3 ms·

I wouldn't call it racism because this behavior isn't unique to japan... it's unique to humanity. It will happen everywhere where you look and drastically diffe

I wouldn't call it racism because this behavior isn't unique to japan... it's unique to humanity. It will happen everywhere where you look and drastically different from anything the local population has ever seen before. Only certain places have a unique culture where such treatment is deliberately frowned upon culturally. We are from the west so equality seems normal but it is not the default. If you decide to live in Asia, expect the default, it's not actually racist; it's normal. Generally you just don't like being treated as a foreigner. But that's actually what you are. Don't expect to travel to another place and have them treat you as a local.

nullsense 6y ago
I know that it's the default. Doesn't make it not racism. It's not only racism when it happens in desirable countries people want to immigrate to en-masse. Functionally it's the same thing. They just turn a blind eye because "hey it's normal, right?". It has been an ongoing shift over decades and even hundreds of years in the so-called melting pots of the world to get to the point people can live alongside people different than them and at least pretend they're equal and should be treated as such. It wasn't always the default in the West. The rest of the world needs to catch up. They're behind the times.
- Geminidog 6y ago
  >The rest of the world needs to catch up. They're behind the times. It's not about the times. It's about biology, people are born with this type of behavior that is as biologically ingrained as heterosexuality or homosexuality. Humans tend to group with each other based off of race. This occurs everywhere including with Japanese and Chinese people born in the US. If you ever grew up in a community of people where there was a large enough mixture of Caucasians and minorities you will see that races group together automatically little incentive from others even though everyone more or less shares the same culture of being born in the same country. You can't expect culture to override biology. What you see in the west is the unique phenomenon and everywhere else is basically displaying the biological norm. Because of biology this phenomenon is unlikely to establish itself as the norm for the majority of human existence. You cannot overwrite biology. If you go to another country and your face stands out like a sore thumb expect to be treated differently everywhere because of nature, don't expect everyone to come to their senses and implement total equality. The best you can hope for is equal treatment under the law, but the law is an ideal that is a caricature of the actual reality. If you have a two foot long nose, you will be treated differently in every country you go to, no amount of equality in the law can fix this. I can cite tons of evidence for the biological origins of this "racist" behavior if that's the direction we want to take this. Either way I don't agree to even attack minor "infractions" or call it racism because it can't ever be fixed. What can be fixed is deep racial hatreds and actual racial tensions. White people enslaving black people then segregating them and shooting them under the cover a "crime" is a real issue. White people forcing and enslaving chinese people to build rail roads is actual racism, Hitler killing Jews is racism. Other things are unfix-able and minor and therefore I wouldn't group it with the atrocities committed above. Not to mention when a white guy goes to an Asian country they often actually can get "better" treatment along with the "bad" treatment just because of the privilege associated with the caucasian race. It's often one of the reasons why white people go live in another Asian country because Asian girls are "easier" and more "beautiful." No doubt if you lived in Asia it's likely you've taken advantage of this "reverse" racism. By all means take advantage of it, I see nothing wrong with it, but don't expect total equality, we all know it's not going to happen if we're all perfectly honest with ourselves... especially if you're already taking advantage of the inequalities that benefit you.
  - nullsense 6y ago
    I take the same position that it's a fundamental biological modus operandi of human beings to be that way. No need to convince me of that. What I don't accept it the double standard. I don't live in the US, but elsewhere in the West and I see sometimes on the news "this country is racist because X happened blah blah blah" and when you zoom out and actually look at it we have some of the most diverse populations living side by side in harmony with relatively little tension and an extremely welcoming attitude in general. You go elsewhere in the world and it's not even close to the level we're on as it's a lot of monoculture and not much immigration, mostly people emigrating towards places like where we're from. So there is no or very little culture of accepting that other types of people live where you live and that's ok. If you hold both places to the same standard the non-Western countries are racist AF in comparison. If it's all just biology and that's the norm, I'm just going to go back to that norm right here in the West. Oh wait... I can't because that would be racist. I know 1000x over that it's absolutely the case that biologically speaking this is the natural state of things and you can never hope to override it at the deepest levels. But I bet my bottom dollar if immigration/emigration we're to reverse the places that became the new melting pots would be forced to lose those defaults as the West has. The only difference between us is they've never had large enough groups of people jumping up and down and getting in their face about it enough for it to change the cultural norms. We have. I'm pretty tired of the End Racism narrative in the West because of this double standard. It's like wait... If I were to go to your country and try to live the life you live here I'd get nowhere close to the acceptance and treatment you get here yet WE'RE the bad guys? Like fuck off. If people want to end racism there's lower hanging fruit than the West which is comparatively doing amazing.
yowlingcat 6y ago
> If you decide to live in Asia, expect the default, it's not actually racist; it's normal. I find that for a lot of folks raised in the West, the existence of this norm is a very rude wake-up call. But to your point, that doesn't stop it from being a norm in the first place in Asia. And it doesn't mean that it's necessarily "on the way out" either.

