Racism

Hi every one,

Thanks for the subject I found it very interesting.

I think personally you can face racism everywhere. I am living in UAE, the good thing here is that the country is so mixed you can find more than 80 nationalities.

It can be difficult to talk to people who have a different opinion to you about racism – particularly if you feel strongly about your beliefs. I think that it should be better to never call somebody a racist. If you do this, the person will become defensive and not listen to anything else you say. Instead, you should tell them that you disagree with what they have said, and explain why. You should only criticise the comment, not the person.

Gordon
I have living experiences in more than half of Australia towns in my 32 years living in this country but I will not have another 32 years to live to find out that the towns which I have missed to know are free from racism, here in NSW the whole social system get involved in that; some people call racism; "discrimination" because government "fine" individual who are caught legally acting racist but there is no fine for discrimination so as a family experiences people who have "discriminated (being racist)" against us; hit us with a rock of racism and hide their hands wisely.
When I mention my Spanish culture that suffer from racism I meant all cultures included, in my trade industry I see that 98% of workers who clean toilets and do house keeping in Sydney hotels are from NON English speaking back ground, the one that prepare the food behind restaurants in Sydney Darling Harbour 98% same migrants, many with student visas with little English, all the factories workers, hospital dirty jobs are migrants and all they get paid is rubbish why? because they have to pay back for the right to be in Australia (too many never did these job in there original country) and is the only job we could find! Exactly happen with the Mexicans in the border USA towns: toilet cleaning, house keeping, fruit pickers, etc
all what the white will no do. Keep Mexicans illegals so they can not claim the right salary as the legal white do.
A racist society will not change their sentiments until they stop their denial and agree that racisms exist and is a social cancer in the human nature; a defect of every one of us but when in not controlled damage the victims's freedom
Rene

I am happy to hear about london, and i hope arabs country will be similar some day, but i really think it's too far from them.

racism...
if someone ask me "hey,aabie...what is your race??"
i will say "Fast and Furious....."

hello

... in my trade industry I see that 98% of workers who clean toilets and do house keeping in Sydney hotels are from NON English speaking back ground, the one that prepare the food behind restaurants in Sydney Darling Harbour 98% same migrants, many with student visas with little English, all the factories workers, hospital dirty jobs are migrants and all they get paid is rubbish why? because they have to pay back for the right to be in Australia (too many never did these job in there original country) and is the only job we could find! [Rene]

Rene. I don't think your story adds up to racism. Migrants all over the world do jobs that the native-born won't do. That's life, man. Here in my Caribbean island, some years ago, there were Filipino doctors employed as gardeners. Why did they do it? Because it was a whole lot more rewarding (financially) than working in their profession back home.

It's a free world. Given a certain amount of basic education, nobody has to be where he is. I agree whole-heartedly that migrants should not be exploited. In my Island, there is a lot of this, and I have fought against it (in my blog, and other places) for many years. BUT that is a different problem from racism itself.

This website has the word "expat" in it. If the members don't like where they are, they are free to go elsewhere. So what's different about the migrants in your story?

HaileyinHongKong wrote:

A lot of people blame too many things on racism.  I think that only dilutes the issue and takes away some of its impact.

Yes it does. Many people are too ready to cry "racism" - and "sexism" and "child abuse" - when faced with relatively trivial incidents. I know that it's often dangerous to pass off some nasty behaviour as pranks, but it's also dangerous to dilute the issue, as Hailey says.

I wrote a blog a couple of months ago with a provocative title (here is the link: http://barlowscayman.blogspot.com/2013/ … wn_21.html ), intending to illustrate this general point. Was it racist of me to treat "the magic word" lightly? The circumstances of the two examples I gave, will argue not.

There should not be any racism based on color religion sect language etc.   We all are human beings    All these attributes are only for Identification not discrimination

Racism is horrible, one should never judge anyone based on the color of someone's skin.

Being here in the Philippines I do experience racism to a certain degree, though the people are mostly friendly and curious there are alot of dangers. Most people here assume if your white you are rich, so they expect big tips, handout or overcharge the hell out of you! That annoys me because I actually live as simply as them. My husband is Pinoy and I stay home and take care of our daughter, we are on richer than anyone else. I just feel very much here people are constantly judging me and staring at me. Its hard. They are used to seeing white men but not younger white females. I have learnt to speak the language,so many times I hear comments about me because they assume I dont know what they are saying. Usually I will reply in Tagalog and they get the shock of their life! lol (my secret pleasure!) I was born and raised in Australia where the culture mix is so wide that it is a complete non issue. Seriously we are all just people,get over it!

