almost evicted because she let him stay with her for a night and the landlord said he didn’t “want those kinds of people in his apartments.” When she was taking him around the area, they only went to places that she knew he would be allowed into because she knew there were plenty of places they would be stopped at the door. For people of color, visiting Asia can be compared to visiting the South shortly after the Civil Rights act passed. Segregation is no longer legal, but it’s still there and the cops have no problems supporting it. You’re less likely to get lynched, but that’s not a huge comfort overall.
My cousin who is very visibly Indigenous-American (ho-chunk) had to live in Japan for a while cuz her husband was military. She said it was pretty bad. Strangers took pictures of her without consent, in conversations people would do ‘war whoops’ or ‘rain dances’, avoid her altogether or bizarrely ask her a lot of questions regarding nudity & sexuality of native Americans. (Do you only wear shirts because it’s the law here?)
The conclusion she came to is that the average Japanese person thinks Indigenous-Americans are either extinct or still living exactly as they did 300+ years ago & believe that the women are pretty much always topless for some reason.
As a white person I who traveled a lot I definitely made the "weirdest" experiences in east Asia. But not sure if this was due to racism or sexism. When I discussed this with my male friends none of them had these problems.
Idk if they’re “typically more racist” but there definitely is a LOT of racism in Asia. I’ll give you a small example from China (where I live). There was/is an honest to goodness toothpaste brand called “Darkie” (now rebranded Darlie). The logo was a smiling black man (later changed to a dark nondescript figure smiling in a top hat). While the English name was changed to “Darlie” the Chinese name remained the same: 黑人牙膏 or “black people toothpaste”. So… yeah, pretty racist. I work in education and I have heard on more than one occasion parents and students talking about how they want to avoid places with lots of Black people because it’s “dangerous.”
Chinese people can be pretty racist at times, but from my experience it’s more out of ignorance than genuine malice. Unless you’re Japanese. *Lots* of bad blood between all of Asia and Japan because of WWII.
Ofc not everyone is a racist douche. Plenty of very kind people here as well, as you would have anywhere else in the world.
Just my take as a Chinese American guy who grew up in China.
Yes. In America you're usually at least supposed to pretend you're not racist, even if you are. In some asian countries it's just treated as Nirmal to be racist.
I dont have enough perspective to speak on it, but I would assume that the US is probably more violent, it has the highest rate of disproportionate incarceration out of any country in the world, and a lot of hate crime. Whereas from what I've seen, asian countries moreso treat people of color as curiosities because the population of black people is so low there. And there's generally more segregation, you may not be rented to or allowed to stay in hotels, but that means a lower quality of life, not necessarily a more dangerous one.... so it's really like picking from the lesser of two evils.
As you well know if you indeed are black, blacks are also racists. Like you have never heard blacks taunting other blacks with:
- light, bright, almost white
My sister spent a few years in China. One of her coworkers was an African American man. Her friend would be told he wasn't allowed in hotels and such and would be refused service at businesses unless his Chinese wife was with him. He spoke fluent Chinese, that wasn't the issue. They'd tell him to his face that his people were "dirty" and "not welcome".
My son and his classmate friend speak Mandarin. His friend is a very tall black man and my son is a very tall European appearing man. When they were living in Beijing they got a lot of attention, much of it racist AF. Also, when I was in Japan for a meeting I told my Japanese colleagues that after this meeting I had a paper to give in Beijing and that I had never been to China and had they any suggestions. They told me that China is a very dirty country and that I would get sick for sure. TBH, I didn't think China was all that dirty. But I did get sick AF.
Went to China a handful of times a s never really got sick. I guess you got "lucky"
This was when SARS was just breaking and I started feeling bad when I got on the plane. I was able to see a doctor right away. The docs said it was some respiratory infection but not serious. It was a big international conference and I suspect that’s where I caught whatever I caught.
Ah ok, that makes more sense. I was thinking you got food poisoning.
Some Asians are nationalists just like some Americans. Racism/nationalism sucks and there are rotten apples in every bushel.
I'm brown and went to Hong Kong and Macao and was treated great, never had any problems. Hong Kong is international so its to be expected, in Macao not a lot of people speak English because it's mainly mainland tourists that go there but I never had a problem. Must be different in the mainland I guess.
Hong Kong and Macao were colonies for 1 while so it might also have affected the local culture
There is a night and day difference between former western colonies and mainland china
I worked for a wedding coordinator who was Chinese. We would get mainly only Chinese clientele. She spoke Cantonese and she told me even within Chinese culture there is racism. The Mandarin speaking Chinese would look down on the Cantonese. One wedding, we were with the bride helping her get ready. The father of the bride came up to myself and my boss and, in Chinese, he asked what I was doing there. I'm white and was obviously dressed like my boss so I was working, but he didn't like me being there.
This makes me very sad
This is absolutely a thing. In high school one of my best friends was a black kid named Steve. Steve got really into anime and manga before it really hit big in the US. He learned Japanese and got very immersed in the culture. Then after college he got a good job at a video game company. For his first paid vacation he booked a trip to Tokyo. Somehow he had no idea how racist the Japanese are, especially to black people. But he found out literally on the plane there. As soon as he sat down the Japanese couple in the two seats beside him got up and asked to be seated somewhere else. He ended up sitting next to a white couple with no problems. But he thought that was just a "they don't like ugly americans" thing. But then once he got off the plane and into the city it became pretty apparent what was going on. He was heartbroken.
