Visitors to Asia may be shocked by overt forms of “racism.” But as the author discovers, it’s not the same understanding as the West.
In Asia, white skin is in / Photo William Wang
Over the last few decades, Western nations have tried to become a “post racial society.”
We try to look past skin color, ban discrimination, and teach tolerance. From our birth we are taught that everyone is equal and everyone deserves the same chance.
Even if we don’t always live up to our ideals, we still strive to reach them.
When I traveled to Asia and lived in Thailand, I was shocked to see so much “racism.” They loved whiteness. The whiter your skin the better you were.
From Korea to Japan to Thailand, dark skinned people are looked down upon. Everyone strives to be white- every skin product has whitening in it and everyone strives stays out of the sun.
It was the complete opposite for us in the West, where coming back from a vacation with a tan was considered a priority.
The Importance Of White?
While visiting the region, I was always shocked to hear people talk about how ugly black skin is, and how important it is to be white.
I’d constantly admonish my students about off color jokes only to have the another student waive me off “No, no, it’s OK. I am black and ugly.”
Asian countries look down on dark skin not because of racism but because they don’t want to be perceived as poor.
Another student later made it clear: “In the west, you always worry about color. You have a racism problem but here we just accept it. We don’t care.”
There’s a creation story in Thailand. In the beginning god created man. At first, he cooked the people too much (dark skinned people). Then he cooked them too little (pasty westerners). Finally, he cooked them just right (light skinned Asians).
When I first heard this story, it only reinforced my belief in a racist Asia. It wasn’t until later I learned about the cultural and class context and then I saw this “racism” in a different light.
In countries where “whiteness” is preferred, you’d think there would be racial tensions but there aren’t. In Asia, there are no race riots, no KKK, no nationalist parties, and no race based organizations.
Historically, dark skin was associated with people who worked in the fields (also known as the poor). The upper class stayed indoors and in the shade. Asian countries look down on dark skin not because of racism but because they don’t want to be perceived as poor.
Question Of Class
In Asia, it’s good to be white. TV stars are white. Models are white. Everyone is airbrushed until they look like ghosts. But I wouldn’t call them racist.
To them it’s not about race or ethnicity it is about class. If someone from the West promotes whiteness, it’s racist. “Oh you can’t do that. People will be offended.”
The more politically correct we get, the more uncomfortable with race we become.
But in Asia, it is different. Dark skin is poor, white skin is rich. They promote whiteness because no one wants to be perceived as poor. In Thailand, I saw plenty of dark skinned people in high ranking jobs- their current prime minister is dark skinned.
While they prefer white skinned, they don’t look at a dark skinned person and think “they are less of a person.” The same is true all over Southeast Asia. Driving a BMW in the West says you’re rich and classy; in Asia, the color of your skin says it.
In the West we obsess over discrimination as we try to live in a post-race world.
Yet the more anti-discrimination laws we pass, the more politically correct we get, the more uncomfortable with race we become.
Same Same, But Different
We see everything as black, white, or yellow.
The more we try to make race a non-issue the more of an issue it becomes. We may consider it racism but to Asians it’s not about race. Skin color is laughed and joked about in a way we find hard to understand. It still can make me uncomfortable.
Maybe we should take a cue from Asia. Maybe if we want to become a post racial world we need to stop worrying about race.
I’m not naïve enough to think Asia is a utopia. Discrimination does occur in Asia. But there it is more about questions of class rather than pure skin color.
When you stop making something an issue, it suddenly stops being one. Then we can all sit back and laugh and just enjoy each other- regardless of skin color.
What do you think about racism in Southeast Asia? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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25 Comments... join the discussion!
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Racisim is not unique to darker people. I am white and when I lived in Harlem for a few months people were VERY racisit to me, also being from Windsor if I went to Detriot people would stare you down all the time. I find MUCH rasicim toward me in Canada from Asians and east Indians, heck I can walk by a group of Indo-Canadians and they alot of times make some comment to do with race. You ever here some black guys talk about white &^^&'s ?