I feel generally ok in Sydney. People get used to seeing faces from other ethnic groups. I do feel racism from time to time. I feel that it may have an impact on my career. Many friends say if we were back in China, we would have got much better career. It frustrates me a little bit. But it may not be true. We can not live two lives to prove it. Also even back in China, you meet snobbish people quite often. There are hierarchies there too. Sometimes it is hard to tell.

hi i am from the philippines and in my opinion, my country is a good place for immigrants. why? well we generally welcome and treat foreigners well. we are known for being polite and hospitable so foreigners here are actually look up to rather than discriminated. plus we speak good english so communicating here for foreigners is a lot easier than in other non-english speaking countries.

expatanswers wrote:

hi i am from the philippines and in my opinion, my country is a good place for immigrants. why? well we generally welcome and treat foreigners well. we are known for being polite and hospitable so foreigners here are actually look up to rather than discriminated. plus we speak good english so communicating here for foreigners is a lot easier than in other non-english speaking countries.

+1

hi hubbennrelle. so do you agree with me?

expatanswers wrote:

hi hubbennrelle. so do you agree with me?

yup! i agree

I think today racism is always here. I'm seeing a friend who has talent in his domain and he's still to do bad job coz' he's stranger. It's sad. I am lucky , but many people who are expat or stranger origin are exclued to have a good job, beacause of stereotype.

HaileyinHongKong wrote:

hubbennrelle wrote:

+1

You can click the "Recommend" button and actually plus one a post.

ThanKs for your advice

expatanswers wrote:

hi i am from the philippines and in my opinion, my country is a good place for immigrants. why? well we generally welcome and treat foreigners well. we are known for being polite and hospitable so foreigners here are actually look up to rather than discriminated. plus we speak good english so communicating here for foreigners is a lot easier than in other non-english speaking countries.

Yes, I agree to a certain point. But there are alot of people wanting to take advantage. Even simple things like shopping at the markets - there are "foreigner" prices, the moment you step out of a car 10 street kids will run up asking for money from "the Americano" taxi drivers get pissed if you wont pay them the fare they want as opposed to putting the meter on. It can be exhausting having to constantly put people in their place about things, having to be aware of who is around you and their possible intentions. That is why I learnt Tagalog. Its still only basic,but when I speak it they will back away in shock and quickly correct themselves.
Sometimes you feel like people are looking at you like a walking ATM, and it makes me sad because I try so hard to show them Im just the same as any of you,I dont think Im above you,and really Im not "richer" than anyone else here.
Most people here are genuine and lovely, but because you are constantly stared at and asked for money you start shutting off to everyone and it takes a truly genuine and lovely person to reach out to you.
Most people don't equate racism against white people here, but there is. And sadly it is a cultural thing.
But it happens against each other too - When I first had a maid we went out to dinner. The girl handed out menus to everyone except the maid. I had to chastise her and tell her to get one. Why was it assumed because she is a "maid" she wont be eating? for all she knew she was a filipina friend of mine..at any rate, she is a person.
People will deny it, say Im wrong or whatever - but in the Philippines most people are incredibly judgemental, to religion, race, social status, education.. sad thing is they dont even think so. Truthfully Ive had to correct my own Pinoy husband on things like that before too!

hi morefun. yes what you said is completely true and i agree that it is one of the annoying traits/thinking that most of our people are guilty of.

we love to generalize things, to resort to stereotyping and it is really wrong and i hope it would one day change. the thing is (not sure if this would make you feel any better, that kind of stereotyping is not limited to foreigners. for example, people from the provinces think that all (foreigner or local) working in the cities are far richer than them or their friends or relatives working abroad never run out of money.

expatanswers wrote:

hi morefun. yes what you said is completely true and i agree that it is one of the annoying traits/thinking that most of our people are guilty of.

we love to generalize things, to resort to stereotyping and it is really wrong and i hope it would one day change. the thing is (not sure if this would make you feel any better, that kind of stereotyping is not limited to foreigners. for example, people from the provinces think that all (foreigner or local) working in the cities are far richer than them or their friends or relatives working abroad never run out of money.

hahha yes, I do understand that lol.it somewhat makes it easier

oh life would be so boring then. the world should be ours to explore and enjoy.