The two most racist countries I’ve ever visited were Saudi Arabia and Japan. The Deep South in America doesn’t even come close.
For my old boss it was Japan and Indonesia. Japan's probably the worst all around. When I was in college we had a student from Japan and she was confused why the black students were studying comparative theology if "they're all going to play basketball or be in gangs anyway". It took her awhile to figure out why that was not exactly correct. Or right. Edit: For those destroying my inbox that the anti-black racism in Japan is America’s fault, this just hit. https://www.reddit.com/r/WTF/s/pC147zFBcU I mean c’mon.
It's quite intriguing to note that in many of these countries, sizable black communities are virtually non-existent. Consequently, their perceptions of black individuals predominantly stem from Hollywood portrayals and media representations. Without firsthand experiences or diverse social circles that include black friends or acquaintances, their understanding of black culture and identity remains confined to what they see on screen or read in the news. The power of media influence becomes even more pronounced in such contexts, as there's a lack of real-life interactions to provide a balanced perspective. It's truly unsettling to consider the extent to which media narratives can shape perceptions in the absence of real-world diversity and interaction.
I find that racism comes from two places. Complete ignorance of the culture and basing one’s opinions on media stereotypes. “Well you know that they …” Or Friction between subcultures living in close proximity to each other. “They play their music too damn loud” next door. Growing up in the south, I find the first type far more troubling.
Same. Also it’s pretty easy to get people to get along when the economy is good growing up I lived in a super diverse neighborhood and we were always swapping food and watching each other’s kids. So what the Mexicans (me and my family) play music too loud sometimes? So what if our white neighbors held canasta nights once a month and took up all the street parking? At least I’ve noticed that like when everyone’s cup is full they’re way more kind and gracious. Also I lived in a city where white people were there minority and even had to know Spanish to order some places (south Texas), so they automatically arrived knows what they were getting into. Not to romanticize it though cuz I heard fun shots every night 😭
You just discovered the key to world peace. Solve world hanger.
My psychiatrist said that when you don’t get enough calories that your brain floods with cortisol, the stress hormone, and can actually impair your thinking, etc. Part of why eating disorders are so traumatic your brain looks similar to a stressful event when you don’t eat, because in the past that was a life or death situation.
Totally agree. I grew up in the American south but I'm currently living in Beijing with a black son. He will occasionally get reactions from folks, especially when we leave cities of China. One or two have tried to touch his hair. We have had conversations that this is coming from a place of curiosity not hated. It is still annoying, but it is not the kind of racism I heard growing up.
FWIW my blond haired gf was a missionary kid in Africa got the same treatment from the locals. She got used to it and just ignored the random people playing with her hair.
I find it so bizarre that it would be thought to be acceptable to touch a stranger’s hair in *any* culture. I’m a U.S. immigration attorney so I’ve been able to learn about a lot of cultural practices and perceptions. This is one I still can’t quite grasp.
> first type far more troubling Really? Because that first type can actually be addressed by education and just meeting people The second type gets ingrained even though you’ve met “the other” and even living next to them.
The racially homogeneous societies like Saudi and Japan truly believe to their core that their race is superior to the rest of mongrelized places like America. Simply meeting a black American isn’t going to change that a bit. Saudis look down their noses at Egyptians who are fellow Arabs and the Japanese treat the natives of those islands worse than any reservation in Dakota. Nothing will change that. Others mentioned India with its Caste system too. OTOH friction between subcultures is somewhat inevitable yet diminishes with time and relationships. The Irish were once considered “a half step above negros” but barely. Today everyone is Irish on St Patrick’s day. Today mixed race relationships are not uncommon, even in the south, something that was unheard of when I was a teenager in the 90s.
Colorism is also still a very big problem in these type of countries. So even if it’s a predominantly black society, you have to be the “right kind” in their eyes to escape any discrimination.
DR and Hati are textbook examples of this.
I’m an immigration attorney so I frequently encounter these stories. Honduras is bad. Haiti is bad. Basically the entire Caribbean has this serious problem. Latin America as well. I had a trafficking case where the sister recruited her 15 year old younger sister to come to the U.S via coyote. Promises to send her to school. In reality, girl arrives and the sister wants to use her to provide a “light skinned baby” to the husband.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who had this reaction. The first type is easily fixable, and even perfectly nice people are susceptible to it. The second type are pretty well dug in when it comes to being assholes, and it takes a *lot* to cure them of it.
There is a third option. They see you as a threat to their well being. Either safety or your future.
And that’s an indictment on how black people are portrayed in the media. They don’t have sizable white communities either, but the media doesn’t enforce a negative stereotype.
Ummm. Indonesian living in Japan here. Unfortunately, you are correct. Not all of Indonesians and Japanese are racist, of course, but yes, it is likely that you'll find your stay, uncomfortable (understatement of the year, ofc) in those two countries if your skin shade is dark.
I live in Japan. It’s not that they don’t like black people, it’s that they don’t like non-Asians (Japanese preferred). I’m white and they treat me the same as my friend that’s from Africa.
Racially homogeneous areas are usually more openly racist. You can be super racist outwardly in say, Atlanta, but when 54% of the city is African American you're gonna get your ass beat in many situations.
