Top College News Subscribe to the Newsletter

GARVIN: U.S. exports racial discrimination to other parts of the world

Published: Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Updated: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 23:11


" In my impression, black people, especially Africans, are not clean enough... To be frank, I just feel black people are too black. Definitely, I wouldn't consider having a black guy as my boyfriend even if he were rich."

A black friend of mine in Maryland stumbled across this quote a couple days ago, and when I first read it, I figured it was from 40, 50, 60 years ago, at least, and that it was said by some stuck-up white girl who's family still believed that the Confederacy had won the war.

Turns out, it was a quote from Sunday's Washington Post. And the quote came from Chen Juan, a secretary in Beijing.

I was floored.

Because of President Obama's travel to Asia, the Washington Post article that this quote came from was examining race and racism in China and what it means that we have a black president traveling there. According to the article, many Chinese citizens believe that Obama's election was either a "fluke" or okay because his mother was white.

I had not expected to read that. Worse yet, the article implied that racism in China might be the U.S.'s fault.

In the U.S., public schools teach our own history of racism in hopes that we will avoid past mistakes. We learn about the small steps we have taken forward in order to show us that change can occur and improvements can be made. But we hardly ever learn about racism in other countries or about how our current mistakes, our current racism, are influencing other countries.

According to the Nov. 15 Washington Post article, Sherwood Hu, a Shanghai-based filmmaker, said, "Before the Cultural Revolution, China considered black people our brothers and white people our enemies."

What changed? The U.S. spilled our mistakes into their culture.

The Post article continued:

"The kind of prejudice you see now really happened with the economic growth," said Hung Huang, a Beijing-based fashion magazine publisher and host of "Straight Talk," a nightly current affairs talk show. "The Chinese worshiped the West, and for Chinese people, ‘the West' is white people.'"

TV shows, advertising and movies made in the U.S. utilize white people a majority of the time, especially in positions of power or success. The media seems to idolize white families with old money, like the Hiltons. This is the image of ourselves that we are sending overseas. Even our presidents have been white up until the last election. The Chinese so associate white skin with success and wealth that the skin-whitening industry is "a $100 million-a-year business."

But does Obama's election help to correct these irrational prejudices that we have spread? Apparently not. The Washington Post article read:

"China's most recent annual report on the United States' human rights record in 2008, released in February, made no mention of Obama's historic election. But it said, ‘In the United States, racial discrimination prevails in every aspect of social life.'

‘Black people and other minorities live at the bottom of the American society,' the report said. ‘There is serious racial hostility in the United States.'"

The U.S. isn't known for exports. In fact, we import most of our stuff from China, India, Japan, Honduras, etc. But it seems we do have one export that has taken hold in all of these places: discrimination against people with black skin.

Ervin Brandon, a black travel writer, spent some time studying Japanese culture and wrote on his Web site "The Japanese tend to idolize whites over any other group of people. This is evident in their advertisements, magazines, and even in their much-cherished animations. I knew better than to ask why there aren't many black characters in their animations, but I did often ask why most of the characters look white instead of Japanese."

Brandon went on to point out that they view blacks as entertainers, criminals and victims of oppression with no strong cultural values. He writes, "To hear such views was no shock to me because they are the same images and ideas that the media continues to perpetuate and feed, about blacks, to the world."

India's social hierarchy also places blacks at the bottom. Horen Tudu, a U.S. researcher and writer, said in an article on iamcolourful.com that this is "a conscious effort on the part of Indians to disconnect themselves with the indigenous black people of the Indian subcontinent and their African heritage. "They want to remove the whole image of themselves from anything that is non-Caucasian."

