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I don't know what your point is, other than that you can generalize or cannot? And the two points are not the same. Asia is predominantly one ethnic group (Han

I don't know what your point is, other than that you can generalize or cannot? And the two points are not the same. Asia is predominantly one ethnic group (Han) and 1.2 million speak Chinese. Also, due to climate and culture from being a society for over 5000 years, the food is roughly the same. Also, there are genuine morphological differences that set most Asian people apart. People generally gravitate towards people who look like them. There are genuine differences between the biology of men and women. Europeans are a huge mixed bag. Danish people look nothing like Greece people, and Polish people look nothing like Italians, and many of their languages come from different roots, with completely different cultures. Unjustified generalizations such as lumping all Europeans together ignores the huge difference between them. Also, the statement itself is odd - are they nice to racist European but mean to racist South Americans?

eesmith 9y ago
My point is that you express surprise when someone else generalizes by using the term "racist Europeans" when you yourself make continent-wide generalization. I can't help but interpret your "surprise" as a shallow rhetorical technique than anything meaningful. Your numbers are off. The Han Chinese are less than 1/3rd of the population of Asia. 4.5B Asians - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia - and 1.3 B Han - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese . "Asia", of course, is somewhat of a cultural construct, as there is no clear boundary between Asia and Europe. If you mean "Chinese" or "Han", then say so. Otherwise, are you really missing a good glass of Mongolian mare kumis in Reno? Or the adhan being called out by a muezzin from the mosque? Neither are common in SF. I'm sure all those people in India would be pleased to know that Indian cuisine is "roughly the same" as Chinese food. I'm sure that fans of the different regional cuisines of China will be glad to know you think Shandong and Sichuan cuisines are "roughly the same." "There are genuine differences between the biology of men and women." Absolutely. And irrelevant. Your previous generality wasn't so generic. "Europeans are a huge mixed bag." Umm, India has 29 languages with at least 1 million native speakers and is "one of the most religiously and ethnically diverse nations in the world" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_India. Indonesia, which is mostly located in Asia, has hundreds of ethnic and linguistic groups. "completely different cultures" 71% of Danes, >90% of Greeks, >87% of Poles, and 83% of Italians are Christians. (The main denominations are Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Catholic, respectively - "roughly the same" religion.) Tell me how it is that this is "completely different" in the way that approaches the differences between the major religions of Asia - Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Chinese folk religion, Shintoism? Ancient Greek and Roman history are part of the standard Western education. Until only a few hundred years ago, the educated class in all those countries could communicate to each other in Latin. All four of those countries are now in the EU. "look nothing like" .. I can't help think of the old racist saying "black people all look alike to me." It's as if you didn't realize that the cross-race effect might be an issue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect . "are they nice to racist European but mean to racist South Americans" Which racist South Americans do you know of who have gone to Africa "to plunder the natural resources of the whole region"? Anyone like Rhodes, or the many other British people convinced of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race? For that matter, which South American countries have a history of African colonialism? The European ones include the Britain, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Italy, and Germany. I may have missed a few. Ahh, I see Russia had a short-lived/not official colony at Sagallo. I won't count that one.
- jimmywanger 9y ago
  > "look nothing like" .. I can't help think of the old racist saying "black people all look alike to me." It's as if you didn't realize that the cross-race effect might be an issue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect . No, I meant qualitatively they look nothing alike. Italians have dark skin, dark curly hair, and speak a romance language. Swedish people have light skin, blond straight(ish) hair and speak a germanic language. > Umm, India has 29 languages with at least 1 million native speakers and is "one of the most religiously and ethnically diverse nations in the world" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_India. Indonesia, which is mostly located in Asia, has hundreds of ethnic and linguistic groups. I'm not saying that India isn't diverse, just that Europe is not just a homogenous mass. > 71% of Danes, >90% of Greeks, >87% of Poles, and 83% of Italians are Christians. (The main denominations are Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Catholic, respectively - "roughly the same" religion.) Not roughly the same religion. The contents are quite different. The protestant and Catholics have a long history of religious wars. And yes, they are completely different in many important ways, for instance the divinity of Mary, church governance, and the relationship of idols, the relationship between the Holy Trinity, etc etc > Which racist South Americans do you know of who have gone to Africa "to plunder the natural resources of the whole region"? Anyone like Rhodes, or the many other British people convinced of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race? > The European ones include the Britain, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Italy, and Germany. I may have missed a few. Ahh, I see Russia had a short-lived/not official colony at Sagallo. I won't count that one. Why wouldn't you count the Russian colony? Also that is a small subset of Europe. There's Greece, Turkey, most Slavic countries, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland aren't involved. That all stopped. Chinese people are far more involved in African politics right now, propping up dictators to extract resources for the gaping maw that is Chinese industry. The point is that Europeans have stopped doing that, but Americans and Chinese are doing their level best to duplicate their efforts. For that matter, why is setting up colonies racist? You expand because you either have overwhelming population pressure, need raw materials for industry, or need to get rid of undersirables. Also, if other countries are setting up colonies, there's a huge land grab to ensure economic safety and stability in your own country, or else you get left behind in money and industry. And one of the most vicious incidents in African consist of the Boer war, British on Afrikaans violence. The Afrikaans invented guerilla war, and the British invented concentration camps for the families of the combatants.