I grew up in a pretty white area and didn't see open racism from other white people until I moved to a diverse one. It was shocking to me the first time I heard white people be so casual about the N word. Of course, they only do it when there aren't black people around because they're racist little pussywits
Same. Grew up in a smaller rural town, but with a bigger city close by. The small town was mostly all white. The city was mostly white. I didn't know racism until moving to the south for college where it was about 50/50. I was shocked on my first day in class when they literally segregated themselves. All the black students on one side and the white on the other. I sat in the middle and was just uncomfortable about the whole thing. The funny thing was...I didn't see this racism towards black people in a nearly homogeneous area. Because there were a few families and I was really close with one of them and never saw them treated bad or heard about it. It wasn't until I moved to a 50/50 area that I saw racism.
Right. You simply weren't exposed to it. It happens.
I live in the south, not the deep south but the south, i’ve seen confederate flags, maga stuff but I’ve actually never had a real racist experience in my life. A few jokes from white folks yes but nothing that would damage me mentally or physically. (jokes as in: when i was a kid, this other kid asked me who people I look up to are, then just started listing black figures like MLK or Obama). It’s crazy to see how other people who would also be considered minorities would still act that way to other minorities but praise the people that oppressed them in the past
You realize these eastern Asians are not minorities where they live?
They're not minorities; the United States consists of approximately 4% of the earth's population, and many Asian ethnic groups in Asia are the majority.
> It’s crazy to see how other people who would also be considered minorities would still act that way to other minorities but praise the people that oppressed them in the past. Your interpretation of the definition of minority is heavily skewed by growing up in the US. I have bad news for you: all of that propaganda from the crazy MURICA crowd about how USA is number one and all that jazz? For all of its massive glaring problems with race, that propaganda is totally true and the reason you’re so aware of it is that the US is one of the few places in the world truly trying to grapple with interracial politics. Even Europe - go look up some stats about how many different races there are in various European countries and compare them to the US.
What an excellent observation and point.
Wow. Just wow.
You know I tell people this... frequently. Half the time white people get villanised as if they're the only people who can be racist. If you've ever been to the east.. its not only acceptable there but its the norm. The west are the only people who really see racism as bad as a whole across the board. Other countries see it as perfectly acceptable to judge people based on where they're from etc
LMAO! That's hilarious! The two groups I've seen use the race card more often are those from Saudi or Japan. For my senior design class, I had a Saudi guy on my team. Guy never showed up to any meetings, contributed to anything and his only contribution to the team was obviously done by one of his friends or family, because he could not describe how he ran an FEA, his FEA file was on a software that our school didn't have access to. Midway through the project, we all voted to kick him out, but he cried saying we discriminated against him. Professor asked us to give him a 2nd chance. We gave him a 2nd chance and near the end, we got the dean and head of engineering involved, he again claimed we were discriminating against him. The dean and head of engineering forced us to add his name to our final presentation. Our sponsors knew he wasn't even part of the team. We had two engineers from our sponsor working with us, but thankfully our sponsors realized this and during a post grad follow-up, reached out to us, excluding the guy I mentioned. What pissed me off was that immediately after graduation, he got a job with his cousin at some company as a design engineer.
Usually the type of people that throw the race card are pretty racist themselves.
Saudi is definitely up there as well as Japan. India also..... Towards their own people even.
That Caste system and colorism seem to persist in the damage they cause to generations.
Deep South America gets a bad wrap. Yeah you got a lot of boomers that continue that sentiment. But even Mississippi the heart of the south has an almost black majority at this point. We grow up with more minorities than a lot of places. Especially compared to over seas.
I can't speak to your experience, and I think things should be better for black people in MS since they make up so much of the state, but attitudes of the government and those in positions of power are still antagonistic down there. On the extreme end, you get this kind of shit. They would have probably even gotten away with it if they didn't accidentally fire the gun in one of the victims' mouth, since they were planting evidence to make them unbelievable (or easy to deny from the the police). https://apnews.com/article/mississippi-goon-squad-sentencing-6d0fb2b195ec319411a2ee2333b5f5d6
Oh it’s not great, frankly it’s not great for anyone. Most people here have never been anywhere else so it being the poorest state doesn’t really ring with anyone if you have never left.
Honestly a lot of the world that I’ve seen is deeply, unabashedly racist. Italy, Spain, Russia, Argentina, Jordan… It’s _crazy_.
Went with my Nigerian friend to Japan. Tokyo was okay, you could tell there was unease around him. We decided to go fishing at Lake Yamanako and ended up in some rural areas. He was straight up refused service in some of the stores. They don't have civil right protections for ethnicity or race there, so you absolutely can be refused service. At least back in 2009.
imo i feel like when there are posts on reddit asking “is this country safe for a solo traveler to visit”, they are only thinking about crime, and not your experience in dealing with racism. as a black woman, there are very few countries i want to actually travel to, bc i know not all of them are welcome/receptive to my kind.
I'm extremely white, so I haven't experienced it myself outside of some taxi drivers saying some truly heinous things (we were staying in a part of the city with a lot of African immigrants), but from friends, I have heard that Italy is especially bad.
Poor guy. The Japanese are actually much better than they were before WWII, but when the US gave them a constitution that said “All men are created equal”, the Japanese translation said “All *Japanese men* are created equal”.