Recommended: Articles that may interest you

24 comments

Next »
12
Your name
Sat Nov 28 2009 00:57
May I add a few facts to this rather one sided discussion:1. In regards to the statement "only light skinned persons were allowed to own slaves, people with dark skin.". There are numerous documented cases where former slaves and/or their descendants, purchased and owned slaves, many of whom were of mixed race and therefore of lighter skin than they were. This happened not only in the South but in New York and other English colonies. Before the slave traffic reached sub Sahara Africa, slavery had existed for thousands of years and was present wherever and whenever one people conquered another which would have been most of the globe including Africa itself where tribes conquered other tribes and made slaves of those they vanquished. This is not to diminish the inherent evil of slavery but to point out that this grave crime against humanity did not originate in the United States nor was it completely defined by race alone. It would more accurate to describe bonded servitude as a class crime. But it would not appear that those who utter silly generalities such as this with depressing regularity in the Daily Nebraskan are interested in accuracy or anything that even approaches it.2. It is true that the campaign against Imperial Japan by the United States employed a pronounced element of racism. This was evident in our portrayal of Japanese in film, cartoons, and popular press. But it is simplistic and irresponsible to state that use of atomic weapons against the Japanese cities mentioned was based purely on institutionalized racism. DOD documents show that had the atomic bomb existed prior to the surrender of Nazi Germany, these terrible weapons would have been used against German civilians in such cities as Berlin, Frankfurt, and others which had already been leveled by conventional bombing. Indeed, the city of Dresden had been firebombed into oblivion even though it was known that it had very little military value out of retaliation for the German use of V1 and V2 rockets against England. There must have been many blacks in Germany masquerading as blonde-blue eyed Nazi's. Furthermore, many American officials including high ranking generals and members of President Truman's cabinet opposed the use of the atomic bomb against Japan. Truman's avowed reasons for ordering the bombings were said to be based on the fanatic resistance shown at Okinawa where the Japanese had resisted with suicidal fury including hundreds of suicide planes used against the American fleet. The Pacific navy and army commanders all but demanded that the weapons be used to avoid the estimated one million allied casualties.that were expected should an invasion of the Japanese mainland be carried out. It has also since been revealed that factions of the Japanese government had been actively sending up peace feelers but that these had been ignored by the Soviets who were still officially neutral up until the summer of 45. There is also strong evidence that Truman may have at least been partially motivated by a desire to intimidate the Russians whom he feared and despised. Indeed, institutionalized racism played very little if any role in the decision to use atomic weapons against Japan. 3. Those readers who describe the Japanese and Chinese as been racist are indeed accurate and are undeserving of the clumsy ridicule that others have employed in their pathetic efforts to discredit them. I have been to these countries They are indeed "ethno centric". Their definition for foreigner is "barabarian". Japan has been particularly notorious in its mistreatment of Koreans, Chinese (the Rape of Nanking), in the Philippines (to both natives and American POWs) and anyone else who had the misfortune to fall under their sway. The supposition (stated as fact) that the Chinese are, as a whole, deferential to light skinned people of European ancestry is absurd. The Chinese person who made racist comments against blacks did so out of a prejudice that was decidedly domestic in origin. Neither the Japanese nor the Chinese need any lessons from American bigots any more than the did the Belgians (Congo), French (Algeria), English (Ireland, India) or Dutch (South Africa). The premise of the article that American, a country a little over two hundred years old, was actively exporting racism to China where it was immediately programmed into the national psyche of over a billion simple automatons would be laughable if it were not so hateful in itself and reflected so poorly on the University of Nebraska. I do not find Garvin's column to be comical. It is so poisonous in spirit and so woefully inaccurate in conception (along with the sad efforts to defend her) that until I read them, I would have not thought anyone who purported to be a college level of student journalism to be capable of writing them. This story is disgraceful and its appearance in the student newspaper of a state funded university is indeed troubling. I do not call for...
Justin
Mon Nov 23 2009 13:06
Sneering, ignorant apathy is so cool!
Your name
Sun Nov 22 2009 22:35
Obviously, we care. We need too. If we set something like racism aside, it isn't going to just disappear. Discussion is what this topic needs. Each comment here shows a little insight into the commenter's world view and offers some insight into how the general public views racism.
Your name
Sun Nov 22 2009 17:43
wow what a bunch of losers debating, did you do this all for a class or something, because who cares
Your name
Sun Nov 22 2009 12:03
Racism isn't an intellectual problem. It is a spiritual problem and cannot be solved by human beings apart from God's help. And it's not a simple problem either. There are common sense reasons to be more fearful if you are walking around in the wrong neighborhood in L.A. or D.C. That in turn tends to reinforce either broader stereotyping of blacks on the one hand, or on the other hand, stereotyping of those with the audacity to be truthful about how they feel when they turn down the wrong alley and see a gaggle of crips looking back at them. Soon everything gets exaggerated and distorted. Someone like his columnist would never admit even vague rascist emotions if she felt them, because she doesn't want to be seen as a pariah by her left-liberal circles. So she would have a real complex that is compounded by a lack of candor about sinful impulses that everyone feels, though not everyone acts upon them.
Your name
Sun Nov 22 2009 01:55
Race (and outsiders in general) has been an issue with the Chinese for centuries. Historical record on dynasties run by outside groups is not kind; port cities like Macau were set up to keep the Portuguese cut off from the mainland.

