Mistaken For Racism...

[Crossbreed]

My Korean DIL was telling me that Korean, Japanese & Chinese generally look alike and the main way to tell them apart is by clues like language & clothing.
At first, that seemed racist until I thought about the similarities between Americans, Canadians, Brits & Australians.

 

[Forest Cat]

Same thing with Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Finns and Icelanders. If you line them up next to each other, no one is able to tell whos who. Until they start talking.

 

[Aspychata]

I lived in Hawaii, there are some differences. I can usually tell Chinese from Korean, and l can usually figure out Japenese. But it could be l lived many years in Hawaii. There are actually cultural differences between all three. But l did meet a cool Korean guy that may have passed for Japenese in LA. I really appreciate Asian people. My daughter is actually part Chinese.

 

[Misty Avich]

It's not racist to say something like that. It's an overused word and people shouldn't go throwing that word around so readily. It's not very nice to be accused of being a racist when you wasn't. I'd only call someone a racist if they're being deliberately prejudiced against a group of people of a certain race, such as saying all people of a certain race are worthless, or saying that all people of a certain race shouldn't do something because they're all incompetent, or blaming things on all the people of a certain race, that sort of thing. Because saying things like that was racist even before the world became woke, and it's unacceptable to say those things about any demographic.

I'm being totally anti-racist here but I bet this post would probably be taken the wrong way and I'd be called a racist. Being deliberately prejudiced about a race is unacceptable, but having to tiptoe carefully around any discussion to do with race out of fear of being accused of being a racist is also going too far.

 

[Rodafina]

similarities between Americans, Canadians, Brits & Australians.

But this is what Americans look like:

 

[thejuice]

Safe to assume OP is talking about the country wide, majority white ethnic group

 

[Aspychata]

Nope, that's a picture of many different people.

 

[jsilver256]

Safe to assume OP is talking about the country wide, majority white ethnic group

Even then, Americans dress very differently than Europeans, and Brits dress differently from other Europeans

 

[Crossbreed]

Safe to assume OP is talking about the country wide, majority white ethnic group

It works both ways.
Canada, the UK & Australia seem to have a similar mix to the USA even if they have the same majority.

 

[Rodafina]

It works both ways.
Canada, the UK & Australia seems to have a similar mix to the USA even if they have the same majority.

That makes more sense.

I think it's a mistake to disregard those who are not the majority, but I can understand now that you were not doing that.

 

[Judge]

Recognizing and identifying cultural nuances in differences or similarities between various peoples alone does not constitute racism.

 

[Outdated]

It works both ways.
Canada, the UK & Australia seem to have a similar mix to the USA even if they have the same majority.

If you look at our fast foods you get a very different picture. We are as mixed as each other but they're very different mixes.

In the UK there's a lot of Indian restaurants, more common than the old fish and chips. They're rare in Australia. The UK also has a lot of middle eastern restaurants - the kebab shops.

Australia has a lot of Asian restaurants, and middle eastern as well - Lebanese. Yes I can tell the difference between Korean, Chinese and Japanese, and yes they are offended when you label them with the wrong race. Lebanese food has become well integrated into Australian cuisine, we also have Lebanese pizzas and a common food here is middle east meats west - The Halal Snack Pack or HSP. Hot chips covered with cheese and kebab meat and sauces.

The US seems to have a lot of Chinese and a lot of Mexican foods. Mexican foods aren't all that common in other countries. We have Guzman Y Gomez here but I've never tried it because I hate beans.

https://www.guzmanygomez.com.au/our-food/

 

[Misty Avich]

Recognizing and identifying cultural nuances in differences or similarities between various peoples alone does not constitute racism.

I got called a racist for that once, on another forum. Just because I got a fact wrong. The scumbag who called me that swore at me and made it into such a big deal (she was white and British like me), and made me out to be not only a terrible person but also stupid. I'd have appreciated it if she'd just approached the matter more politely by just correcting me civilly. Then I would have just said "okay, my bad, thanks for educating me" and moved on. But no, it had to be approached the hard way and there was no need for it.

 

[jsilver256]

I’ll never forget going to Texas, complaining about the enormous portions of fatty BBQ and giant sides of carbs (it’s Texas toast for a reason), and then my host told me it’s considered healthy compared to their Mexican restaurants…

I imagine most Americans think of Texas as what most Europeans think of America.

 

[Judge]

I got called a racist for that once, on another forum. Just because I got a fact wrong. The scumbag who called me that swore at me and made it into such a big deal (she was white and British like me), and made me out to be not only a terrible person but also stupid. I'd have appreciated it if she'd just approached the matter more politely by just correcting me civilly. Then I would have just said "okay, my bad, thanks for educating me" and moved on. But no, it had to be approached the hard way and there was no need for it.

Living in a multicultural environment like Britain or the US isn't easy. Where people can't so easily identify so many cultural differences that may or may not easily reflect one nationality or race from another.

It may be ethnocentric to expect everyone to understand every other culture and nationality, but the bottom line is that it's simply an unrealistic expectation short of one contemplating visiting another nation and culture. When it's to their advantage to learn some of things we may take for granted that are done so differently on the other side of the planet.

 

[Tom]

You can my New York style pizza out of my 3rd degree burnt cold dead olive oil soaped hand.

 

[Outdated]

We have a lot of seemingly racist terms in Australia but wether or not they're insulting depends on context.

Here people use those terms about themselves, being a white Aussie I'm also known as a Skips, eastern Mediteranean people are Wogs, western Mediteranean people are Dagos, Lebanese people call themselves Lebbos. Chinese people also often identify as Gooks. I only ever met one African American and he complained that in Australia he's not even black any more, he's just a Yank.

 

[jsilver256]

Then you have my coworker who identifies as 100% Bogan and taught me that half the English language can indeed be replaced by the contextual use of the F-bomb.

 

[Judge]

I only ever met one African American and he complained that in Australia he's not even black any more, he's just a Yank.

I used to work with a Haitian political refugee. He was fascinating to listen to, though he had a very poor opinion of Black Americans. He couldn't relate to them at all. Made him determined to retain his Creole accent rather than be taken for an American.

He worked in their foreign ministry under the Duvalier (PapaDoc) regime. He was lucky to escape Haiti with his life. He used to chuckle about how he and his coworkers would go from poll to poll to vote for Duvalier.

 

[Outdated]

I used to work with a Haitian political refugee. He was fascinating to listen to, though he had a very poor opinion of Black Americans. He couldn't relate to them at all. Made him determined to retain his Creole accent rather than be taken for an American.

Here' there's a few issues with people from different African nations calling themselves black and that upsets the local Aboriginal populations who in general always were quite racist, there's no love lost between those two groups.