nullsense 6y ago

I know that it's the default. Doesn't make it not racism. It's not only racism when it happens in desirable countries people want to immigrate to en-masse. Functionally it's the same thing. They just turn a blind eye because "hey it's normal, right?". It has been an ongoing shift over decades and even hundreds of years in the so-called melting pots of the world to get to the point people can live alongside people different than them and at least pretend they're equal and should be treated as such. It wasn't always the default in the West. The rest of the world needs to catch up. They're behind the times.

Geminidog 6y ago
>The rest of the world needs to catch up. They're behind the times. It's not about the times. It's about biology, people are born with this type of behavior that is as biologically ingrained as heterosexuality or homosexuality. Humans tend to group with each other based off of race. This occurs everywhere including with Japanese and Chinese people born in the US. If you ever grew up in a community of people where there was a large enough mixture of Caucasians and minorities you will see that races group together automatically little incentive from others even though everyone more or less shares the same culture of being born in the same country. You can't expect culture to override biology. What you see in the west is the unique phenomenon and everywhere else is basically displaying the biological norm. Because of biology this phenomenon is unlikely to establish itself as the norm for the majority of human existence. You cannot overwrite biology. If you go to another country and your face stands out like a sore thumb expect to be treated differently everywhere because of nature, don't expect everyone to come to their senses and implement total equality. The best you can hope for is equal treatment under the law, but the law is an ideal that is a caricature of the actual reality. If you have a two foot long nose, you will be treated differently in every country you go to, no amount of equality in the law can fix this. I can cite tons of evidence for the biological origins of this "racist" behavior if that's the direction we want to take this. Either way I don't agree to even attack minor "infractions" or call it racism because it can't ever be fixed. What can be fixed is deep racial hatreds and actual racial tensions. White people enslaving black people then segregating them and shooting them under the cover a "crime" is a real issue. White people forcing and enslaving chinese people to build rail roads is actual racism, Hitler killing Jews is racism. Other things are unfix-able and minor and therefore I wouldn't group it with the atrocities committed above. Not to mention when a white guy goes to an Asian country they often actually can get "better" treatment along with the "bad" treatment just because of the privilege associated with the caucasian race. It's often one of the reasons why white people go live in another Asian country because Asian girls are "easier" and more "beautiful." No doubt if you lived in Asia it's likely you've taken advantage of this "reverse" racism. By all means take advantage of it, I see nothing wrong with it, but don't expect total equality, we all know it's not going to happen if we're all perfectly honest with ourselves... especially if you're already taking advantage of the inequalities that benefit you.
- nullsense 6y ago
  I take the same position that it's a fundamental biological modus operandi of human beings to be that way. No need to convince me of that. What I don't accept it the double standard. I don't live in the US, but elsewhere in the West and I see sometimes on the news "this country is racist because X happened blah blah blah" and when you zoom out and actually look at it we have some of the most diverse populations living side by side in harmony with relatively little tension and an extremely welcoming attitude in general. You go elsewhere in the world and it's not even close to the level we're on as it's a lot of monoculture and not much immigration, mostly people emigrating towards places like where we're from. So there is no or very little culture of accepting that other types of people live where you live and that's ok. If you hold both places to the same standard the non-Western countries are racist AF in comparison. If it's all just biology and that's the norm, I'm just going to go back to that norm right here in the West. Oh wait... I can't because that would be racist. I know 1000x over that it's absolutely the case that biologically speaking this is the natural state of things and you can never hope to override it at the deepest levels. But I bet my bottom dollar if immigration/emigration we're to reverse the places that became the new melting pots would be forced to lose those defaults as the West has. The only difference between us is they've never had large enough groups of people jumping up and down and getting in their face about it enough for it to change the cultural norms. We have. I'm pretty tired of the End Racism narrative in the West because of this double standard. It's like wait... If I were to go to your country and try to live the life you live here I'd get nowhere close to the acceptance and treatment you get here yet WE'RE the bad guys? Like fuck off. If people want to end racism there's lower hanging fruit than the West which is comparatively doing amazing.

yowlingcat 6y ago

> If you decide to live in Asia, expect the default, it's not actually racist; it's normal. I find that for a lot of folks raised in the West, the existence of this norm is a very rude wake-up call. But to your point, that doesn't stop it from being a norm in the first place in Asia. And it doesn't mean that it's necessarily "on the way out" either.