I don't agree with you sunnyvee, on the contrary I think French express racist sentiments towards Africans than towards Asian people. By the way, you may see this by simply looking at the newspaper of these days which speaks only about the racism that encountered the Minister of Justice Taubira these last days. France was once so well welcoming Africans but now her only wish it's having none. And sure as you, I don't say that all the French are racists, but I have already had racist remarks here and I'm from a North African country.

Here in Brazil racism and zenophobia have taken on a really strange face. Brazilians are very accepting of foreigners regardless of race or color. They love foreigners.

If you're an immigrant from another Latin-American country, if you're a black Brazilian or if you're from the north or northeast of Brazil, you're lower than the lowest man on the totem pole. The average resident of the eastern-central states in Brazil pretend that the northern states simply don't exist.

Brazilians very openly discrimnate against other Brazilians and Latin-Americans. It is absolutely disgusting. I found it really strange when I first came here almost 12 years ago that while they welcome expats from every African nation with open arms, they are so prejudiced against Afro-Brasilians born right here.

If you come from Europe and have blonde hair and blue eyes you are a KING, yet if you come from Bolivia you're treated like you've just crawled out of a sewer somewhere.

Strange people these Brazilians!!!

One of the most enduring memories of my youthful travels is a few days in Haiti in 1966, and my ten-hour journey from the north coast back to Port-au-Prince on the top of a jitney. I was the only white man on the bus - something of a phenomenon to the jet-black Haitians who comprised the rest of the cast. In the couple of weeks preceding I had been the only white guest at a low-end tourist-hostel in Nassau, Bahamas, and at another in Kingston, Jamaica. Something of an adventure for me, whose contacts to date had been mostly white or swarthy. I remember wondering at the time: what's all the fuss about? I still do wonder.

Earlier this year (July) I reminisced in my personal blog about the bus trip. The EB Team disapproves of links to members' blogs, and the entire post is too much off-topic to warrant reproduction, so here is an extract.

On the Sunday I bought a ticket on the bus from Cap Haitien back to the capital, leaving next morning. I asked the bus dispatcher (in pidgin French) what time the bus would depart. “Huit heures.” Ah, but did that mean eight o'clock Caribbean time, or some local approximation? The missionaries would have to drive me down from the mountains, and I wanted to get the time right. “Oui, huit heures juste.” Okayy, but when you say juste, do you mean really, really exactly, or...? He sighed heavily. “Huit...heures...blanc!” I took that to mean “white man's time”, and shut up. And it did leave at eight, on the dot. 
Nobody on the bus spoke French, or was any colour but jet-black; no upper class representatives present! I volunteered to sit on the top of the bus with eight or nine other passengers, to help keep the luggage from coming loose, and to hand bags down and catch bags thrown up. My companions told me by gestures why we were stopping and how long for. 
It was a ten-hour journey down the coast road via Gonaives, but the time passed easily; it was a lovely trip. The driver went out of his way to drop me at my shabby hotel. I was the most exotic passenger he had ever had, I expect: probably the only white person ever to have travelled the whole distance on the roof of his bus.
They all gave me a farewell salute, and I them. “A'voi, blanc!” “A'voi!” Respect.

There is racism in any country. In Hong Kong especially. Not very sure how it is like in China yet.

Racism is an unfortunate reality of human nature...It exists everywhere; whether it is obvious hostility or subtle intolerance.

In my opinion, racism is the direct result of social ignorance, and fear of the unknown...so, the good news is, with some education and direct interaction with good people from different parts of the world, we can break down the barriers of hate and convert racist people into open-minded folk who embrace other cultures.

Maria - Racism stems from fear of the unknown, you're right about that. And fear of the unfamiliar, of course. It's a kind of tribalism, or patriotism. As most people feel more comfortable with people of their own extended family, community or culture, so they feel more comfortable with people of their own colour or racial characteristics.  Why do we praise patriotism but condemn racism? I can't explain it. They are equally dangerous, surely. A truly "international" man or woman should spurn them both.

HaileyinHongKong wrote:

What about those of us who aren't international?  Is loving my country really as bad as hating people of different races?

It depends how passionate your loyalty to your country is, Hailey. There have been more killings in the name of patriotism than in the name of purely racial differences. I equate patriotism, nationalism and tribalism-in-the-broadest-sense (which includes loyalty to a religion), and don't have much time for them, I'm afraid. Yes, there IS harmless patriotism etc, but the harmlessness doesn't always survive opposition. Look at all the patriots in history who have supported unwarranted and unprovoked invasions and occupations of foreign countries.

