Are we Asians Racists ?????

Posted: 18 years ago
Hi friends , we have already discussed the issue that the fair colour fascinates us Indians and Pakistani's .  Now in my experience in my stay in the U.S i have noticed that We , Indians aren't particularly friendly with the African - American race .
 
Once in school , we had a exchange student from a African Country ( don't remember where ) . I remember in school people used to whisper nasty things about the boy - calling names " k***", B****** ,N**** . While these are Racist insults , we didn't even realise it was wrong to do so . People didn't even bother making friends with this poor chap . I suppose this boy would've left our Country with a poor impression.

In the U.S i noticed that my Indian friends have these biases against African - Americans . Although i live in a safe neighbourhood , but i have a mixed community around me . I have seen some of my friends comment about my African - American neighbours in a crude manner . Once we were playing ball in my yard , when our ball went over to the neighbours . My friends reaction was that hope these guys don't shoot us if we ask for our ball back . Also another friend commented she did not feel safe driving around my neighbourhood at night !!!😕

I'd like your comments on this subject !!😊
Edited by Aparna_BD - 18 years ago
Posted: 18 years ago
i think we are as much racists as the person next door. i live in SA where the black population is higher. and so is the crime rate all over africa. i have seen their despondency towards just about everything.like in every other community and race there are good people and bad people. but i find that they are themselves more colour conscious than most of the other races. when i lived in the UK some 10 years back, they would not deign to sit next to you in the bus. they would sit next to the whites but not the coloured (as the asians were called) the irony of it was, the white would get up and leave the seat empty when a black person sits next to them but more often than not, and remain seated if an asian takes a seat by their side. i have never been able to figure this out, but the black friend i had would patiently explain to me that folks are rather scared of their height and weight and sometimes expressionless face. they believe that their colour does not permit the expression on their face unless you looked at their eyes when talking.

back here in SA 'tis a different story altogether. they despise the asians for making it big during apartheid, for sticking within their community by starting schools etc. for qualities which they feel they do not possess.

i'm not justifying apartheid or their attitude, but just telling you what most of them have told me. i shall discuss this with some more of my friends and come back again on this topic! Edited by jasunap - 18 years ago
Posted: 18 years ago
well, we might be...i dont think i am, but i may be, wee have a new girl in our form, and i think she is an african, or jamaica, im not sure...but im fine, and i usedf to have a friend who was a half-cast(jamaican and british) and i was friends with her, so i dont think i am 😳
Posted: 18 years ago
Originally posted by goth princess


well, we might be...i dont think i am, but i may be, wee have a new girl in our form, and i think she is an african, or jamaica, im not sure...but im fine, and i usedf to have a friend who was a half-cast(jamaican and british) and i was friends with her, so i dont think i am 😳


For your admitting it !!!👏👏 Excellent it takes courage to admit such a thing . You may have felt that" i don't  want to  be too friendly with the African - American girl ......maybe because i wonder what the other kids will think ".

 I suppose thats  the first step , to acknowledge you have such feelings and they aren't right .
Maybe you could try making an extra effort to be friendly with her !😛
Posted: 18 years ago
African-American people are like the rest of us. Some of us are good and some bad. It doesn't have anything to do with the skin color. I don't have much experiance,though, because I have never had an African-American in any of my classes at school.
Posted: 18 years ago
Hmmmmmmmmmm...........Yeh! u r Rite Apurna!
I agree wid ya.........
But Americans and Africans ETC r also not so good wid us............
I hav experienced dizzzzzz thing myself many timess......They really hate Asianssssss.......
So Itssssss a Two way thing........forget abt it.........
And Remember we r suppose to be gooooood.......If some1 iz doing all that bad stuff with others than its really to be noted.....we shud all b friendly................
and Plusssss the other nations shud also maintain dizzzzz thing.........
Itz gonna be fantastic dan...........
Posted: 18 years ago
Originally posted by Sania_Hitler


Hmmmmmmmmmm...........Yeh! u r Rite Apurna!
I agree wid ya.........
But Americans and Africans ETC r also not so good wid us............
I hav experienced dizzzzzz thing myself many timess......They really hate Asianssssss.......
So Itssssss a Two way thing........forget abt it.........
And Remember we r suppose to be gooooood.......If some1 iz doing all that bad stuff with others than its really to be noted.....we shud all b friendly................
and Plusssss the other nations shud also maintain dizzzzz thing.........
Itz gonna be fantastic dan...........


