4 ms·

Ignoring the racism baked into that comment, smart people in China probably have more job opportunities than ever, with greater opportunity for wealth creation.

by vm 9y ago

Ignoring the racism baked into that comment, smart people in China probably have more job opportunities than ever, with greater opportunity for wealth creation. China has one of the hottest tech industries in the world: Tencent and Alibaba each have market caps above $450B USD, and Baidu, JD, and NetEase are all in the $50-80B range. All these companies are rapidly growing. Not to mention the booming startup ecosystem across the country.

monochromatic 9y ago
Labor is cheap in China. It’s not racism to make factually accurate observations.
- Alterlife 9y ago
  > factually accurate observations ... in this case, it's a sarcastic quip based on an exaggerated truth.
- asteli 9y ago
  the inferred reference you're missing is the 'all asians are good at math' stereotype.
  - 55555 9y ago
    East asians are good at math. Look at rankings by country. Obviously no one would actually do this, but if you were going to, China would be a great place to set up shop.
    - fjsolwmv 9y ago
      Youbate referring to a popular worldwide math test. There's no reason to believe those test scores aren't gamed, especially in Communist China where information is highly censored in general and the known "sampled" locations where the tests are given is highly suspect
  - fjsolwmv 9y ago
    You shouldn't project your own stereotypes onto other people. China is the current king of labor-intensive low-cost mass production
- kazga 9y ago
  >It’s not racism to make factually accurate observations. That is not as true as it sounds at first glance. For example, a statement like "blacks are more violent and less educated than whites" is factually accurate, but frames the situation in a definitely racist way if you just leave it at that because without elaboration, it makes it sound like a fact of nature. This is the problem with "facts and statistics can't be racist". No, technically they can't be, but if your conclusion you're drawing is that certain ethnicities are just genetically more criminal, you're handling the facts in a racist (and very incorrect) way (not implying in any way that you think like that).
  - 1337biz 9y ago
    Interesting discussion. So when is it in your opinion allowed to draw conclusions based on personal attributes, e.g. when is something not discriminating.
    - Fire-Dragon-DoL 9y ago
      I try to stick to Wikipedia definition, because people claim racism in a lot of situation where I wouldn't consider it as such: "Racism is the belief in the superiority of one race over another, which often results in discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity." In theory, the discussed comment doesn't claim his race is superior, just stating that in China people are underpaid. For sure he is projecting stereotypes, but that's not racism, it's a different thing. Even the legal definition doesn't seem to make that comment fit: "the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life."
  - BearGoesChirp 9y ago
    If we consider stating facts without context needed to truly understand them as being equal on level of wrongness with something like discrimination, I think we should consider exactly how many people use such poorly informed facts. Gun crime facts, wage gap facts, just about any psychology paper cited ignores the limitations of the study (which likely has very few if any replications with different populations). Even medical research if filled with poorly stated facts that drop a lot of the details needed to understand the actual study done. Given that stating facts without full context is the norm, attributing one specific case to racism seems hard to justify. For a red delicious apples to granny smith apples comparison, look at the treatment of, framing of, and treatment of framing of crime facts based on race verses crime stats based on sex.

by vm 9y ago

monochromatic 9y ago

Labor is cheap in China. It’s not racism to make factually accurate observations.

Alterlife 9y ago
> factually accurate observations ... in this case, it's a sarcastic quip based on an exaggerated truth.
asteli 9y ago
the inferred reference you're missing is the 'all asians are good at math' stereotype.
- 55555 9y ago
  East asians are good at math. Look at rankings by country. Obviously no one would actually do this, but if you were going to, China would be a great place to set up shop.
  - fjsolwmv 9y ago
    Youbate referring to a popular worldwide math test. There's no reason to believe those test scores aren't gamed, especially in Communist China where information is highly censored in general and the known "sampled" locations where the tests are given is highly suspect
- fjsolwmv 9y ago
  You shouldn't project your own stereotypes onto other people. China is the current king of labor-intensive low-cost mass production
kazga 9y ago
>It’s not racism to make factually accurate observations. That is not as true as it sounds at first glance. For example, a statement like "blacks are more violent and less educated than whites" is factually accurate, but frames the situation in a definitely racist way if you just leave it at that because without elaboration, it makes it sound like a fact of nature. This is the problem with "facts and statistics can't be racist". No, technically they can't be, but if your conclusion you're drawing is that certain ethnicities are just genetically more criminal, you're handling the facts in a racist (and very incorrect) way (not implying in any way that you think like that).
- 1337biz 9y ago
  Interesting discussion. So when is it in your opinion allowed to draw conclusions based on personal attributes, e.g. when is something not discriminating.
  - Fire-Dragon-DoL 9y ago
    I try to stick to Wikipedia definition, because people claim racism in a lot of situation where I wouldn't consider it as such: "Racism is the belief in the superiority of one race over another, which often results in discrimination and prejudice towards people based on their race or ethnicity." In theory, the discussed comment doesn't claim his race is superior, just stating that in China people are underpaid. For sure he is projecting stereotypes, but that's not racism, it's a different thing. Even the legal definition doesn't seem to make that comment fit: "the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin that has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life."
- BearGoesChirp 9y ago
  If we consider stating facts without context needed to truly understand them as being equal on level of wrongness with something like discrimination, I think we should consider exactly how many people use such poorly informed facts. Gun crime facts, wage gap facts, just about any psychology paper cited ignores the limitations of the study (which likely has very few if any replications with different populations). Even medical research if filled with poorly stated facts that drop a lot of the details needed to understand the actual study done. Given that stating facts without full context is the norm, attributing one specific case to racism seems hard to justify. For a red delicious apples to granny smith apples comparison, look at the treatment of, framing of, and treatment of framing of crime facts based on race verses crime stats based on sex.