Non-patriots aren't necessarily better people, but they probably support fewer invasions of foreign countries.

good point

worse

just imagine a world without racism! it will be so peaceful

HaileyinHongKong wrote:

I still think racism is worse than patriotism - by about a million miles.

You may be right, Hailey, but not everybody would agree. The innocent victims of drones in Yemen and Pakistan, for instance: are they being killed because they're racially different from the bombers, or because they're foreigners?

I personally haven't faced any direct racism in Australia but have come across many racist comments and activities that has indirectly affected me or have proved the existence of wide spread racism in Australia. People here tends to exclude Nepal from Asian nations, so many of my friend are open to discuss their racist thoughts about Asians. Many perhaps told me Asian stinks, are not clean and have rude behavior. I just tried to stayed neutral by informing them that there are different culture and way of living in different countries and perhaps the way they are behaving is normal in their country but may seems not normal or even rude to us as we are not used to it but my friends over here don't seem to take it very well.

I have seen racism in work place on everyday basis. White people are preferred over any brown or black people, experience does not seems to count until and unless you are one of the best.

true indeed

but peace and conflict resolution is very important too

Well racism is everywhere in the world but it is more in some parts. like russia and some parts of germany they dont really like blacks.

Racism I believe can be so different from where you are.
And racism can be positive and negative, well, I don't mean that racism is positive, but it can be a so called positive racism when people down class themselves in favor for others.

What is racism really? Is it based upon a set of rules? Is there definitions of what is racism? Is it based on traditions, languages, religions, old rules inherited from colonization?
Is it racism to believe that in general negro men become better sprinters and the best sprinters usually have Jamaican blood?
Is it racism to believe that in general the Ethiopian and Kenya men are the best Marathon runners?
Is it racism to believe that in general the average chinese male sexual organ is smaller then the man of Africa or Europe?
Is it racism to believe that in general a German Shephard, a Doberman or a Rottweiler dog has better characteristics then a Papillon or a Chihuahua to become a good guard dog?
Is it racism to believe that in general it is impossible for a Zambian couple to get a blue eyed child?
Is it racism to believe that in general a Scandinavian person is more organized and rule abiding then a person from Burkina Faso?
Is it racism to believe that all girls in Brazil do the Brazilian waxing?
Is it racism to believe that southern European women have more hair growth in places unwanted then Scandinavian women?
Is it then also racism to believe that southern European persons have thicker hair then Scandinavians?
Is it racism to believe........
Well I guess it is up to you or to the person who feel to be in the line of perception.

I have seen different sides of racism and where I believe it comes from. I will give some examples.
As wjwoodward wrote about Brazil, if you European with blue eyes and blond hair your King. It happens elsewhere too.
This is what I have experienced in India, although I am brown eyed.... LOL
In many times in India as well as by Indian people in other countries I have experienced that I am put on a pedestal and that these people actually down class themselves in favor of me.

In UAE I noticed how work positions is very much dedicated from race, or possibly nationality - it is probably not set by the local UAE citizens but by management and 3rd party labor companies where the management is from other countries.
At one very large company where I spent a lot of time it was just not by chance that:
- Tea Boys were from Bangladesh
- Cleaner was from Nepal or Bhutan.
- Security low level managers where mainly Egyptians but also Morocco, Tunisian, Algerian and mixing in with those North Africans also Sri Lankan.
- Security worker guards where all Africans (black).
- Technical helpers were from Bangladesh
- Technicians where Pakistani
- Technical Engineers where Indian or Filipino.
- Lower engineer management where all Filipino
- Medium engineer management where all European less 1 Indian and 1 Bahraini.
- Upper management where all Europeans and locals.
- There was only one woman at a technical job in a work place of more then 12000 employees and she was a technical administrator, married to a guy in upper management.

As noticed outside the work place.
- At hospital all nurses were Indian.
- Almost all workers in fast food restaurants were Filipino.
- A large majority of shop assistants in clothing stores were Filipino or Ethiopian.
- Almost all places selling make-up or other beauty accessories had Filipino shop assistants although if going to the more expensive stores they would be Ethiopian and Persian.
- Most taxi drivers were Pakistani or Egyptians.
- Most hotel staff was from Bangladesh or Pakistan.
- Most private "Nannis" were Filipino.