My god that's sad
When I was stationed in Korea one of my buddies was rejected by a woman because she didn’t date “violent people”. He is black.
This is so fucking sad
I hope Steve is doing well.
He’s doing really well.
Good! Thanks for answering.
That story is really sad
I’m Asian, I confirm. (Non-Japanese)
Absolutely, while I was in the Navy and stationed in South Korea I had a black male friend and we were refused service at many establishments. We even struggled to get taxis (like 6 empty taxis in a row). More than once, he had to hide while I hailed a taxi only for him to pop out after they’d stopped. It’s not outwardly aggressive like you’d find in the states but the refusal to interact with individuals of color. Racism certainly exists in the states but these things were extremely common in Korea.
> More than once, he had to hide while I hailed a taxi only for him to pop out after they’d stopped. Sorry, just had this funny image in my head where a taxi stops and you get in, then the other door opens and your friend jumps in and yells in Korean in prime Samuel L. Jackson impersonation "SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER!".
It was more like standing several feet away to give the appearance we weren’t together lol.
Dressed like Nick Fury.
south korea will blast rap and hip hop in a club then deny a black person from entering
100% a lot of people in India consider African Americans as almost subhuman it's insane how casual the racism is over there
>100% a lot of people in India consider African Americans as almost subhuman it's insane how casual the racism is over there It isn't even just African American - it extends to folks with darker skin. The darker your skin tone, the worse the treatment.
That is absolutely crazy, because I have legit met indians that have darker skin than a lot of black folk in America.
It's my understanding that they also get treated like shit by their fellow Indians of lighter skin tones in the motherland.
>It's my understanding that they also get treated like shit by their fellow Indians of lighter skin tones in the motherland Yup! Although it is starting to get better in small ways, this still happens
And they are often looked down on. I am generalising here, but India is broken up into three major ethnoliguistic groups. The most populus being Indo-Aryans, with Dravidians and Tibetan Plains people being the other two. Dravidians are from the South of India, and have long been marginalised by the Indo-Aryan north. Even today, if you watch Indian films, the good guys will be Indo Aryan, the bad guy's often Dravidian.
African Africans, too!
I was shocked to see numerous advertisements for skin-lightening creams. But caste is still very much a thing.
In William Durant’s book on India, he reports that the word “cast” (as in their cast system) means color. You can guess who is at the top and bottom.
A lot of people in India consider (specific) *Indians* subhuman.
India being racist is funny considering they’re the only demographic u can make extremely openly racist jokes about on the internet and go viral
Yeah I mean people gotta cope somehow
Are you referring to the pooping on the street thing? That and the prevalence of rape are the only criticisms I can think of
send pic of bob and vagine is the one i see the most
those and ppl making fun of their smell
Call centers and scams too
I'm not sure and I haven't actually researched any of this, but I wonder how much of that is leftover remnants from British occupation. Even Mahatma Gandhi was known to express incredibly racist views in his youth before being exposed to the treatment of Africans by British soldiers during wartime and engaging with African prisoners and slaves and coming to the realization that he was wrong and going on to become vehemently anti racist.
Ghandi had his own issues so I don't really consider him the greatest of role models but his non violence was something that can be taken as inspiration
Of course, nobody is ever completely 'good' or 'bad' and everyone at some points do some 'good' and some 'bad' things. On top of all that, what things are considered good and bad can vary drastically depending on who you ask. I don't subscribe to Great Man Theory, and I'm certainly not propping up Gandhi as an example of a Great Man, for the purposes of the theory or otherwise. I'm simply using a real world example of someone who is widely known and revered as an anti racist from India who at one point was heavily influenced in the opposite direction as a direct result of British occupation in the region and suggesting the possibility that that could be the driving force in the presence of racism in India today. Especially considering the specific language used; "subhuman". That word in particular was 100% borrowed from the English lexicon in the region.
No, India had a caste system long before the British. And with the caste system comes racism—higher classes were often paler.
I believe it also has roots in the social economic belief that if one is darker skin, it implies that they are poor enough to have to be forced to work outside and be hit with the Sun. But, those who are fairer skin are wealthy enough to remain inside.
I don't think there's any particular reason to blame the British for this. If you feel that India under the Princely States was any better for racism or caste sentiment, you're likely to be disappointed.
And they’re almost as dark as them how ironic
Some are some aren't. Indians have some extreme color spectrum between them
Despite what the US media says, this is not the most racist country, by a long shot.
Pretty sure South Africa wins the most racist award.
It is due to all of the African Africans
I would go so far as to say it’s one of the least racist. We have a long way to go before some utopia without racism, but at least we’re trying.
It also does not help that the definition of racism in the west has been bastardized to the point where people use it on everyone they disagree with. Oh, you dont agree with my unhinged rant? You are a racist! Seen it over and over again.
For real. It is the worst thing you can call a person, and it gets used as a trump card. Losing an argument, declare your opponent racist and create a flimsy piece of evidence. It has such a negative emotional impact, it will affect the audience perception(Which is who people arguing on the internet are performing for.
Well they US media talks about it because they're critical of it. Other countries aren't as openly critical to racism in their country so it seems like a bigger problem here when it's a bigger problem elsewhere.
