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Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimination (2018)

nytimes.com

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Re: Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimination (2018)

#61

Post by swervematchbook »

This is almost certainly going to be an unpopular view but when you view the Chinese behaviour through the lens of a Western view of the world, you are insensitive to the fact that modern Chinese culture has a really different starting point, the nation is mostly ethnically homogenous and was not really involved in the enslavement.

I'm not necessarily out to defend the behaviour of this person - I think they were pretty callous, and some of the other practices also seem pretty horrendous but I also think some of the offence readers of this article may take come from projecting our own personal views onto the behaviour of others, ignorant of the different origins and cultural contexts of the offender.

When slurs such as referring to people as monkeys are used by the Chinese, they are not steeped with the kind of hatred and historical context when wielded by someone from the West.

---That doesn't make it any less hurtful or insensitive---

That said, it also doesn't necessarily carry the same intent as it may outside of China. Comparison with animals is far more normalized and entrenched in culture: for instance, everyone is assigned a zodiac by their birth month and the Monkey King is a household mythological hero.

Re: Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimination (2018)

#62

Post by oriol11 »

DyslexicAtheist wrote: post #49
paganel wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it’s worth even non-homogenous countries like the US haven’t solved their racial-related issues either. For a while I had thought that Brazil was as close to color-blind as a economically-developed country can be but after reading and learning more about their internal politics and especially after their latest presidential elections it seems that I was wrong.

it's always strange to see communities which have the least amount of foreigners being the most xenophobic (East Germany, US Midwest/flyover, Australian Western Territory, large parts of Eastern Europe etc ...). Not saying xenophobia doesn't exist in the other territories, but it seems exposure and mixing can help a lot. EDIT: it seems the places where xenophobia doesn't exist are mere pockets in a vast ocean of bigo…

Guys, always remember that only whites can be racist. Your list of "the most xenophobic", correlates perfectly with percent of whites. Diversity as well means non-white. So increasing diversity in Africa is impossible because it's already 100% diverse, while if Europe is 50% white, we can still double diversity by removing all whites.

Re: Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimination (2018)

#63

Post by withhighprod »

leongrado wrote: post #8

For the most part, Chinese in China don't have a culture of condemning racism like the US or other western nations. As apparent in the video, he isn't even ashamed of being called racist.

He looks like from Guangdong(by appearance), northerners actually frequently refer them to monkey

Re: Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimination (2018)

#64

Post by fastball »

jxramos wrote: post #6
m3nu wrote: post #3

With China being very homogeneous in terms of race, they never worked through those issues. I don't blame them. My grand parents, who lived in the countryside all their life would react in a similar way. Small anecdote: I attended an English class at a Chinese business university. The teacher (young girl, never left China in her life) told us that everything "French" means "sex/porn/etc", i.e. "french book", "french…

I thought you were possibly exaggerating. There really is such an ad. Pretty horrible. I never heard of this news almost 3 years after the fact. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/28/china-racist-d...

You didn't hear about it because the majority of the West is too busy directing their moral outrage at the most ethnically diverse country on Earth, which, surprisingly, has problems with racism.

My pet theory is that this is because Americans are one of the few groups of people who are willing to accept the fact that they have problems with racism. Every other country mostly just denies the existence of any racism that crops up (or overreacts in the opposite direction) and is therefore not so easy a target.

Re: Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimination (2018)

#65

Post by [deleted] »

rqs wrote: post #47
m3nu wrote: post #3

With China being very homogeneous in terms of race, they never worked through those issues. I don't blame them. My grand parents, who lived in the countryside all their life would react in a similar way. Small anecdote: I attended an English class at a Chinese business university. The teacher (young girl, never left China in her life) told us that everything "French" means "sex/porn/etc", i.e. "french book", "french…

> The teacher (young girl, never left China in her life) told us that everything "French" means "sex/porn/etc", i.e. "french book", "french movie". Funny, but tragic. I think this is a typical example of stereotype rather than racism. But actually, I think that kind of stereotype is the exact major driving force behind racism in China. From my own experience, I don't think we in China have received enough education a…

[deleted]

Re: Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimination (2018)

#66

Post by [deleted] »

rqs wrote: post #47
m3nu wrote: post #3

With China being very homogeneous in terms of race, they never worked through those issues. I don't blame them. My grand parents, who lived in the countryside all their life would react in a similar way. Small anecdote: I attended an English class at a Chinese business university. The teacher (young girl, never left China in her life) told us that everything "French" means "sex/porn/etc", i.e. "french book", "french…

> The teacher (young girl, never left China in her life) told us that everything "French" means "sex/porn/etc", i.e. "french book", "french movie". Funny, but tragic. I think this is a typical example of stereotype rather than racism. But actually, I think that kind of stereotype is the exact major driving force behind racism in China. From my own experience, I don't think we in China have received enough education a…

[deleted]

Re: Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimination (2018)

#67

Post by andrenth »

paganel wrote: post #43
m3nu wrote: post #3

With China being very homogeneous in terms of race, they never worked through those issues. I don't blame them. My grand parents, who lived in the countryside all their life would react in a similar way. Small anecdote: I attended an English class at a Chinese business university. The teacher (young girl, never left China in her life) told us that everything "French" means "sex/porn/etc", i.e. "french book", "french…

For what it’s worth even non-homogenous countries like the US haven’t solved their racial-related issues either. For a while I had thought that Brazil was as close to color-blind as a economically-developed country can be but after reading and learning more about their internal politics and especially after their latest presidential elections it seems that I was wrong.

Can you point specifically to a racial issue related to the presidential election? I think the news you read are only repeating the slogans of his opponents.

Re: Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimination (2018)

#68

Post by dm3730 »

beerlord wrote: post #40

And here it is from the Chinese perspective: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a-QpyF7rNc&t=3512s

I watched the video. It shows a Chinese site manager having a confusing interaction with several African workers. He then expresses somewhat racist views to the camera, eg: all Africans are well built because it is a survival of the fittest environment. But I could not follow what you meant by the Chinese perspective. Could you elaborate?

Re: Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimination (2018)

#70

Post by nabla9 »

mothsonasloth wrote: post #10

I think I posted this before but my old university buddy who's from Zambia, jokes with me that the Chinese are colonization 2.0 The Chinese government have no scruples which is why they are out-competing Western companies and governments in Africa, who are tied behind political and moral restrictions. Also the Chinese have a major resource in man power which they can deploy anywhere for cheap.

Globalization and colonization have been always linked and globalization usually starts with either with colonization or something that looks like it. Adam Smith himself argued that the discovery of the Americas by Christopher Columbus accelerated the process of globalisation [1] (without using the word globalisation).

When Chines build roads to extract resources with questionable intent, those roads and electric grids are free for all and not all traffic goes to China. Some even question the net value of Chinese efforts for the Chinese.

[1]: https://www.economist.com/free-exchange/2013/09/23/when-did-...

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