Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimination (2018)

Re:Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimi... by paganel on Sunday February 03, 2019 @07:07AM (#19069175)

For what it’s worth even non-homogenous countries like the US haven’t solved their racial-related issues either. For a while I had thought that Brazil was as close to color-blind as a economically-developed country can be but after reading and learning more about their internal politics and especially after their latest presidential elections it seems that I was wrong.

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Re:Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimi... by cirrus-clouds on Sunday February 03, 2019 @07:41AM (#19069293)

"For what it’s worth even non-homogenous countries like the US haven’t solved their racial-related issues either."

Problems with racism are global.

The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) recently published a survey (Nov 2018) that examines the experiences of almost 6,000 people of African descent in 12 EU Member States.

The report includes survey results from Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Sweden and the UK.

The FRA state:

"While the survey results paint a dire picture of reality on the ground, they can serve as an important resource for policymakers committed to promoting the full inclusion of people of African descent in the EU."

Summary of weighted results across all surveyed countries (taken from the report): https://imgur.com/a/gcHR5dk

Report: Being Black in the EU

https://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2018/eumidis-ii-being-b...

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Re:Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimi... by andrenth on Sunday February 03, 2019 @08:47AM (#19069521)

Can you point specifically to a racial issue related to the presidential election? I think the news you read are only repeating the slogans of his opponents.

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Re:Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimi... by DyslexicAtheist on Sunday February 03, 2019 @07:33AM (#19069262)

it's always strange to see communities which have the least amount of foreigners being the most xenophobic (East Germany, US Midwest/flyover, Australian Western Territory, large parts of Eastern Europe etc ...). Not saying xenophobia doesn't exist in the other territories, but it seems exposure and mixing can help a lot.

EDIT: it seems the places where xenophobia doesn't exist are mere pockets in a vast ocean of bigotry.

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Re:Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimi... by yostrovs on Sunday February 03, 2019 @08:00AM (#19069348)

Funny how you lump the Midwest "flyover" here, the one that elects minorities to Congress, that has giant populations of immigrants from Somalia, middle East, etc, and that doesn't live gated in or secured by a doorman. Maybe your xenophobia for the people of the Midwest arises because you fly over them?

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Re:Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimi... by WalterSear on Sunday February 03, 2019 @01:56PM (#19071419)

I have spent time flyover country, and, I'm sad to say that IME, the parent's is characterization is much closer than yours.

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Re:Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimi... by yostrovs on Sunday February 03, 2019 @02:31PM (#19071647)

Would be nice to hear your explanation. I've lived in Midwest and both coasts. Haven't noticed a diversity difference. There are fewer Mexicans is the only difference I noticed. Otherwise lots of cultural diversity. Certainly more than in, say, Portland, Oregon, where everyone is white or Asian.

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Re:Kenyans Say Chinese Investment Brings Racism and Discrimi... by rjf72 on Sunday February 03, 2019 @10:55AM (#19070247)

The interesting thing is what you're doing is really the exact same thing that drives racism. These [1] are the crime rates in the US from the FBI, organized by race. The values are not normalized to population sizes, so if one group makes up e.g. 50% of the sources of a crime that means something rather different if they make up 10% of the population or 60%. You'll find there is a strong correlation between discrimination and aggregate behavior of a group. And this is not just a trend in the US but worldwide and throughout history.

And to be clear I'm in no way alluding to any specific group. For instance Irish were heavily discriminated against in the US. They were considered alcoholics prone to violence and criminality. "No Irish Need Apply" was a typical phrase seen throughout the US. However, this stereotype yielding to discrimination was not driven by fantasy. This aggregate behavior did exist. And as the aggregate behavior rates changed, so did views against the group. Now they're just another group lumped in by the amount of melanin in their skin as if that identifies their cultural or genetic roots.

So back to your example calling East Germans xenophobic is laughably untrue in some cases. Merkel is very East German and probably not the first person you'd list when speaking of xenophobes. Yet of course if you were somehow able to poll individuals in xenophobic tendencies, you'd probably find a substantially higher aggregate rate in East Germany than in e.g. Belgium. Yet by now just claiming 'East Germans' are the most xenophobic, you engage in the exact same behavior you'd hope to combat.

This is not picking on you, and I'm certainly not offended. I'm just pointing out a rather ironic point. Ultimately, I think we should focus on behavior. Asking East Germans to, collectively, stop engaging in as much racist behavior is probably a smarter choice than my asking you to stop referring to East Germans as xenophobes.

[1] - https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2013/crime-in-the-u.s.-...

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