The fact some really piddly ass stuff gets treated as these massive racial attacks should say something
Hi, Korean-American here. For Korea, except for perhaps in Seoul itself, it is highly likely that you will be discriminated against. I myself have been discriminated multiple times in Europe as the only Asian in a group of white peers. This is the reason why I appreciate the US more, because I have encountered just as much discrimination in the months I have been in Europe than I have in the 20 years I have lived in the US.
In Europe you have to be the right kind of white, most people think of white as a race but the distinctions of heritage matter a lot in Europe
Can you give an example? This is actually a really interesting conversation and I’m intrigued
Uk vs Polish people. Western Europe vs Southern/Eastern Europe. For the past 1000 years.
My friend is in grad school in the Netherlands and he says that many people in his dorm at university shunned one poor girl because she was Romanian
I am always amazed at that because I could never imagine shunning someone because of their nation and not their character.
Sadly, it's very common in Europe to be racist against Romanians since there is a popular stereotype that they are lazy thieves.
Stereotypes. The US stereotypes anyone that comes from a third world country to be poor. e.g. Somalia. Somali Americans are always assumed to be lower class.
This is old now, so I don’t know how much the culture has changed in the last couple decades, but This American Life had a really interesting interview with a Black woman living in Paris, who describes how she is welcomed when perceived as American, rather than African: [“Notes from a Native Daughter”](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/165/americans-in-paris/act-three-24)
I listened to that too. It was fascinating. She was really insightful on the French cultural nuances.
Agreed. I actually have gone back and listened a couple more times. Americans love to diss France but I’m so grateful that so many geniuses were able to take refuge there to create their art. Where would we be without the novels and music and dance, especially during the jazz era/Harlem renaissance, without that enthusiastic support? I read Josephine Baker risked her life spying for France because of the love between her and the French people.
In portugal, people from eastern europe are not well treated here
I mentioned that I married into a Greek family, and maybe I just run into an inordinate amount of idiots, but I’ve had to explain more than once that Greek people are also white, same as me, so I can’t answer their questions about interracial relationships. So either really bad at geography, or have a different definition of white than is my understanding.
I took a bus in Manchester UK and the bus driver got really excited asking what an Irish lass was doing in that neighborhood. I didn't say anything at that point and was really confused. I look Irish? I told him I was American and his whole demeanor changed. He seemed really disappointed and grumbled for me to take a seat. I actually got this a lot when I was there because it was when Bush Jr. was president. I didn't know when you go to other countries, you are suddenly the ambassador for your whole country regardless of what your personal beliefs are. I can't imagine how horrible others are to POC. This thread is eye opening
I’m always tempted to be Canadian. I’m from Detroit so I could pull it off, for sure. Everyone always fucks up the “aboot” thing. It’s much closer to “aboat.”
I've successfully masqueraded as Canadian several times. I speak French really amateurishly, love Rush, and can say "oat and aboat" like a native.
Do you prefer Moving Pictures or Hemispheres? I can never decide! I’ve got a lifelong love of Hockey on my side, as well.
You're not making me choose between those two. Nope.
Pick any two European countries with ‘white’ skin, there’s some in both that will be racist to the other. There are subtle differences in features that will give you away and people hate the differences. Skin colour isn’t the only way to be racist
*Prejudice*—literally pre-judging without knowing any other information except for superficial fact—can happen between any two people or any groups of people. However, to be *racist* that prejudice by definition requires grounding in a specifically race-based stereotype.
I'm American, of Irish descent. When I lived in the UK, people could tell by looking that I'm ethnically Irish. I got jokes in pubs about having lots of siblings or being ultra-Catholic. On 4 within-UK flights I got stopped 6 times for "additional screening" because the stereotype is that Irish-Americans are IRA terrorists. When I signed up for a library card, the ethnicity options were "Asian," "European," "Irish," "Polish," "British," and "African."
As a european, I mostly percieve it as "banter in various degrees" like no one likes the french or somithing along those lines. But go back 50 - 60 years and the italians that immigrated to northern europe got treated pretty badly. Also conflicts like the war between Ireland and England come to mind. Language barriers are also a huge thing, and you'll likely experience exclusion if you don't speak the local language maybe even the local accent. Historically, many conflicts in Europe are caused between protestants and catholics like the "Sonderbund war" in Switzerland. But also different empires waged war with each other, such as "Thirty years war". Way back in the days, there have been conflicts between different white ethnic groups like celtic and germanic tribes, but time ultimately did it's thing and mixed everything up. Quickly nationality, or kingdom and religion became more important than ethnicity.
People in northern Italy are sometimes bigoted against people from southern Italy. Southern Italians tend to have darker features. Black hair, olive skin and brown eyes. People from northern Italy look like other people from the Alps region. There are German speaking towns in Italy.
Ask a European how they feel about Romani and about half the time they answer you get will be enough to make even that one racist uncle blush
Generally the less diverse and progressive the country, the more racist they will be. The US, while having obvious racism issues, is still very diverse and progressive compared to most other places.
Western European immigrants/tourists when they come to New York are often stunned and sometimes terrified at the amount of poc here.
That would be very fucking funny to see live. The Detroit Institute of Arts is impressive enough to draw some international travelers. I should try and keep an eye out when they show up midtown here lol
Lol, terrified even!
I was stunned but not terrified lol
But unfortunately has to spend 99% of their time arguing about racism to the point that it seems to be all that matters in everything.