It doesn't bother me at all. Unless I get refused good service at a Sushi resterant, than I am mad.
You can yell about the "root" of it. But I think if another race was the one that took over the world, they would have been the same.↵ -
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The only reason white people from Europe ruled the world in many ways so long is because there was so much effort put into weapon building and making new things, there was most of the population living under the rule of a small group of people.
Its safe to say that the old building in Europe are nice because there was so many poor almost slaves to be whipped into building these things.
When people were truely free like in Native north America or Africa, they were not going to toil their life away building a building for rich kings. They would instead build a small homes for themselves and instead build up a varied set of skills, and afford WAY more free time.↵ -
I think that racism is active on both sides, I'm African American and i admit that i've seen other blacks be racist to other people, or asians being racist to blacks. I think that we should all try to tackle racism. And live with the fact that different skin color is not any way to judge a person ( you shouldn't judge someone at all). Just because your black doesn't mean that you are poor, that should violent, and that your dumb or whatever. I think every skin color is beautiul and we should respect that…… Go OBAMA… Yea
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I have experienced racism as an Asian American, and trust me, it's not funny. It hurts you emotionally. I think the darker-skinned Asian kids are laughing it off because they're hurt so deep inside that they virtually have no self-esteem. So they have no way to deal with it but just to laugh at themselves. That's what happened to me. When I was in middle school I'd just voluntarily make Asian jokes and constantly say how Asian people suck. I'd make a mistake and I'd laugh at myself and say "man I'm so Asian."
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My sister is pretty dark compared to me (I'm really pale- I'm paler than most of my white friends), and when we went to Korea people we didn't even know asked if we were sisters. And when we told them that we were, they'd be like, "dang, then how come the younger one is SO dark? Did your parents adopt her from SE Asia or somewhere like that? Or is your mom Vietnamese (Korean man-Vietnamese woman marriage is pretty common over there) and you happened to look like your dad and she your mom?" My sister'd just laugh it off, but not because she thought it was funny. Because she didn't want to get up to their face and create a fight. Later on, she came to believe that dark skin wasn't pretty, but then we came back to the States and now she likes her darker skin. Racism is not just something you should laugh at. It's not funny. It hurts other people's feelings. You shouldn't be racist even if that person you're being racist of is taking it "funny".
And like the person above said, GO OBAMA.↵ -
"Maybe we should take a cue from Asia. Maybe if we want to become a post racial world we need to stop worrying about race. "
a nice sentiment… too bad race and class (in addition to gender, sexuality, and nationality) are and never have been mutually exclusive categories.
race is inextricably connected to class–even/especially in asia. although asian countries have a distinctly different historical history/context than that of the "race-obsessed west," it important to note that just because you don't the same language for something doesn't mean the thing don't exist.
i see what's happening in asia as more of a neoliberal trend to argue that difference and inequality don't exist simply by not talking about it. therefore, based on this logic, because asians don't talk about "race"–but use "class"–instead… racism is no longer as "relevant." but this is a lot like color-blind advocates in the u.s. arguing that just because you don't identify your "race," that you ban "race-based" programs like affirmative action and just sing "multicultural, post-racial obama land" koombayah and racism disappears. alas, inequality just doesn't work like this. indeed, this sort "lipservice liberalism" is in fact much more insidious than the overt KKK version most self-described "non-racist, racially-sensitive" purportedly decry against. it's worse because it hides racism and inequality at the larger structural, systematic level. instead, it reduces "inequality" to individual acts committed by bad people. if i'm not "racist" towards people, there is no racism seems to be the logic. nevermind that i still benefit from a race/class/gender privileged position.
case in point, in asia, if you're white and you speak english, you are privileged. if you are born and raised in the u.s. and try to get the same job as a white speaking westerner in asia, you'll experience a new brand of "racism" very quickly. in this case, the author's argument that asia's central mode of discrimination is class-based disintegrates quickly.
in anycase, the author is correct in saying that class tends to be a more prominent feature among the discourse of inequality in asia. however, race and notions of race, are clearly just as prevalent–even though asians themselves don't necessarily talk about it or think about it on those terms. the disjuncture between race-based hiring policies within the lucrative english language business in asia is but one significant example. native asians own perceptions of what constitutes a "real westerner" (a white face versus an asian, latino, or black) one is also another strong indication of how hollywood's hegemonic pull in asia has successfully persuaded native asians themselves to believe in a "white-is-right" world order… ultimately, what you see in asia is quite similar to what you see in the u.s. asians as honorary whites, often more than willing to play the decisive role of "almost white" against a black/white racial binary. class matters in asia, yes. but race was never not an issue, as well.