eesmith 9y ago

My point is that you express surprise when someone else generalizes by using the term "racist Europeans" when you yourself make continent-wide generalization. I can't help but interpret your "surprise" as a shallow rhetorical technique than anything meaningful. Your numbers are off. The Han Chinese are less than 1/3rd of the population of Asia. 4.5B Asians - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asia - and 1.3 B Han - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese . "Asia", of course, is somewhat of a cultural construct, as there is no clear boundary between Asia and Europe. If you mean "Chinese" or "Han", then say so. Otherwise, are you really missing a good glass of Mongolian mare kumis in Reno? Or the adhan being called out by a muezzin from the mosque? Neither are common in SF. I'm sure all those people in India would be pleased to know that Indian cuisine is "roughly the same" as Chinese food. I'm sure that fans of the different regional cuisines of China will be glad to know you think Shandong and Sichuan cuisines are "roughly the same." "There are genuine differences between the biology of men and women." Absolutely. And irrelevant. Your previous generality wasn't so generic. "Europeans are a huge mixed bag." Umm, India has 29 languages with at least 1 million native speakers and is "one of the most religiously and ethnically diverse nations in the world" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_India. Indonesia, which is mostly located in Asia, has hundreds of ethnic and linguistic groups. "completely different cultures" 71% of Danes, >90% of Greeks, >87% of Poles, and 83% of Italians are Christians. (The main denominations are Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Catholic, respectively - "roughly the same" religion.) Tell me how it is that this is "completely different" in the way that approaches the differences between the major religions of Asia - Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Chinese folk religion, Shintoism? Ancient Greek and Roman history are part of the standard Western education. Until only a few hundred years ago, the educated class in all those countries could communicate to each other in Latin. All four of those countries are now in the EU. "look nothing like" .. I can't help think of the old racist saying "black people all look alike to me." It's as if you didn't realize that the cross-race effect might be an issue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect . "are they nice to racist European but mean to racist South Americans" Which racist South Americans do you know of who have gone to Africa "to plunder the natural resources of the whole region"? Anyone like Rhodes, or the many other British people convinced of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race? For that matter, which South American countries have a history of African colonialism? The European ones include the Britain, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Italy, and Germany. I may have missed a few. Ahh, I see Russia had a short-lived/not official colony at Sagallo. I won't count that one.

jimmywanger 9y ago
> "look nothing like" .. I can't help think of the old racist saying "black people all look alike to me." It's as if you didn't realize that the cross-race effect might be an issue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-race_effect . No, I meant qualitatively they look nothing alike. Italians have dark skin, dark curly hair, and speak a romance language. Swedish people have light skin, blond straight(ish) hair and speak a germanic language. > Umm, India has 29 languages with at least 1 million native speakers and is "one of the most religiously and ethnically diverse nations in the world" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_India https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_India. Indonesia, which is mostly located in Asia, has hundreds of ethnic and linguistic groups. I'm not saying that India isn't diverse, just that Europe is not just a homogenous mass. > 71% of Danes, >90% of Greeks, >87% of Poles, and 83% of Italians are Christians. (The main denominations are Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and Catholic, respectively - "roughly the same" religion.) Not roughly the same religion. The contents are quite different. The protestant and Catholics have a long history of religious wars. And yes, they are completely different in many important ways, for instance the divinity of Mary, church governance, and the relationship of idols, the relationship between the Holy Trinity, etc etc > Which racist South Americans do you know of who have gone to Africa "to plunder the natural resources of the whole region"? Anyone like Rhodes, or the many other British people convinced of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race? > The European ones include the Britain, Portugal, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Prussia, Italy, and Germany. I may have missed a few. Ahh, I see Russia had a short-lived/not official colony at Sagallo. I won't count that one. Why wouldn't you count the Russian colony? Also that is a small subset of Europe. There's Greece, Turkey, most Slavic countries, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland aren't involved. That all stopped. Chinese people are far more involved in African politics right now, propping up dictators to extract resources for the gaping maw that is Chinese industry. The point is that Europeans have stopped doing that, but Americans and Chinese are doing their level best to duplicate their efforts. For that matter, why is setting up colonies racist? You expand because you either have overwhelming population pressure, need raw materials for industry, or need to get rid of undersirables. Also, if other countries are setting up colonies, there's a huge land grab to ensure economic safety and stability in your own country, or else you get left behind in money and industry. And one of the most vicious incidents in African consist of the Boer war, British on Afrikaans violence. The Afrikaans invented guerilla war, and the British invented concentration camps for the families of the combatants.