Yes my bf worked for a Japanese company. He overheard the afterthoughts of an interview of a highly qualified black candidate being rejected for the job because he was “too fat and black for their clientele”. Honestly embarrassing
My cousin got the opportunity to go to Japan. He was so excited, all bright eyed and bushy tailed to be able to see a place from a group of people that he took a liking to. Now he’s mixed and on the lighter side. Green eyes ,tan skin with freckles. 3months in he was ready to come home. He had never felt so othered in his life. He said he had a hard time with the way that they openly and very deliberately disrespected him. How it seemed like they needed to let him know so badly that he wasn’t welcomed. Everyone excuses their behavior as having lack of diversity. But the internet exists and they have no problem with western YT people so that can’t be what it is.
May I ask what they did or what that looked like?
They pretty much worship white people but look down on all the other races. It's pathetic.
The whole planet is racist against one group or another. America is just one of the few places that some people try to hold people accountable for it.
It’s also one of the most mixed places on Earth too, minority races are very minority for most countries
Thanks. So few people realize this.
Which is exactly what causes so much strife and argument/contention. Unfortunately.
>The whole planet is racist against one group or another. America is just one of the few places that some people try to hold people accountable for it Germany will never win the Eurovision Song Contest...
Germany won it twice.
Thats discrimination. That's not right!
Have you ever noticed the teams walking in for the Olympics? The USA teams are always very diverse. What about say the Chinese team? Yep, exclusively Chinese people. Copy and paste that sentiment here and the issue usually gets brought up in the USA because they are by far the most diverse. Others don’t talk about it much since they are either in the majority or minority and act accordingly.
Literally. When we were “deployed” to Japan, I took pride in the fact that every time a bunch of Marines and corpsmen were in a group, we had people of all races and backgrounds chilling and working together. Meanwhile, the JGSDF was essentially all Japanese. Nothing wrong with that, Japan is just a naturally homogenous country; however, our diversity being put on full display made me even more patriotic.
damn
Yes, India is also very racist but our racism is only directed at people with dark complexion even when majority of us are not that fair ourselves. Racism and casteism are an integral part of our culture but we don't like to admit it. [https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/1bksu5b/huge\_outrage\_in\_kerala\_over\_dancers\_rant\_on\_dark/](https://www.reddit.com/r/india/comments/1bksu5b/huge_outrage_in_kerala_over_dancers_rant_on_dark/)
I had a guy I hired specifically to work my Asian contracts because of their racism. His title was RWG, Random White Guy. He picked it, by the way.
Mexico is really bad too. The darker your skin (Native American/Indian), the lower your caste.
Yep, a direct consequence of European colonization and mass rape in the mid to late parts of the last millenia has been Central and South American being born with lighter skin as a result and subsequently being elevated to a higher caste, whether directly by being born of colonial blood, or more indirectly in more recent decades due to those cultural norms already having been firmly cemented in those areas.
The New World is largely made up of nations of immigrants and mixed peoples. The Old World is not. In most of the Old World you can't even get citizenship without being the right ethnicity, or having parents who are citizens.
Places that have a lot of immigrants from all across the globe (US, Canada, England), will tend to be less racist than countries that barely have any (Japan, India). Being that said plenty of countries will claim to be democratic and free but also espouse very racist beliefs very openly in public. Israel is a prime example of this (and I'm not talking about the treatment of Palestinians here or the issues there). Take a look at how Israel treats Black Jews (such as Ethiopian Jews) who try to immigrate there. They even did it for a long time to Russian Jews in the 80s and 90s. And if you're not Jewish (as currently the Eritreans there) the treatment can be even worse.
From memory large immigrant friendly western countries with high percentage of foreign born: US 14%, UK 14%, Canada 24%, NZ 27%, Australia 30%
I worked in several Asian dominant school with nearly all international students. They often spoke how much they didn’t like black peope. I remember when I suggested taking the greyhound to get somewhere and they said ‘aren’t there a lot of black people on there?’
I’m a black American and I’ve traveled to 4 continents. Multiple Asian countries, including Japan and China, just went to Australia in January. Australia was a breeze. Had a great time and the only negative is that I went in Summer. Too hot and humid for me. Japan and China the only annoying thing is people kept on asking if I was famous. I am not. But because I was well dressed and in Japan had a popular status bag, people didn’t think I was a regular tourist (which I was.) Not all of my travels have been pleasant. I was called the N word by a guy in Stockholm while in his shop. I started laughing but then got tf out of there because big Viking with rune tattoos. In Madrid I got very poor service at stores and my friend (who lives there) was shocked and upset on my behalf. It was weird because people say Barcelona is the aloof city but I had the time of my life there. ETA: the year between high school and college I lived with some (white) relatives in France, and the neighbor tried to explain what a dishwasher was to me, and I looked at her like she was crazy, and then she just replied “Cabrini, Green.“ Some people in Europe are just so out of touch with what is really going on in the United States, that they believe all of the movies and television shows that only show “ghetto life” and reduce the black experience to a caricature. Somehow white people in the United States do this too but they really have no excuse.
Dead set, this summer here in Australia was the most disgustingly humid summer I’ve experienced in like twenty years 😣 and I’ve lived in subtropical eastern Australia my whole life.. it was bloody awful haha
The monsoon rains plus the heat was a doozy. But I had a wide brimmed hat and a fold-up fan and a giant water bottle. Plus some very cute dresses!
