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21 sats \ 18 replies \ @Rothbardian_fanatic 28 Jan \ parent \ on: Is Racism Enabled by Capitalism, or the State? | The Libertarian Institute econ
OK. Have you ever been to an openly racist or religionist place? You would know immediately that the racism or religionism is enforced not only by custom but by the state, also. I think that the roots or racism, religionism and tribalism are exactly the same: we are similar and you are different, so we can do anything we want to you because you are outgroup.
China is probably the most openly racist place I've ever been, but it doesn't manifest in trying to deny people service. I imagine they'd be allowed to, but I don't know.
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Did you pay differently for things compared to the locals? That just might give you an indication. If you haggle more fiercely than the locals, sometimes they give up the discrimination.
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I'm sure I got got in my attempts at haggling, but I also felt like all the prices I got were very reasonable.
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Yep, that is the secret of what they are doing to you, you probably didn’t notice the difference because you were only traveling through. If you had stayed long enough and had good local friends to tell you the “real” prices, you would have seen the differences. Generally between 1/2 to 2 times greater once you are done haggling.
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A black was interviewed in China and he told them people tried to clean his skin. Peak ignorance. Did they think he’d turn into a Disney prince mid scrub?
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Once, I was asked by a crowd if everything I saw was blue (I have blue eyes). I knew that they couldn’t figure out if I even saw well. But this was a totally inoffensive question, compared to some I had gotten. There is propaganda in many places about people’s various habits.
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The worst our group got was the enormous amount of unwanted attention towards the two blonde women travelling with us.
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Yes, I noticed the blonde women had a lot of difficulty when traveling, especially if they were not cognizant of the local dress codes.
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I'm from India. People here are very racist too, not just towards foreigners but even amongst themselves. Fair skin is practically thought to be good you're automatically considered good looking or handsome if you're light skinned. Education has brought a lot improvement, but the obsession with skin color is still deeply rooted. It's the kind of mindset that lingers in a developing country grappling with modernity and old prejudices.
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I also noticed that fat people got different treatment than your, run-of-the-mill skinny people. It didn’t take much fat to be considered fat, either.
I'm not surprised and I have no idea what they expected would happen.
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At least they were only talking, not doing. There are countries where they just do, no matter the universal ethics of the situation. It is the ingroup versus outgroup problem. Whatever I do to the outgroup is OK, right? Some people never think what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
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I don’t know if you could say racist. I found that there is a definite, we are us and you are not one of us sort of vibe. It didn’t have much to do with race, but more to do with homogeneous culture of the place. For instance, if you are in Japan you are either a Japanese or an outside person (gaijin). It is completely either, or without graduations. Oh, sorry, there were half’s and they were know as exactly that, half.
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