The idea that this is somehow a western mode of thinking is silly.

Justin
Sun Nov 22 2009 00:07
But we did bomb Hiroshima. We're still the only country in the world ever to deploy nuclear weapons in wartime against another country, and we did so against civilians. What part of Wright's remarks in regards to Hiroshima do you feel are inaccurate or racist?

And it is a fact that there are more black men in prison than in college. What part of that observation do you find racist? Can you be more specific about how Wright's remarks demonstrate that the only racism in America is directed at whites? I'm really not understanding your point, I guess.

Your name
Sat Nov 21 2009 12:32
Of course the election of a black president doesn't end racism. Certainly It doesn't end your racist attitude or the racism displayed by the President or his minister and spiritual advisor Pastor Jeremiah Wright who said these wonderful enlightened remarks:
September 2001: “The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color. The government lied.”
September 2001: “We bombed Hiroshima. We bombed Nagasaki. And we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye.”
September 2001: “We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because of stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own backyard. America is chickens coming home to roost.”
April 2003: “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes three-strike laws and wants them to sing God Bless America. No! No No! God d---n America … for killing innocent people. God d--n America for threatening citizens as less than humans. God d--n America as long as she tries to act like she is God and supreme.”
December 2007: “Barack knows what it means living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich, white people. Hillary would never know that.”
December 2007: “Hillary ain’t never been called a n---r. Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.”
Jan. 13, 2008: “Hillary is married to Bill, and Bill has been good to us. No he ain’t! Bill did us, just like he did Monica Lewinsky. He was riding dirty.”
“Fact number one: We’ve got more black men in prison than there are in college. … Fact number two: Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run.”
"You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you."
“We are deeply involved in the importing of drugs, the exporting of guns and the training of professional killers. … We believe in white supremacy and black inferiority and believe it more than we believe in God. … We conducted radiation experiments on our own people. … We care nothing about human life if the ends justify the means. And … And … And! God! Has got! To be sick! Of this sh--t!”
"To say “I am a Christian” is not enough. Why? Because the Christianity of the slaveholder is not the Christianity of the slave. The God to whom the slaveholders pray as they ride on the decks of the slave ship is not the God to whom the enslaved are praying as they ride beneath the decks on that slave ship."
"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye," Wright said. "We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
“Barack knows what it means to be a black man to be living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a n-----."
Wright married Barack and his wife Michelle. He baptized Barack’s two daughters and has been Obama’s pastor for more than twenty years. He is even credited in Barack’s book, The Audacity of Hope, and the title actually came from one of Wright’s sermons.
How about the man Wright holds in great esteem Louis Farrakhan. For nearly 30 years, Louis Farrakhan has marked himself a notable figure on the extremist scene by making hateful statements targeting Jews, whites and homosexuals.
Farrakhan’s bigoted and anti-Semitic rhetoric has included statements calling whites “blue eyed devils” and Jews “bloodsuckers” that controlled the slave trade, the government, the media and various Black individuals and organizations. In 2006, he blamed Jews and Israel for the war in Iraq, for controlling Hollywood and for promoting what he considers immorality during his February Saviours' Day address in Chicago.
In a 2007 interview with Arabic-language television news network Al Jazeera, Farrakhan accused Jews of anti-Semitism, charging that “The real anti-Semites are those who came out of Europe and settled in Palestine, and now they call themselves the true Jews, when in fact, they converted to Judaism.”
Racism will never end in this country. There are to many people profiting from the victim industry and to many people who use it as a means to misrepresent and disparage the country they hate and fail to understand. People like Barack Obama, Jerimiah Wrigtht, Louis Farakan, and Justin
Your name
Sat Nov 21 2009 11:40
Ben Nelson has taken part in the classic Potomac two-step of telling his constituents one thing in Nebraska and doing another thing back in Washington, D.C. Ben Nelson’s double-speak has not gone unnoticed by voters in Nebraska and now it looks like Nelson may take this double-speak on health care reform one step further by voting for government-run health care before voting against it. Politicians cannot have it both ways – just ask John Kerry. Nebraskans can spot a phony politician when they see one and they know that any vote to move the Democrats’ health care bill forward is a vote for a government-run health care experiment.