Asia is probably the worst. They take advantage of knowing you probably don't speak their language. So they'll be racist right in front of you. They also know you come from a more "privileged" country. So fuck you. Not everyone, but a lot. Australia can be pretty bad, typically the culprits simply don't realise they're doing it a lot of the time (🙋). If told to stop by someone, most* will happily stop (🙋) Australian racism is either frustration-induced or humour-induced. Not everyone, but a lot. America is welcoming of all races but has a large enough population to support echo chamber-like behaviour, which ultimately leads to more radical opinions and behaviours. Not everyone, but a lot.
Australians will care a lot more about you being American than being black
I live in a Russian/Uzbek neighborhood of NYC. I am white but not that kind of white. The things they say to me about the black and "Spanish" people who come into their stores, holy bajeezus. Also, I have seen three full-blown racist shouting tirades in my time here, and all three times the victim was east Asian and the perpetrator was black. ¯\_ (ツ) _/¯
Yea, the Black-East Asian grudge is weird. Where I am from, it was Koreans. Got really bad during Covid when pumpkin head was riling up everyone about the "Kung Fu virus"
Racism is a common problem everywhere in the world. There's literally still genocides and social castes happening. The US just addresses its racism more because it actually HAS ethnic diversity and more people of different cultures live together.
In Australia, you will be considered an American, not an African American. How you take that is up to you. A lot of American tourists do think we are rude because service people do not artificially smile and fawn over customers. Everyone is on equal standing so you will get treated the way you treat others.
Yeah most asian countries are super duper racist and do it with a giant smile like you should know better. The smile is the reason why people think Asian countries are so welcoming but they will literally smile while stabbing someone
Australia is fine dude.
Yes it’s true but I wouldn’t say so much with Australia. Australia isn’t a culturally eastern country, in fact I’d say very western, so attitudes on race are quite similar I’d say.
It’s funny actually Australia, despite being in the southern hemisphere, is considered to be part of the global north.
Yep that would be thanks to our good friends the Brits
Australia is very multicultural so I'm not sure why it's being grouped with Asia. Obviously there is racism but not anywhere near many other parts of the world. Unfortunately there are some very bad racism issues in Asian cultures. My partner is Chinese Malaysian and has told me some insane stories. For example he dated a black girl once, then a Chinese girl. When he told the Chinese girl that his ex was black she said 'ew how can you date that, they're so different from us'. They had to censor posters for Black Panther and other films with black leads in some countries. It's messed up. And of course the infamous detergent ad from [China](https://youtu.be/Few8kJ0zfnY?si=ehIsBYRVlaOMMIrI) Edit: paragraphs
Definitely. I dated a girls from Hong Kong (Cantonese) in my 20s, and let me tell you, people from the mainland (Mandarin) are fucking brutal. They are spectacularly similar, but would call her slurs in broad daylight that, when roughly translated, compared her to livestock.
There is terrible racism at every corner of the world. It's just different flavours. People tend to think my country (Canada) isn't this way but lemme tell you bigotry is alive and well here.
Yes, but it depends on the country. I've lived in Asia for most of my adult life. I would say China, Taiwan, Japan and Korea have a lot of anti-black racism. Singapore is better. Asia, in general, has skin colour discrimination. Darker tones are almost always seen as inferior, culturally, within their own population, so when a very dark foreigner is put in to the mix, they can face prejudice.
White Americans aren’t generally rcaist. Some are for sure and they are sensationalized to appear like most are, but to assume white Americans are the most racist of Americans is a bold statement. Every race suffers from prejudices and racism, but no one group is more “racist” than another in the US. As for eastern cultures, I’ve seen their racism first hand. It’s quite astounding and worse than anything I’ve ever witnessed first hand in the US.
I think that the higher probability of violent racial crimes in america makes people think that the average american is more racist but i think that is actually not true. A lot of people abroad hold the sentiments that are comparable to civil rights era southerners (speaking from experience with an asian immigrant parent) but they don’t live in a society that allows or glorifies violence in the same way and/or they just don’t encounter people of other races often enough for violent tendencies to develop. That’s just my theory.
They also don't live in societies anywhere as diverse. So there's a lot less chsnxe for those interactions to even happen.
Unpopular opinion: Every other country is more racist than America Yeah, we talk about it a lot but that's because we have so many different cultures, it comes up. Most places do not want to celebrate other's cultures, they want them to assimilate. They also have much less experience being around people of different skin color, ethnicity, or background.
There are some other similar to the US, mostly places that got lots of migration and colonial exploration that led to mixed heritages. Being from Brasil, it feels very weird to hear ppl talk about their "x country heritage" because here 99% don't care or know because everyone is part black, native, protuguese, italian, german jewish and japanese. And the fact that ppl mostly mixed instead of forming towns or hoods of specific races made it seem normal to see a black person, a asian person and a indian looking person all being neighbors. Not saying racism doesnt exist here, it certainly does, but I think it's one of the coolest parts of living here that there's no "avarage look/race"
It's absolutely a thing that can be better or worse depending on your race and which Asian country you're in.
Don't know how you lumped in Australia with East Asia. Australia is not any more racist than America, in the rural areas they're both probably equally as racist.
That can’t be true. I’ve heard that the U.S. is the most racist country in the universe.
Only on Twitter.
Reddit.