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You are heartless. How can you laugh at someone's pain. If someone tells you that making fun of their color hurts them, you should stop it. If someone tells you they like it, you should find them help.
This is no kinder than jokes about white men having small penises. It isn't that hard. Treat people with respect. Being decent is MUCH MORE IMPORTANT, than being funny.
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Hey,
It's not okay to make fun of someone for being dark, but what about making fun of someone for being short, or for being dumb? I mean, presumably you can't really change any of these things either, but why is it more acceptable to talk about someone being short or dumb, than to talk about someone being dark? I think what the poster meant about the way Asians think of skin color is that it's not any more sensitive than to talk about someone being short or dumb. Certainly, it's still not nice to make fun of people for things that they cannot change, but it's not on the level of a hate crime as it is in the US to talk about someone's skin color.
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It is not a surprised to me when you mentioned about the skin color racism in asia.
I was one of the unluckiest person who was teased by the the color of my skin. Since I started going to school they called me negra, or ugly dirty. Even if I am one of the most talented person or most intelligent at school , still people think you are not capable of things. It is so hard for me, so I have tried different whitenning product to bleach my skin yet I was not lucky to have that white skin. Now I am in the west , it’s a different story, for the first time somebody likes my color..Now I an a cnadian citizen I don’t know if I want to go back to my own country. coz Everytime I go home they kept asking me why I am still brown?↵ -
White people are privileged? You, my friend, have not been to Asia, gweilo
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im really not sure if its so much about race or class – being a malaysian female having spent the last 8 yrs overseas i would say it’s just a different perception of beauty. older generation females in asia generally want to be as fair as possible and dont see being tanned as being attractive whereas it’s different in countries like europe or australia. younger asian generations (as opposed to the older) who have studied overseas see the attractiveness in being tanned, in it suggesting you’re someone who gets out and does things, travels, whatever.
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I like to have lighter skin, personally, but for me it’s got nothing to do with race or class – it’s just personal preference. i.e. I just think light skin suits me more, in the same way that some people prefer to have long legs or red hair. There’s nothing wrong with short legs or blonde hair – people just have different tastes. Actually I think pale skin can look very pretty. I have never lived in or been influenced by Asia, and I couldn’t care LESS about trends or whatnot. I like light skin just because I do.
That being said, I don’t give a hoot about anyone else’s skin colour. I don’t treat people differently just because of their complexion. I just prefer this for *myself*, and that’s my business. Not everyone with pale skin is racist.
And discrimination goes both ways too. When I tell people I don’t want a tan, they look at me like I’m crazy. They’re like, “How could you POSSIBLY want to be white, that’s DUMB!” – so arrogant. Why can’t you just respect people’s preferences? Not everyone’s perception of beauty is the same. If someone wants to be white/black/orange/purple/green, at the end of the day it’s their skin and their choice. No colour is better than any other colour, it’s simply a question of personal choice.
So my point is, this isn’t always a racial issue so much as a cosmetic issue. Superficial, yes, but racist – not necessarily! It’s perfectly acceptable to whiten or darken your skin so long as you don’t try to force your ideals onto others.
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I think it might not be completely true that Asians prefer white is due to race or class. It’s just how Asians love fairer skin that we thought fairer skin looks ‘cleaner’ and prettier on us. It’s like how those models are so skinny and it creates a trend or a perception to the public that skinny equal to attractive. That’s why there are uncountable slimming products in the market.