Call Senator Ben Nelson today at (202) 224-6551 and let him know:

* Any vote to move the Senate Democrats’ health care bill forward is a vote for President Obama’s government-run health care experiment at a time when unemployment has increased by nearly 14% since Obama took office.
* If Senator Nelson votes to move the Democrats’ health care bill forward, he is voting to raise Nebraskans’ health care costs, taxes, and premiums, all while cutting Medicare for the 270,435 beneficiaries in the state.
* The taxpayers of Nebraska can see through these parliamentary procedure games. They don’t want a flip flopper.
* Nebraskans want someone to keep the government from coming between them and their doctor.

Justin
Fri Nov 20 2009 20:35
"What would have to happen for you to say that racism has largely subsided?"

How does the election of one half-white black president - which nearly half of the country opposed - signify the end of racism? I don't see the connection. Does the election of Barack Obama bring Oscar Grant back to life? Does it make black people stop serving longer sentences than whites for the same crimes? Does it make resumes with black-sounding names equally likely to receive a callback as one with a white-sounding name? Does it make black people suddenly not the predominant victims of police murder?

I'd like the connection explained a little better, if possible. How does one black president signal the end of American racism?

Your name
Fri Nov 20 2009 12:28
LA Grant,

I'd say electing a president is a little more significant than "hiring" somebody. We gave Obama authority over EVERYONE, not just "slaves." If this criteria does not satisfy you, what will? What would have to happen for you to say that racism has largely subsided? My guess is that nothing will ever satisfy you: white people are inherently racist and that's just the way it is. The political race industry is simply too powerful to ever admit that it reason for existence has largely disappeared.

L.A. Grant
Fri Nov 20 2009 10:17
"Fact: America has never sent the message to any other countries, let alone its own people, that it likes African-Americans."

"Gee, we just elected a black man to the most powerful office in the world. That seems like a pretty strong message."

Now I'm the one who thinks this is starting to get comical. So let me get this right, beause you are willing to hire an African-American you must like them? "I hired a black man today I can't be racist!" lol. Okay.....By the way, you do know that slave masters had slave in positions of authority over the other slaves too right? Oh and one more thing, "Ethnocentrism" is the klan. It is never okay to think you better than someone else solely on the basis of race. That is called RACISM!!! LOL!!!

Your name
Thu Nov 19 2009 17:27
Ms Gavin I've been to China and I can assure you that they feel racially superior to everyone: black, white, red, brown ect. "Ethnocentrism" is a part of life in East Asia. They didn't need us to teach them about prejudice. Besides considering that we are heavily in debt to the Chinese I don't think we are in a position to give lectures.
John
Thu Nov 19 2009 17:24
I love the "Btw anonymity is the sheild of cowardice." By "your name".

I also appreciate how you call me a racist for saying that all cultures are inherently biased towards themselves and that the fundamentals of racism are in every culture. I don't believe its right and can be changed through education and diversity. But, you are showing your own bias at your ease to call someone else a racist for pointing out a common human trend. Get over yourself you pretentious fool.

Oh and p.s., if ethnocentric is a big word for you, maybe you aren't as educated as you would like to think.

