Sigh. It's like that too, in the South Asian community. Face it, everybody's racist whether they're white, Chinese, or Indian.

It's true, but so much of this has to do with lack of exposure rather than what I'd call true racism. My Sri Lankan friend said his grandmother is terrified of black people, because the only ones she had ever seen growing up were brought into Sri Lanka on a convict ship. They were shackled and muzzled, and she carried the impression that all blacks were naturally very dangerous into her old age, when her well-traveled grandson assured her it wasn't so.

Also, several Chinese people have told my dad that all Westerners smell bad, "because we eat meat that is dead too long".

It's an interesting topic of conversation when considering that ethnic Chinese in South Africa have had themselves reclassified as Black to "reap the rewards" of affirmative action.

I agree with RhimeswithSilver. I actually just came back from Beijing where I was visiting a family member studying there. He said his experiences have been largely positive. For example, he volunteers at a school where todlers cling to him and call him Cha-co-la-te, but they do it with glee and affection. People remark on his race out of curiosity rather than out of embedded stereotypes. Though people took pictures of him on the great wall (and of me in tiannamen square) no one was rude or hateful about it. They just asked politely and I happily obliged

Nowhere in the world do people have as big an arsenal of stereotypes against us than here, so if someone expresses a 'racist' view, its probably not anything more than non-black-americans are thinking–they just have had 50 years of civil rights induced political correctness to teach them to keep those thoughts to themselves.

Also, I found that as a black female, I got much more validation for my appearance than I do in America. My brother's Asian friends would not stop telling me that they found me attractive even though it became quite embarrassing. Whether this is indicative of their surprise that a black girl could be cute I cant tell, but I choose to believe it was well conceived.

Also, I found it very interesting that everyone went though great lengths to get texture into their hair. I saw several manikins in stores with borderline afro wigs, and I walked behind many a girl I thought might be black because of the texturizer she had used on her hair. It was very interesting to be somewhere were your appearance was the end goal rather than the antithesis of beauty. To be more precise, it was quite liberating.

"Also, I found it very interesting that everyone went though great lengths to get texture into their hair. I saw several manikins in stores with borderline afro wigs, and I walked behind many a girl I thought might be black because of the texturizer she had used on her hair. It was very interesting to be somewhere were your appearance was the end goal rather than the antithesis of beauty. To be more precise, it was quite liberating."

Wow, that's really cool. I've never heard of anything like that before.

There is a huge difference between hate filled racism and ignorance that is largely due to lack of exposure.

http://expatjane.blogspot.com/.....ans-i.html

^^^if you want to read more about read more about black hair in Asia. The beautyinbaltimore blog has a lot of links to blogs of blacks who study and work in Asia,Europe and South America.

I am loving the Korean Afro-perm.

"Though people took pictures of him on the great wall (and of me in tiannamen square) no one was rude or hateful about it. They just asked politely and I happily obliged"

Wow sort of like animals at the zoo.

I'd say it depends on the person.
You meet people who never question stereotypes in all communities. Some people are intelligent enough to question everything.

I have never, ever felt it and I have visited China a few times.

No one spit on me and called me the b-word (like I got in NYC), or called me the N-word (which I got in Florida).

Forgot to say, our hair (my sisters , my partner's and mine) was a success.
No one got ignorant or freaky and tried to touch it.

It was all compliments, how lucky we were and we have learned it can cost up to a month's wages to get an "afro" perm in Shanghai or Hong Kong.

I was in the army in 1994 and stationed in Korea. I had my hair done on the army base by a Korean beautician for the whole year I was there. She was one of the top three beauticians I have ever had. That says alot because I grew up in Detroit( hair is a big deal in Detroit!)My hair was falling out etc., she put some type of treatment in there and it grew back. Plus she could do really nice pump waves/finger waves.

This might have been stated above but I need to go do my work now so I'm not going to bother reading…

Chinese and a lot of Chinese-American people get their impressions of African-Americans from American media. These impressions are often negative. While we'd all like to be objective and all, it's impossible not to be influenced by these images. This can be said of most people who don't have exposure to (=meaningful interaction with) African-Americans, whether American or not.

When I studied abroad in Russia, I noticed that it was deemed acceptable to advertise chocolate and coffee with black people. My first reaction was "that's so racist!", but then I thought "wait, is the ad really implying anything?" Sometimes, ads merely seemed to imply that most of the cocoa and coffee used in Russia came from Africa. And besides, if I was the same color as something delicious (peach yogurt?), I wouldn't have any objections to my flesh tone playing a role in an ad campaign. The ads perhaps objectified people, but not really out of racism. This is why travel is an eye-opening experience. Sometimes the perspective you grow up with leaves out the bigger picture.

When I use to live in SF, a friend of mine told me that her uncle once said that chinese people walk around with those air filter things because they think black people smell. I dont know if thats true or not but I thought,"…..hmmm….ok." Alot of lil chinese women walking around SF with the air filter on.

Wow sort of like animals at the zoo.

No Monie, it's because they never saw black people and certainly not African-Americans before. Have you read the book Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe?

The Africans in the story had the same reaction to white people when they saw them for the first time. The WM with light colored eyes truly seemed to fasinate them because they had never seen a human being with blue eyes before.

Probably untrue, JD. The face masks are ubiquitous in China, as well where the black population is negligible. They're used to keep pollutants out of the lungs and to prevent spreading or catching communicable diseases. During the SARS scare, they were quite common.

Really ?
Chinese people are far from being the most racist people i met in my life! Even in Paris version of Chinatown they are rather friendly to other ethnicities… and very busy making biz. They get even less public exposure than "blacks", arabs or other groups. As a matter of fact i can't think of one french asian public figure. The georgous (chinese) Jet Li starred in a french movie… once. That's about all.

Must guess prejudices are a human thing and that even if information is global it's biased and distorted.