Same goes to the skin color here in Asia. Making skin look paler is very deeply rooted in Chinese tradition. In the old days of Chinese Dynasty, the queens already used pearl to whiten their skin. We believe that whitening can cover many flaws and we always aim for flawless skin. So really.. it has nothing to do with class.
There are a lot of tanned skin models here in Asia who looks gorgeous too. They definitely don’t look poor. But it doesn’t mean everyone with tanned skin would look as gorgeous. It’s pretty much on individual taste.
Cheers.
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Making fun of anyone is all about one thing and one thing only: low self esteem on the part of the person making fun. Racist behavior is a very serious personality deficiency.
Unfortunately for the person who has to deal with this psychological and emotional as well as social disorder, they are in the midst of social and emotional battering of the kind that has become a disease and is probably not able to be removed as it is institutional and within some societies glorified and held up high.
This is an example of how sad the human being can be. Despite their intelligence and creativity the human psyche is also rife with serious personality flaws and racisim is one of them.
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Yes, you have summed up Asia’s situation perfectly. Thank you sir, for this insightful article.
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no…that’s not racism in Asia…. that’s just a trend of beauty. Asian prefer whiteness like women prefer being beautiful. If you are black, you’ll still be treated as same as the others. Black can share all of public utilities such as restaurant, store, telephone, toilet, sink, seat….etc.
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Interesting take, but if you really think “they don’t look at a dark skinned person and think “they are less of a person.” ” then I can only imagine you haven’t been here long enough. As you say, it’s perhps a class issue more than a race one, but the middle and upper classes ABSOLUTELY do look down on the working classes. Some condos don’t allow “the help” to ride the same elevators as the residents. The political troubles last year were all about class – and when the middle-class, educated “yellow shirts” can lay seige to an international airport for a week while the army does nothing, and the rural, dark-skinned “red shirts” get violently dispersed, the vested interests appear clear.
And for sure, people can joke about skin colour. Many people joke about physical appearance and it seems a lot of Thais would not be offended to be called ugly or fat, either. But, when a dark-skinned Thai ABSOLUTELY cannot get a date because of his/her colour, or cannot get certain jobs because of his/her colour, do you think that is acceptable?
And that’s without even touching on the subject of the black and south Asian people in Thailand. A great many Thai people will tell you without any shame that they point-blank would never date a black or Indian person, and that is entirely due to their skin colour. An educated, middle or upper class black or Indian person in Thailand is for the large part considered unattractive by Thais, and that’s without knowing anything of their background. So, where is the “class” argument there?
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Asian people don’t discriminate dark skinned asians? TOTALLY WRONG!! I’m a dark skinned asian (not too dark, more like tan). and I’m from Indonesia (Southeast Asia). I’ve been living in the U.S. for 4 years now.
Some of what the Author said are true but apparently he didn’t stayed in Asia long enough to investigate further. It’s true that dark skinned one laughed when other people make jokes of their skin color, NOT because they’re okay with it but because there’s nothing they can do about it and by joking along with them makes it less painful. My mom and brother have light skin and they made fun of me all the time, I had to laugh it off but it hurts deep inside.
Over there, having a light skin is very important, especially for women. The darker you are the less beautiful you are. My mom (she has a light skin) used to worry about my skin color, she’d buy different kind of whitening products for me to try to improve my skin tone. I never felt pretty at all, don’t get me wrong…I have a pretty nice looking face & body but most of the guys didn’t look at me that way (because of my skin color). I used to be so stressed out about it, but now that I live in the U.S, everything is the oposite. People here are actually think that I look great, I got compliments everyday, guys are hitting on me all the time, some people have asked me why I never thought of going to modelling school or something like that. It makes me feel better, but honestly…I still think that I’m not pretty. Thats how bad the skin color discrimination over there have made me feel.
