It becomes about race in a post colonial country where race and status are deeply intertwined; saying it is about status doesn't mean it is not also about race.

I think you might be missing the forest for the trees. Stereotyping based on race is what you're describing, and it's still racist. Someone in the US refusing to hire a black guy because black men commit crimes at a higher rate is "discriminating based on the perception of the person's criminality". That doesn't mean it isn't discrimination based on race, since their perception is deriving entirely from "that person is of a race that commits crimes at a higher rate".

What is it called when in Japan patrons (mostly Japanese men) of the pink industry pay more for Eastern Europeans versus locals or other East Asians? Is it a fetish or is it racist of them? Or is it simply "exotic"?

I assume the pink industry is prostitution? The purpose of prostitution is almost entirely paying for what someone looks like. I should hope it's clear that it's not racial stereotyping to say that eastern Europeans have eastern European features.....throw in the fact that people reasonably tend to make an exception for racial preferences when it comes to sexuality (i.e. "I'm not attracted to East Asians" gets a hell of a lot less flak than "I won't hire east Asians", in large part because it's really damn hard to override sexuality preference), and it should be clear that your question really has no bearing on what we're talking about.

Yes, that's the industry.

>is almost entirely paying for what someone looks like.

No, not nearly. There may be some aspect of that, but no, people aren't looking for long-term commitments here. Anecdotally, I've known people who will not mind dating westerners but would never commit nor have any intention of marrying them (Social conventions).

That said, my point was more about the dominant society (Japan) where men express preference superficially based on "race" over another where the compared ethnicities include non-native. But I'm saying this preference may not be based on perceived racial ranking, but rather on other reasons, rarity (exoticism) a social signal (more disposable income), etc. And so I'm saying I don't think it's certain that the (preferential) treatment of "whites" in Africa can be strictly assigned to some racial ranking.

I'm also interested to see how Chinese might come to be viewed in the coming decades in Asia as they become known for their economic prowess and as their power and influence is felt in the African continent.

Much of this falls under the phenomenon of "internalized racism".

(This generalizes, so women can be sexist against other women; those in poverty can be classist against other poor people. To take a recent interview: "Women are always the first to discredit other women, likely because they’ve personally experienced something worse and didn’t or couldn’t speak up for themselves." https://modelviewculture.com/pieces/interview-with-julie-ann... )

When discussing racism, it's not just about racist emotions. Also about institutional outcomes, which can be impersonal.

I believe there is much more to it than meets the eye. For example, a culture that biased hiring based on gender/skin colour encourages hiring and protecting of incompetent staff. My wife dislikes one (one) of her female colleagues because she's incompetent and protected (ala political correctness). This red forces the notion of incompetence.

When I go to Asia, I may be given preferential treatment, I may not be. I have also been treated badly - other locals apologised and excused those people as racist, and I would agree.

There are many shades of distinction in these discussions. The link to Julie Ann's Article strict me as superficial, anecdotal and selective in its assessments. Like the "black doll vs white doll" tests, these are a very flimsy basis to make an assessment. How did the children go with black vs white covered books? What about black vs white rocks?

Q: why is everyone saying white man when it should be white person? I think that statement says a lot about how people think.

Okay, but I'm pretty sure in Kenya, it's partially about race. There was a story a while back about the wealthy there paying a premium to see white people do the restaurant's dirty work:

http://m.independent.mk//articles/10478/Nairobi's+Latest+Nov...