Crude Cocktail of Ignorance and Bias
May 27, 2016 6:41 PM   Subscribe

China and India have a huge problem with with racism toward black people.

The murder of Masonda Ketanda Olivier and a racist detergent commercial has drawn attention to problems of race relations in both countries.

Related:

Similar incidents examined

Africans speak out

Being Black in China also has its risks

Migrants have fought back in the streets and on youtube

Bonus: the Chinese ad is a role-reversal of this Italian ad
posted by R.F.Simpson (4 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: I don't think this is framing that's going to lead to a constructive conversation. -- restless_nomad



 
First thing this reminded me of was The Loneliest Man in China.
posted by McCoy Pauley at 7:10 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


Darkie brand toothpaste:
...The packaging featured an image of a wide-eyed, smiling dark-skinned black male wearing a top hat, monocle and bow-tie, an image resembling minstrelsy.

In 1990, after Colgate-Palmolive acquired Hawley & Hazel, the English name of the toothpaste was changed to "Darlie", and the image on the packaging was altered to show a racially ambiguous face in a top hat to avoid racial misunderstanding. However, the Chinese name of the brand, "黑人牙膏" (in English, "Black Person Toothpaste"), remains the same, and a Chinese-language advertising campaign reassured customers that "Black Person Toothpaste is still Black Person Toothpaste".
Tangential to the subject of black people, Wikipedia has an article Graphic pejoratives in written Chinese which claims that the names of non-Han ethnicities/minorities frequently originally incorporated the characters for various animal names, but that this was changed in the course of language reforms in the 20th century.
posted by XMLicious at 7:25 PM on May 27, 2016


China and India have a huge problem with with racism toward black people.

So does North America, in case that wasn't painfully obvious.
posted by mhoye at 7:26 PM on May 27, 2016 [1 favorite]


OK that "Loneliest Man in China" article is something, he's all "I saw this racism in China, I saw that racism, horrible, horrible, BTW Chinese people are heartless and cold." I shall reread Windup Girl with a different eye next time.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 7:36 PM on May 27, 2016


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