They don't have pre-conceived judgments about me in the sense that they just see me as a regular guy rather than stereotyping me as an asexual nerd, kung fu master or Chinatown gangster before even getting to know me.
Probably just semantics here, but foreigners in a given country are not citizens. They are still deserving of equal respect, of course. You and your "fine lines".... I knew what you meant; I was just joking with you. Still though....and yes, I realize we're having a serious discussion and that yes, I'm making light of things, but Asians have awesome stereotypes. In fact, two of those three you mentioned above are about the coolest stereotypes I can possibly think of. "Look at that guy....he must be a gangster ninja....and I bet his SAT scores are ridiculous...." Actually, now that I think about it, all three of them are awesome in their own right. About the worst Asians can get is the one about eating weird stuff (which may be weird to uninitiated Westerners but usually tastes AWESOME) and crazy cartoon tentacle p*rn, which pretty much everyone knows isn't an Asian thing but a Japanese thing. And Asian chicks are fawking hot. Asia FTW.
Stereotypes might sound awesome but in reality, no stereotypes are good because they automatically label you as something that you may or may not be. You can say black guys are lucky for having the big dick stereotype. But what if you are a black guy with a small dick? Even a black guy with an average dick is going to be a letdown. Having the wild sex crazed reputation can also be a turnoff for some women too. I would rather have no stereotypes and to just get a clean slate to work with. That way, you know people like/dislike you for who you are, and not who they think you should be.
Took me awhile to realize you weren't talking about "2 girls and a cup"-type activity. When I was in Australia, there was a bit of a stereotype of Vietnamese (which to Aussies means all East Asians) being gangsters and drug addicts. Got called a gook a couple of times at school too (despite not being Vietnamese). So I guess Asian stereotypes depend on which part of the world u're in.
The Taiwanese people were pretty nice when I went there, but they are seriously racist against black people. I think this is true in most places. In India this is super true. You will never see a dark indian actresses. Germany also seemed pretty non racist. England seems like is all indian people so didn't see much racism there.
Eh...really? Went to Argentina a couple of years ago and they are some of the friendliest people on earth.
The only places I can really speak for is HK and England. England is alright, not too xenophobic, and people are usually quite nice no matter what you look like. In Hong kong...well, my little sister is going to France for 2 weeks with 2 other kids, and the parents briefly talked about black people and how the kids shouldn't talk to them I think in Far east countries there's definitely xenophobia, it's just that there aren't that many foreigners here so those feelings aren't exposed very often. And don't even get me started on China-Japan...
I agree with Germany. The people were really cool. I want to go back. I loved Berlin. The Spaniards didn't seem so nice, but of course it's a small sample size.
Didn't say they weren't (they are wonderful people, lived there for 9 months), but in BA province especially, they look down upon pretty much everyone who is not "high spanish" or in some way european-looking. They talked about rural Argentines, Chileans, Bolivians, pretty much any native-descended people as "ugly", "roundfaced", etc....
OK, here's my contibution to this thread based on all that I've travelled... and I happen to be a Taiwanese-American Brazil Specifically Rio de Janeiro - couldn't find more friendly people in the whole world. Doesn't matter what sex, what age, just such such friendly people. Xenophobia - low to nonexistent Canada Specifically Vancouver - generally speaking, lots of great and friendly people. Lots of mixed race coupling too. Heck, I think Asians as a whole outnumber any other race. So that makes for something different. Where I detect a "slight" sense of xenophobia is among some of the older generation whites who outright look down upon black people (btw - after visiting Vancouver, it makes TOTAL sense to me now why Steve Francis said "NO") and less so, this same group who believe the influx of Asians have driven up property prices up the wazzoo - which there is probably some truth to. Otherwise, great city for Asians and white people. China LOTS of Xenophobia here for Westerners with the slight exception of Shanghai which is a bit more cosmopolitan. But yeah, doing business in China, not being Chinese, is NOT easy. There's real suspicion there. Less so is the curiosity Chinese people have of Western "looks" like blond hair and goatees. Don't laugh. It's true. They will stare. Taiwan Same as above but agree with previous poster about them frowning on black people. Italy You know, I had a great time travelling through much of the North of Italy. And I didn't reallyl experience or witness any xenophobia. Talked with locals and I think there might be more xenophobia among younger males in urban cities than say the general public. Business-wise, there's definitely some xenophobia against competing Chinese businesses (e.g. textiles) which directly affect their job market. This is true... and understandable imho. Meanwhile, the women couldn't possibly be any friendlier. Costa Rica I love these people. And they love Taiwanese people b/c of their cross ocean business relationships. Super friendly. Zero xenophobia with the exception of black people. Yeah - small town called Limon wears the scarlet letter of shame b/c of this phobia. Also, Ticos tend to not like Nicos (Nicaraguans) for stealing their jobs. Bahamas Smaller islands (away from Nassau) have great great people. So open. So friendly. I sense little to no xenophobia here. I think when you have such great beaches like in Brazil, everyone is happier. Mexico I think there is a love/hate relationship between Mexicans and White, and also Mexicans with Asians. Often, I think the tourism industry is viewed with teh same conflictedness as all these "outside" people bring all this money whilst the per capita income of all these hard working Mexicans are but a fraction of such. They accept this reality, but kind of begrudgingly imho, as evidenced in a slight tinge of xenophobia. I also get the sense Mexicans, generally speaking, don't seem to like black people. Singapore Very open. Probably the most "Confucian" of all countries, next to China. Again, I think there's a curiousity factor with Westerners but less suspicion. New York I think New Yorkers are EXTREMELY xenophobic. Seriously. It's called a "melting pot" but dining at restaurants aside, there's actually very little melting relative to all the different ethnicities there. So much suspicion across all races. Texas I think Texas is super welcoming and probably one of the least xenophobic places in the world, let alone, the U.S. I always have a great time in Texas. And people are super friendly to me too. theSAGE
Japan is the only country I've ever been to, and I'm heading there again as a foreign study again in the fall. And as has been said, yup, it's pretty bad at times. To some degrees I'm bitter due to the fact that I've personally discovered that quite a few of them like half-bloods even less then normal foreigners. As regards for the views on other races, I think it's less hatred and more just at times plain ignorance both as regards towards other races and just how nasty things got back then, though it's gotten better. Sort of.
I've been in Germany, France, Spain and a few other places in Europe and I lived in Ireland for almost a year. Can't really speak for the most xenophobic (small sample size) but Ireland has to be the least xenophobic. The people are very friendly to everyone. The Irish people that is. Someone mentioned that they don't like Poles. I hear it's getting worse because a) of the economy; b) there's so many of them. And I kind of see why - 80% of Poles I met in Ireland were pretty xenophobic and racist themselves with an ungrounded sense of entitlement. As for Latvia, a large majority of people are racist. Particularly against black people. Watching sports in a public bar is pretty unbearable. And most Latvians really hate Russians. On the other hand there are no ill feelings towards (white) western Europeans and Americans.