Andre R. Grant
Thu Nov 19 2009 11:33
Previous comment posted by Andre R. Grant
Your name
Thu Nov 19 2009 11:32
Well now I understand. Someone shows you facts and you scoff because facts don't say what you want them to. WAKE UP people. Everything happens for a reason. You don't have to travel to China to witness the ugly reality of racial discrimination. Just try to take a bus full of children from the public school system to a public pool. Try to be the president of the United States of America so some good ol' boy can call you a "Liar" while you're addressing congress. It's okay to be ethnocentric (10 scrabble points for John and his ability to use it in a sentence), but logicial people can see the difference between Ethnocentrism and racism. Maybe John doesn't. I think he's trying to use big words to disguise racism. The "R" word can be found in our constitution (the 3/5's compromise) or maybe you should ask the nearest Native American how he feels about this subject, but I haven't seen one in years. Gentlemen, I would advise that blind, deaf and dumb is not the way to approach this topic lest the cycle continue indefinitely. Btw anonymity is the sheild of cowardice.
Hank
Thu Nov 19 2009 11:18
Oh, come on. If racism, sexism and discrimination were to disappear from the face of the earth, the DN wouldn't be able to come up with enough content to fill an index card. Then I'd miss out on reading columns like this one and have to use those sixty seconds for something meaningful and productive, such as picking out bits of sock-fuzz from between my toes.
Captain Obvious
Thu Nov 19 2009 09:38
"Fact: America has never sent the message to any other countries, let alone its own people, that it likes African-Americans."

Gee, we just elected a black man to the most powerful office in the world. That seems like a pretty strong message.

L.A. Grant
Thu Nov 19 2009 09:21
Let me start by commending you on your attempt to bring attention to an issue that only those who want equality care to speak of intellectually, and with no pre-determined bias. Despite what your detractors would want deemed true, the fact still remains that the U.S. is looked to as a model by other cultures around the world. Facts are facts whether you want to agree with them or not. “Racial discrimination prevails in every aspect of social life.” This is what the Chinese believe about the U.S. even if we do not agree with the statement ourselves. As far as John’s comments go, he is correct in his assertion that tanning is equated to leisure time, but with that having too dark of a tan is considered ugly.

Most previous comments have missed the point completely. The original Washington Post article alluded to the fact that the Chinese perception on people of color did not change until a western way of thinking was adopted. If you live in the United States and are a person of color, you realize that there is no such thing as a Post-Racial America as so many non-minorities would want you to believe. That is just like an oppressor telling the oppressed, “You’re not being oppressed.” and expecting the oppressed to just agree whole-heartedly. Racism is alive and well apparently. What really gets me is that instead of trying to find out for yourself (most likely none of us who have posted here are from China) by doing due diligence in researching the topic, you would rather assume; speak poorly about the person who brought the original articles point to your attention, and dismiss everything that was stated as, "comical", "incredible nonsense", or question her intelligence. I have taken those anthropology courses on culture and those history classes as it is part of any International Business Degree.

It's amazing the length people will go to skew the facts. Fact: America has never sent the message to any other countries, let alone its own people, that it likes African-Americans. As with everything in life you can believe what you want to. Why do you think there’s a saying that goes, “Ignorance is bliss.” I thank you Heidi for trying to shed some light on an ongoing problem that so very few of us want to address. America has a big problem with racism/intolerance and it shows!

Courtney Robinson
Wed Nov 18 2009 23:41
Mr. John, and the rest of the previous commentators, you need to educate yourself some more - like reading comprehension - before writing a comment like that. Most of the criticisms you have about Miss Garvin's column is wrong. I believe she did a great job. I read that Washington Post article, as well and am proud to have someone in Nebraska take notice.

Historically, light skin is associated with the higher class in a society because only the fairest skinned white people could own slaves and be the elite, but people only hear about them being the elite and not what they did. If you've ever talked to other cultures or worked in stores, you would see the wide majority of people trying to become lighter. Yes, light skin is an appreciated trait - open your eyes.

And if you read her article correctly, you would see that she didn't purely "blame" - which isn't the best word here - the U.S. for it. She talked about how the U.S. possess some influence, and that it needs to use it well. This leaves the column wide-open for others to take into account the influences of other countries, like Europe.

This is what Miss Garvin wrote in the fourth to the last paragraph:
"Now, don’t misunderstand me. I do not believe that the U.S. is a respected role model to rest of the world. To think this would be arrogant and stupid. We are most definitely not beloved and revered by all. However, we do possess some influence, and we need to use it well."

And I have one question, how many people who are commenting on this column have actually READ THE WASHINGTON POST ARTICLE she is referring to? She is talking about what the Washington Post has done research on. Why don't you comment on their article?

I'm proud to have someone working at my school trying to bring a different side to the story; trying to open other's mind; and utilizing her right to free speech and press.

Next »
12






log out