Comments: 18 Score: [-] 629 [+].
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Posted: 4 weeks ago by choco:
I've been MIA from Plime for a minute (missed you all!) so I hope this hasn't been posted already.
Pleeeease read and comment and discuss! For once, I wasn't seeing red when I first heard about this from my husband - when living in China, I saw so much bullcaca that I was just floored. In a way, to see this gaining so much light now (a year after I've come back to the States from Beijing, after living there for 3 years) after all the hubub from the Olympics died down, I'm almost glad this happened to spark debate and open eyes to some really disgusting racism going on that maybe people weren't aware of. (At the same time, an article like this makes you look at your own country, your own neighborhood and makes you think, too.)
Don't get me wrong, I feel so bad for her that she has to go through this, but the fact that she's lived her whole life in China, seems kind, humble and grounded, and not hard on the eyes to boot, makes all the comments attacking her so much more ridiculous!
Anyway, so I don't babble on much more, I also find it interesting that the article still calls her "black." Is this some extension of the one drop rule or what? She's Chinese. Her father was of African descent, but she herself is Chinese, no?
ETA: The message board I first heard about this from...be warned, the crap on here is so bad
Score: [-] 423 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by melgesevad:
« choco:I've been MIA from Plime for a minute (missed you all!) so I hope this hasn't been posted already.
Pleeeease read and comment and discuss! For once, I wasn't seeing red when I first heard about this from my husband - when living in China, I saw so much bullcaca that I was just floored. In a way, to see this gaining so much light now (a year after I've come back to the States from Beijing, after living there for 3 years) after all the hubub from the Olympics died down, I'm almost glad this happened to spark debate and open eyes to some really disgusting racism going on that maybe people weren't aware of. (At the same time, an article like this makes you look at your own country, your own neighborhood and makes you think, too.)
Don't get me wrong, I feel so bad for her that she has to go through this, but the fact that she's lived her whole life in China, seems kind, humble and grounded, and not hard on the eyes to boot, makes all the comments attacking her so much more ridiculous!
Anyway, so I don't babble on much more, I also find it interesting that the article still calls her "black." Is this some extension of the one drop rule or what? She's Chinese. Her father was of African descent, but she herself is Chinese, no?
ETA: The message board I first heard about this from...be warned, the crap on here is so bad I'm trying to come up with parallels to China from history and, based on my experience, its somewhat similar to Germany before WWII (or even the U.S. after 9/11). Instead of a depression spurring some people (and the government)into a nationalistic country with some sort of ethnic ideal, the Chinese are trying to handle unprecedented change and globalism. I think its hard for many to handle.
In general, the Chinese can be very nice people, but there is a large majority that are very immature in a global sense. This is mostly because of Governmental controls on media and information. Its a hard situation.
Score: [-] 173 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by drogue:
« melgesevad:I'm trying to come with parallels to China from history and, based on my experience, its somewhat similar to Germany before WWII (or even the U.S. after 9/11). I'm having a bit of a hard time with the comparison (China didn't recently get soundly beaten in a world war, and forced into an implausible economic truce) but I'll grant that, shall we say "nationalism" has presented some problems in the last couple hundred years, round the world.
« melgesevad : Its a hard situation. That it is.
Score: [-] 21 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by Nicky666:
« choco : ...I also find it interesting that the article still calls her "black." Is this some extension of the one drop rule or what? She's Chinese. Her father was of African descent, but she herself is Chinese, no? Yes, she is Chinese, but black refers to the color of her skin, not her race.
The bad thing is that those two explicit different things are regarded as one and the same in most countries.
Score: [-] 90 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by cecilberman:
Relatively homogenous populations, like China's, tend to be more bigoted. It's a fear of the unknown and unfamiliar (not to mention a degree of insecurity).
Having lived most my life in urban areas, I was surprised by the degree of racism and anti-semitism I found when I moved to a rural area. Those whose lives don't bring them into contact with minorities as much tend to be the ones that harbor the greatest amount of bigotry towards them.
Score: [-] 141 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by equinox:
I found this comment incredibly insightful:
Zhou concluded: "It is high time we introduced some sensitivity training on races and ethnicities if we are going to latch on to the orbit of globalisation. People should realise that if you have a right to discriminate against another race you have automatically given others the right to discriminate against you."
Score: [-] 130 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by choco:
« cecilberman : Relatively homogenous populations, like China's, tend to be more bigoted. It's a fear of the unknown and unfamiliar (not to mention a degree of insecurity).
Having lived most my life in urban areas, I was surprised by the degree of racism and anti-semitism I found when I moved to a rural area. Those whose lives don't bring them into contact with minorities as much tend to be the ones that harbor the greatest amount of bigotry towards them. It's interesting you mention minorities, because people who are seen as "white" definitely are more accepted and don't experience the kind of vitriol that darker skinned foreigners experience in China.
Both are minorities when in China, but one group is even looked at with favor over much more so than the other. I genuinely wonder how this could be? China doesn't have the same history as the U.S., so the racism just seems to be a learned thing from here or other countries, almost.
As the article even said, during Mao's era, there was a friendship started between China and certain African countries, so what happened?
equinox, I find it insightful too. I'm really wondering how this will all play out, and to see what the aftermath will be. Will the television stations issue some commentary? Will the government moderators start censoring the message board posts?
Nicky666, that's why I never use these stupid terms "black" "white" whatever because what are they even *really* describing/getting at other than trying to group people a certain way through inclusion/exclusion? Her skin color is obviously not black :-/
Argh! Touchy subject.
