tastyfish wrote:
Madeline wrote:
They might talk to their women like that were he comes from, we don't do it here. Well, not if you have good manners you dont.
Tricky one this. What if he was white and came from Australia? Would we class Madeline's comment then as racism, or a trait of Auatralian men? In which case this is would be no different about him being Ugandan as we could assume it was a trait of Ugandan men. Then again, would Madeline have made this comment if he HAD been white and from Australia? Only she knows that.
Personally, I wouldn't call it racism. It's an offensive comment because generally, as a nation, we know little about the culture of Uganda and Ugandan people. If it had been a comment about, say, a French person, or an American, or an Australian, we may get away with it because of the familiarity we have of people from those countries. It's more ignorance then anything, IMO.
I think the problem lies in that if you say racism, everyone imedeatly thinks its to do with the colour of your skin. Wrong, its about the difference of race. white, black, yellow, red it makes no odds. Its perceving difference to your own "group" and casting judgment on a group rather than an individual.
Im sure there are all sorts of fancy jargen such as urban racism, and cultural racism and the like, but IMO it is still racism and deserves the same notoriaty