Now I will tell a little story of a experience of mine. I once went to one of the finer malls of Dubai and in a electronics store I bought myself a new mobile phone.
Everything was fine until I had exited the store and just across on the opposite side of the pathway in the mall entered a clothing store..... The alarm went off when I entered.
Just at the same time as I entered a Filipino woman entered. The security guard whom looked Indian was fast on to the Filipino girl to look in her bags.
I threw my bag with the phone through the alarm sensors a few times and every time I did so the alarm went off to show the guard that it was me, not the Filipino.
He asked me politely to leave several times and finally even angrily. So I just had to go back and get the phone un-magnetized again.

Where did all this come from? Why so segregated? I do not think it was the UAE nationals who segregated the races and nationalities like this. Did it come from some old traditions from colonization times?


I noticed racism many times in USA. It is a daily issue between white and black people. Black people would give you a bad look if you happen to have another black person in your (white) car.
And many white people is racist towards black people.
I have some second cousins in the USA and if one of their neighbours is to sell their house the whole neighborhood is on watch on the house show. Should there be a black family viewing a house for sale the whole street would team up, buy the house and sell it to whom they want for neighbor as they think the market value of their houses could drop if there is a black family in the neighborhood.
Even though upscale people with good educations, company owners etc they would call the black minority persons by the Nig*** word. But in that were also the double standards that is so common in USA. In the morning they call all black with the N-word, 1h later they meet the widow of the best ever worker they ever had (who was black) in the supermarket and chin kiss when greeting and chit-chatting for half hour.
I also met racism in USA where I as a white european was told I was not welcome in their country by other white americans as they did not like us coming taking their jobs. I was told to leave the bar or get in a fight and told to go home to Europe.

Here in Sweden there is also racism, and unlike perhaps the racism of south central Asia it is not due to colonization traditions but due to governmental issues. Swedish people has in the past been a very liberal and patient people with people from other nations, traditions and culture. But in the last decades our immigration laws and social welfare system has granted a lot of immigrants access to rights that is not equal too but in some cases even exceeds those of the nationals.
For most of us on this forum we are expating or interested in expating to another country in order to live differently, take up a work position or perhaps retire in a tropical paradise. But in Sweden we have a system that brings in a lot of people but we can not provide them jobs. So they get welfare payment. These expats also bring their family, that is sometimes even their parents who already have reached the age of retirement so when they come to Sweden they get pension/retirement and to be fare since they have not earned any pension points they will be given freely. Now, due to these laws and regulations many people are upset why they have to earn their living the hard way and pay a lot of tax to pay for people who never paid taxes or earned their pension. This is causing racism to grow and last election a nationalistic party reached the 4% boundary to get into the parliament. That was 3 and half years ago. In about half a year is our next parliament elections and now according to studies they are closing in on 11% of the votes.

With this it is my belief that racism can be worked with but if improperly worked it will grow.

I went through your post and I totally agree with some of your point but fixing the issues of racism is I reckon what we can call Impossible.

Racism is just like Religion and people tend to have it through ignorance or it has been ingrained in to them emotionally. If we think about God in practical way, I bet all of us will end up being an Atheist and same applies for Racism. Sad but true, we think the other way.

Having good faith in one group of people is not racism but generalizing bad idea regarding a nation and openly making fuss about it is Racism and this later aspect is so deeply rooted in human behavior that it is impossible to get rid of it.

One of my Slovakian friend told me before meeting me, she thought all the Asian's are barbarian and still live like in a stone age, but I didn't consider it to be racism at the moment, I thought how ignorant people would be in this country but we have to understand ignorance is the root cause of racism.

A person living in Australia and cursing Chinese have no idea that Australian economy would go bust without China. If he would have even an inkling about it, he would thought million time before making any negative remarks about Chinese life or way.

Racism is also the fruit of superiority. People feeling their are superior thinks whatsoever they do is right and all the else world is wrong. To European, Chinese smells sea food and to Chinese European smells Cheese but I have never heard any Chinese making open comments about European but have heard thousand from the other way round and this comes from the idea of superiority. I don't care whatsoever I smell like, only if something matters is other should not give out the odor that I don't adore.

Racism is a hobby for uneducated fools.
The moment you get to know people from whatever race you care to mention, you come to realise they are diverse in every possible way and stereotypes simply don't work any more.
The same goes for all silly bigoted ideas.

Anyone convicted of any crime involving racism/bigotry should be sentenced to a year living and working with his target group.