Score: [-] 24 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by DerAlt:
« cecilberman:Relatively homogenous populations, like China's, tend to be more bigoted. It's a fear of the unknown and unfamiliar (not to mention a degree of insecurity).
Having lived most my life in urban areas, I was surprised by the degree of racism and anti-semitism I found when I moved to a rural area. Those whose lives don't bring them into contact with minorities as much tend to be the ones that harbor the greatest amount of bigotry towards them. I found the same thing.
I was told by a black friend many years ago, that there is even some predudice within the groups themselves. She said the rule of thumb was:
"If you're 'light,' you're alright."
"If you're "brown," hang around."
"If you're 'black," stay back."
I do believe this may be changed now, at least I haven't heard much of this in the past decade.
Score: [-] 141 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by jie:
I saw this story earlier, and many of the commenters seem to have made a mistake with their logic somewhere... How did they know that the man didn't want to stay, but was driven away by this kind of talk. Even the daughter is having a hard time staying in China, and she was *born* there. Thanks for being so 'welcoming' netizens!
Score: [-] 12 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by melgesevad:
« drogue:I'm having a bit of a hard time with the comparison (China didn't recently get soundly beaten in a world war, and forced into an implausible economic truce) but I'll grant that, shall we say "nationalism" has presented some problems in the last couple hundred years, round the world.
Change. Unprecedented change. China's nationalism and isolation stems from that.
Score: [-] 0 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by Bornbad:
Score: [-] -17 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by Bornbad:
Choco, I still want to lick your lips. Fear of......
"If you're 'light,' you're alright."
"If you're "brown," hang around."
"If you're 'black," stay back.("Thx Bob") is still a weird fear world wide. If the people that think this way would grow up,,,'what a Womderful world this could be".
Score: [-] 47 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by daniequalsrad:
This is really sad. On a side note, I think she's absolutely gorgeous.
Score: [-] 43 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by choco:
lol Bornbad -___-" maybe you should take your **p-licking philosophy on the road and spread the idea...change the world one step at a time >:)
Score: [-] 115 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by gammerus:
« Bornbad:Choco, I still want to lick your lips. Fear of......
"If you're 'light,' you're alright."
"If you're "brown," hang around."
"If you're 'black," stay back.("Thx Bob") is still a weird fear world wide. If the people that think this way would grow up,,,'what a Womderful world this could be". The moment we do we will just find one more genetic trait to pick on. People like to feel they are better, and if they have nothing to show for it they want to have it through some sort of fictional birthright.
Score: [-] 46 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by donteatpoop:
« choco : I never use these stupid terms "black" "white" whatever because what are they even *really* describing/getting at other than trying to group people a certain way through inclusion/exclusion? Her skin color is obviously not black
Argh! Touchy subject. I feel the problem isnt' the terms "black" or "white" or whatever else, it's the assumptions that closed minded people make based on these. To me, black or white or yellow or whatever are simply disctiptive qualities.
What we need are less closed minded people. In China, in the US, everywhere.
People is people is people. But some people are also assholes.
Score: [-] 0 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by choco:
« donteatpoop:I feel the problem isnt' the terms "black" or "white" or whatever else, it's the assumptions that closed minded people make based on these. To me, black or white or yellow or whatever are simply disctiptive qualities. To me, they don't come close to describing much of anything...that girl's skin color is brown. I've seen Chinese people in Tibet darker than she is, but they aren't called black.
I always wonder why some Indians like to call themselves "brownies" when they are darker than this girl, but she'll still be seen as "black." Heck, even take Obama. He's mixed but still the first "black" prez.
I think forms that ask if you are "white" "hispanic" or "non-white hispanic" are so hilarious and stupid. They didn't used to be like that 5 years ago...just another way to have some people in this club and not that, divide people into little categories for whatever purpose...
Score: [-] 0 [+].
Posted: 4 weeks ago by donteatpoop:
« choco : To me, they don't come close to describing much of anything...that girl's skin color is brown. I've seen Chinese people in Tibet darker than she is, but they aren't called black.
I always wonder why some Indians like to call themselves "brownies" when they are darker than this girl, but she'll still be seen as "black." Heck, even take Obama. He's mixed but still the first "black" prez.
I think forms that ask if you are "white" "hispanic" or "non-white hispanic" are so hilarious and stupid. They didn't used to be like that 5 years ago...just another way to have some people in this club and not that, divide people into little categories for whatever purpose... Please don't misinterprate what I mean when I call it a descriptor. When describing someone you generally list more than one feature. I wouldn't describe Cheech Marin as 'the Mexican' or myself as 'the white guy'. Cheech also has thick drooping mustache, bug eyes, and is pretty bald on top. I'm the fat white guy with red hair, nerd glasses, ugly teeth, and a scruffy beard. All of these words describe the physical appearance of myself and Cheech.
If you needed someone to meet me at an airport or for some reason find me in a crowd, I am certain that it would be easier for them to find me if you mention more than just the fatness and the glasses and the screwed up teeth. You mention that I'm white, they have less people to sort through when trying to find me.
There's nothing negative about a person's race. But there really are races, they are real things. If a russian breaks into my house and the police need a description, I'm not going to just mention that he had black hair, a leather jacket, and smelled like he'd been drinking; I'm gonna mention that he was white too. Makes him easier to find.
But then we're kind of off topic going down this path... Sucks that this chick has to go through such BS in China. She's super cute, though even that is really a non-factor. I think it's been mentioned though that this sort of widespread racism is due to the isolation of the country; couple that with old stereotypes and you have the situation there today.
I hope China figures things out and becomes more accepting.
Score: [-] 33 [+].
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