Sania you may have faced some racism of your own . Maybe you could share your experience.
My personal experince is that what you said about Americans and African American hating Asians is not at all true. And all i've had is good experience till date. I have seen Americans respecting Asian intelligence .

Yes some African Americans have a grudge due to all the outsourcing thats happening from India . But thats not felt in a day to day interaction with them.
Posted: 18 years ago
Aparna..you are right. Asians do have some kind of look down attitude towards african americans. It could be uncomfy with african americans knowing them for first time but once we get to know individual I do like them and find them as nice person. However, this first impression is due to many reasons. African Americans in US are generalize that they don't get higher education, they smoke and indulge in crimes and such activities from high school as they don't have secure family relashion. Indians and Pakistani give lot of importance to family values and family bond and spending time with children and they don't want their kids roaming and doing nothing and getting in bad company. Gun, smoking, sneaking out from homes, having step-mom, step sister, step brother etc etc are not seen much in our homes. I know that there are many African Americans who are not like this and have good values, but sadly many of them are like this..depends upon where you live. Where I live we only have 4-5% of non white population including hispanic, asian, african american and I have never faced racism or such attitude here. I work for a 200 more employee company and I am the only who is non-white and I have never ever faced discrimination (touchwood).

I think it is not right for us to generalize them and judge them. like example of your friends who dont want to go to their yard and commenting hope they don't shoot us. Let me tell you this incident. I have never been exposed much to African american pelople 'coz where i live we don't have many AA. So first time when I went to Philadelphia airport i was surrounded by tons of AA. You won't believe I really started freaking out and was almost about to cry. They were very good and didn't even look at me or talked to me but just from what i had heard and stuff i made some midset that all AA are scary and can shoot you. It's not like all caucasian are good... they also have "white tr***" but i have seen some with really good family values. so probably when most of the people in that cast are not good the whole creed is looked down upon and which i think is not fair.Edited by sowmyaa - 18 years ago
Posted: 18 years ago
Also, I have met some Africans that comes from ivory coast, Africa who really have good values and family bond. .
Posted: 18 years ago
Hi Soumya it takes courage to admit your fear of AA in general 👏. There we go , not many will admit it .....but will think what you thought ot talk amongst friends.....not admit in a public forum . I know my friends do !!

You yourself answered a question that you know there is no point in putting down a whole creed because of a few bad apples .And the whites don't neccesarily have better values than the blacks .

Also after they did away with segregation , U.S has been trying to uplift the AA race . But it takes its time . So the number of drop outs are more and crime rate among them is more. Also unlike the harijans / SC/ST in India who faced similar outcast attitude . The skin colour for them is the same as rest of the Indians .Its comparitively easy to do away with the discrimination because they blend with the rest.

While in the U.S for the AA , the skin colour makes them distinguishable even from a distance. So its harder for the ordinary man with Caucasion features to do away with the mind set and not look at them differently so soon after segregation was done away with . Example you said you saw them at the airport and just by the colur it made you uncomfortable.You may have not felt that way by one glance if there were white T**** at the airport . It takes a while to decide that these people are white t**** .....you can't do it just by looking often!!

I think we should all think about these feelings we have towards the AA race and make a postive step from our side to do away with racism. 😊 Edited by Aparna_BD - 18 years ago

Related Topics

No Related topics found

Topic Info

14 Participants 25 Replies 2593Views

Topic started by Aparna_BD

Last replied by DesiChocolate

loader
loader
up-open TOP