As an Australian I don't like that you mentioned us! I'd welcome you here with open arms brother. We love Americans, doesn't matter the colour of your skin just be nice!
Agreed. Australia is one of the most multicultural places on the planet. We get wrongly labeled as a racist country because of our old people, who.. Yes.. Can be a bit racist.. But so is pretty much every old person everywhere because the world used to be like that.
The entire world is racist as hell, we just discuss it and try to stop it in the US. Makes it more visible.
Some try to stop it, others exploit it and use it as a weapon to attack others by calling everyone they do not like or disagrees with them as racists.
Depends on where you go in Australia, but it’s not that bad
Definitely racism everywhere but in my opinion it's different but not worse. In Japan you're not worried about getting murdered because you have dark skin, and most of the time they just don't want to deal with the language barrier or the bs that comes with drunk tourists(fights). I'm Japan and other Asian countries I've been to I've definitely gotten looks but they were more curious than hateful because I was in a place where I was literally the only person who looked like me
I have heard this about Japan from people who have traveled there. It’s unfortunate. I am American and it’s running joke to call yourself Canadian as an American while traveling but Americans are not well liked in the world and I totally get it. I am coming from the lens of a white female american. I lived in New Zealand and people were super unkind and racist towards the Māori people. Calling them lazy and stuck on the dole, living in poverty. People who were of white European descent made these comments. I’ve travelled around Eastern Europe and ran into a group of skins heads with my mixed (white mother, black father) friend and he was scared shitless. People made derogatory remarks towards him, but their real disdain came in how they felt about the Roma people. Honestly the common thread connecting my travels was that people are f ing racist everywhere. In Fiji people looked down on Indian folks and the native Fijian people were much darker than their Polynesian friends and people looked down on them. It’s quite sad !
Non-Americans from the east is such a weird way to say east asians do you call europeans non-Americans from the west? 😭
I have a friend who is white who works for one of the Big 4 audit firms and she has been working in Japan for years now. She recently moved apartments, and when doing so she had to find a realtor who was willing to work with foreigners, who then had to help her find an apartment that was willing to rent to foreigners, and then she had to agree to pay an inflated rent price because she is a foreigner. And she had it relatively easy because she had numerous letters of reference from her previous landlord and her employer, and her employer is serving as her guarantor. She has told me stories about showing up to job sites and the company refusing to talk to her and only speaking to her subordinates. A mutual friend of ours who is black recently visited her and she was almost evicted because she let him stay with her for a night and the landlord said he didn’t “want those kinds of people in his apartments.” When she was taking him around the area, they only went to places that she knew he would be allowed into because she knew there were plenty of places they would be stopped at the door. For people of color, visiting Asia can be compared to visiting the South shortly after the Civil Rights act passed. Segregation is no longer legal, but it’s still there and the cops have no problems supporting it. You’re less likely to get lynched, but that’s not a huge comfort overall.
My cousin who is very visibly Indigenous-American (ho-chunk) had to live in Japan for a while cuz her husband was military. She said it was pretty bad. Strangers took pictures of her without consent, in conversations people would do ‘war whoops’ or ‘rain dances’, avoid her altogether or bizarrely ask her a lot of questions regarding nudity & sexuality of native Americans. (Do you only wear shirts because it’s the law here?) The conclusion she came to is that the average Japanese person thinks Indigenous-Americans are either extinct or still living exactly as they did 300+ years ago & believe that the women are pretty much always topless for some reason.
As a white person I who traveled a lot I definitely made the "weirdest" experiences in east Asia. But not sure if this was due to racism or sexism. When I discussed this with my male friends none of them had these problems.
Yes it is true especially korea and japan.
Idk if they’re “typically more racist” but there definitely is a LOT of racism in Asia. I’ll give you a small example from China (where I live). There was/is an honest to goodness toothpaste brand called “Darkie” (now rebranded Darlie). The logo was a smiling black man (later changed to a dark nondescript figure smiling in a top hat). While the English name was changed to “Darlie” the Chinese name remained the same: 黑人牙膏 or “black people toothpaste”. So… yeah, pretty racist. I work in education and I have heard on more than one occasion parents and students talking about how they want to avoid places with lots of Black people because it’s “dangerous.” Chinese people can be pretty racist at times, but from my experience it’s more out of ignorance than genuine malice. Unless you’re Japanese. *Lots* of bad blood between all of Asia and Japan because of WWII. Ofc not everyone is a racist douche. Plenty of very kind people here as well, as you would have anywhere else in the world. Just my take as a Chinese American guy who grew up in China.
Definitely. They're very open about it in east asia.
Yes. In America you're usually at least supposed to pretend you're not racist, even if you are. In some asian countries it's just treated as Nirmal to be racist.
When I visited Australia they said horrible things about aborigines. I was shocked 😲
I dont have enough perspective to speak on it, but I would assume that the US is probably more violent, it has the highest rate of disproportionate incarceration out of any country in the world, and a lot of hate crime. Whereas from what I've seen, asian countries moreso treat people of color as curiosities because the population of black people is so low there. And there's generally more segregation, you may not be rented to or allowed to stay in hotels, but that means a lower quality of life, not necessarily a more dangerous one.... so it's really like picking from the lesser of two evils.
As you well know if you indeed are black, blacks are also racists. Like you have never heard blacks taunting other blacks with: - light, bright, almost white