rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

okay, and that makes chinese people not a minority in australia because...?

think the point is that french/italian ppl are also a minority in australia

yeah, but being a white person of european descent in a country consisting largely of the same typically makes a huge difference.

french/italian ppl were never 'coolies'

when china takes over the world it may ultimately become 'okay' to do ching-chong stuff, but it's going to be a long while

there's a Wing Wong Chinese Takeout somewhere around here.

hey don't look at me this is AA's 'idgi' igi

okay, and that makes chinese people not a minority in australia because...?

I didn't say that, and it's not even the point I was making

then what point were you making?

do chinese people face discrimination in australia?

australians never discriminate against non-whites they are too polite

btw I accept that I didn't explain myself properly but please understand that I'm not supporting or even defending nasty race jokes. My point was expressly (but stated badly) that the response to various types of racial 'humour' can come from that person's idea of what constitutes a minority, and that I find it woefully depressing that e.g. a nation of 1.2bn people is still viewed as a racial minority by so many in the west etc etc. Yes I know representation of Chinese genealogy in Australia/America is rah rah % or whatever.

australians never discriminate against non-whites they are too polite

australia is disgustingly racist fyi, look at our political agenda on any given day

uh, would just like to point out that being a racial minority in a western country has no relationship at all to the country from which that person came. I accept, though, that you weren't making that observation from a bad place. I looked it up, and according to wikipedia, chinese people only make up 3.5% of australia's population.

i'm not trying to poo on you, but . . . no matter how many chinese ppl there are in the world, they are minorities in anglo-saxon countries and have historically not been treated particularly well by said caucasians there (or even at home).

at any rate, there are probably better barometers of progress than acceptance of racial joeks in polite company.

(i know you know this, i just think your original statement was put awkwardly)

mookie, I do understand and I completely agree with you. I'm genuinely sorry for making my point so badly.

re australian race relations: remember that sydney erupted against people of lebanese descent a couple of years ago. basically if you're not white anglo in australia you're regarded by scores of southern cross-tattooed thugs as unwelcome.

xp yeah

I was joking :)

canadians, however . . .

if you think that's bad, you should see how the kangaroos treat those of british descent

anyway the worst part about that sign is that it's a "chinese-japanese" restaurant. ming is not a japanese name afaik and chinese and japanese food only share very superficial similarities!!

I think that's how the restaurant sells itself tho? and I'm guessing it's owned by chinese people?

hmm

http://www.yelp.com/biz/mings-restaurant-washington

I guess by 'japanese' they just mean 'sushi'

round-eyes are easily fooled about the differences between various east asian ppls

a certain type of (american) customer would avoid such an amalgamation; another type would be all like 'this place has asian food covered amirite'

my mother still thinks greeks and italians are identical and interchangeable

also maybe I DIED and dc ilxors may disagree, but dc 'chinatown' is pretty disney-fied

chinatowns will all prob get increasingly disney-fied as chinese immigration dies down in the future

i ate here when i was on maui last weelend:

http://www.yelp.com/biz/asian-cuisine-and-sports-bar-kahului

In most US cities, Chinatowns are just relocating out of the previously cheap city centers to newly cheap suburbs, but the city still wants an area to have a Chinatown identity (good for tourism & neighborhood branding!). This leads to very questionable things like a Hooters being required to have a Chinese translation of their sign, as though that will keep the area's former spirit alive somehow.

There are a ton of Chinese/Japanese, Thai/Japanese, Korean/Japanese etc. restaurants here - in all cases it just means it's a restaurant of whatever nature plus sushi, in part because there's a very small Japanese community here but a much higher demand for crappy sushi.

The underlying issue with the sign is that while the while the use of a chop suey font is relatively benign and has a history of use in Chinatowns over the last century, it really shouldn't be held up as an example/template by a local planning body. While not the harshest stereotype in and of itself, it's often been partnered with stereotypes as a way of emphasizing a generic otherness, for example:
http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m56/greenoahu/movies/long-duck-dong-1.gif

I think all the decent "chinatowns" I've been in have had larger concentrations of non-Chinese people than Chinese people, really.

what chinatowns have you been to?

Melbourne's Chinatown is real and overwhelmingly authentic

Not very many now that I think about it?

is an authentic chinatown authentically chinese or authentically chinatownish?

Chicago's was more Chinese than I give it credit for. Montreal had a strong Vietnamese presence (lol french speaking?) x-p

iatee otm about "authentically chinatownish"

i have a friend who used to waitress for PF Chang's, and apparently during training they provide you a prepared response to customers who ask why no one who works there is asian

"if a customer asks this, make sure to tell them they're fat..."

is an authentic chinatown authentically chinese or authentically chinatownish?

Melbourne's is a lot like the older parts of HK, so authentic in that way

i always felt like the best food in philly's chinatown was vietnamese. in fact, i'm pretty sure it was.

now i want vietnamese food. i'm hungry again...

scott the best vietnamese in philly is on washington ave around 11th street, also on 6th

montreal's chinatown was really small, like one block, from what I remember of my visit there

i haven't been in philly in so long! since i moved. which is like 8 years now. which i can't believe. 9 years even! holy smokes. but the restaurant called Vietnam in chinatown was one of my favorite restaurants in the city and i never had chinese that equalled it there. and there was another good place too but i forget the name.

things have probably changed though...i can't believe it was that long ago.

i've been on ilx for 9 years. that's what that means. holy toledo. that's crazy too.

10 years in june! i checked. i should have a party. by myself.

and cry...

seattle's "international district" (chinatown) is basically pan-asian, but it's large, active and gots lots of good chinese restaurants. and people.

it'll be 10 years in August for me. and I'm only 24. :/

xpost

Chicago's "New Chinatown" (on Argyle Street) is actually mostly populated by Vietnamese and Thai people.

Regular Chinatown is on the South Side, and I think most of the Asian people there are Chinese.

I don't know why they call the one up north "Chinatown," "New" or otherwise, except maybe...racism?? (I went with the name "Little Saigon" which is another name for it.)

http://gawker.com/5880712/president-asked-to-dance-a-jig-by-random-internet-person