re: only white people are racist... i used to live in japan and the racism i saw exhibited against korean people was stunning. hatred for korean people was openly discussed, it was not viewed as taboo. i understand what underlies your point about only whites being racist in a north american context but it just doesn't correlate internationally.

Prejudice is everywhere. Prejudice by itself is not racism. I haven’t traveled to or lived in Japan, but are there now (and have there been for centuries) extensive laws segregating Koreans or dehumanizing Koreans on the basis of race? Were Koreans enslaved and/or imported as disposable labor to build Japan? Are Koreans disproportionately imprisoned and racially profiled in Japan? See what I’m getting at?

“North American” racism doesn’t “correlate” internationally? Hmm.. so you mean the US is not connected to the rest of the planet? There is such a thing as global white supremacy, racism, and capitalism. The results of which can be seen in US corporations outsourcing their labor to “third world” countries so they don’t have to pay a decent wage, stealing resources from Indigenous peoples to satisfy Western consumers/profits, and opening fast food restaurants in countries like Japan to not only spread Western shit everywhere, but to also make it more “comfortable” for white folks in “foreign” places. This is only one contemporary way in which the legacy of white European colonialism has lived on. How do you think white folks got to the North/South American continent in the first place? And let’s not forget that white folks can visit Japan and be just as racist there toward Japanese people while still maintaining the white power and privilege they have in the US. Some Japanese folks disliking Korean folks doesn’t change that.

I went to China and Tibet in 2007 through a university tour. I saw some of the effects of colonization and cultural genocide in Tibet, and there were a few times I witnessed the refusal of Chinese folks to engage in that political discussion. I never once heard a Chinese person saying anything rude or offensive about Tibetans. What I heard more than anything else were jokes from the white folks on the tour about Chinese folks eating dogs, multiple anxieties about the food and the overall atmosphere, endless complaints about how “uncivilized” Tibetans were, and then of course some folks who were “appalled” by the pollution in Beijing who also couldn’t wait to get back to their homes in… Los Angeles. What white folks experience when they visit and/or live in another country is never the whole story of a people or a place. And when white folks travel, so does racism.

–DD