Of course asians don’t think about it as a racism, it can’t be, because we came from the same race to begin with. But it’s still a discrimination. There are many job oportunities that require you to have light skin (NO KIDDING). Trust me, when it comes to discrimination, asians are way worse than westerners. If a company is trying to sort out the resumes for interviews, most of the time they’d pick the good looking one. If they don’t like the good looking one (if they’re too stupid or something) after the interviews, then they’d interview the rest. But sometimes they don’t really care if they’re dumb or smart. Unless it is a high position like managers or higher, it’d be a different story.
Oh, if you are a handicap, there’s no way you’re gonna have a job, you’d end up living your live doing nothing and being useless. You think you can get a disability check from the government? NOPE, not one penny. Sorry for being harsh, but thats the awful truth.Another example. In the U.S, most of the times you can argue with your manager/boss, stand up for yourself, defend yourself. Over there, higher up people are always right and you have to listen of what they have to say due to respect of their position.
I can share many other examples of “discriminations” in Asia. But they’re too many. Hope you can get better understanding of Asians.
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totally right.. I´ve never lived in Asia, but I´m an asian in Europe. And my parents have friends and such with asians, so I kinda know how they work. One typical asian thing that I hate is that, asian strangers talk about you very openly, no matter the situation. And they just say what´s on their mind without even thinking, I don´t have any major problems with my skin-color, but I´ve acne and I´m not the thin asian girl that many asian are, you know it´s very rare to see a fat or medium-sized asian since they´re in general so small built. Well I knock off all those stereotypes by being mediumsized and have acne. When ppl see me they just openly comment on my acne and my size… “wow, so big your daughter is!”
and my relatives, they´re even worse, they just scrutinize you ffrom top to toe.. it´s really uncomfortable, but what can I do besides smiling and laughin off their rude comments about me?!
As an asian that has lived all her life in a western country, I really long for that asian culture that I watch on asian-tv-series and such. But deep inside I know that I´ll never be able to live a happy life anywhere except for here, people would simply not accept me in the country my parents come from and I´d feel like an alien together with those natives!
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Last few months ago, I noticed all of a sudden that my skin seemed darker and a bit yellow. Since I don’t normally obsess about trying to be pale, I never paid much attention to my skin, so I wasn’t sure if I had always looked like that or maybe I was getting yellow with age,. I went and got some blood work done to make sure it wasn’t some disease. Blood work came out fine, but after finding I’d started on vitamin B and was taking them everyday for a few weeks, the doctor told me to stop for a while and then only take about two a week in the future. Lo and behold it’s been a two months since taking any and my skin coloring has gone back to its original very pale, blue/green veins prominent and all that. Yellow or darker coloring was not the norm afterall. ^_^
I don’t know if my experience applies to anyone else, but it’s just a suggestion.Btw, I was actually very self-conscious about my pale skin growing up because while all my western friends would tan themselves to a crisp in the summers, my mom wouldn’t allow me to do the same. I used to envy the darker skinned Asians too because they’d get compliments on their natural “tans” while I always felt a bit like a plucked chicken in the summers. But now I’ve grown into my self and am happy with what I have. So I guess it’s all relative?
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The thought that the color of a person’s skin is somehow similar to height, intelligence, or other racially independent traits is missing the point entirely.
Skin color is important enough in Thailand, where I live, to affect a person’s job prospects, perceived social status, and certainly how attractive they are considered.
I can’t help but consider the consistent efforts in movies, commercials, books, and culture to portray white as beautiful and dark as dirty to be deeply harmful in a country where most of the people naturally have a darker complexion.
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The whitening fact about Asia is fascinating. It is everywhere. I first witnessed this obsession back in 2000 when I visited Singapore and thought it was very funny, since the whites wants to have a darker complexion from tanning and the Asians (although not dark at all) applied lotions and creams to keep them as white as white can be.
Another article about how they advertise and promote whiteness can also be read href=”http://guides.suksanvillas.com/general/white-skin”>Here
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Joe, agree completelty. The portrayal of a “white-skinned” Thailand via the TV, advertising, music videos and movies is ridiculous. The people in these media represent maybe 1% of the real population and as you say, the suggestions that these looks are desirable/advantageous when the overwhelming majority of people here do not look like that is indeed harmful.
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