> Mr. French, the author of “China’s Second Continent,” said that when it comes to Africa, China has had a tendency to dismiss criticism of its conduct by noting that the West, not China, fueled the slave trade and colonized the continent.
FWIW, this is incorrect. Arab exploitation of Africa predates European colonialism by over five centuries. Africa’s eastern coast is populated by descendants of slaves taken from the continent’s interior, and certain overseas ethnic groups—like the Siddi In India and Kaffirs in Sri Lanka—still retain elements of their African heritage.
5
This stinks, obviously. But I hope I am not "blaming the victim" to wonder why Kenyans accept such treatment in their own country where presumably they outnumber the racist Chinese by MILLIONS.
One could not in this day and age go to Israel and be openly anti-semitic or to Saudi Arabia and be anti-Arab or to well China and be anti-Chinese. So why do Africans tolerate this nonsense? Africans and African descended people across the planet need to stop tolerating or excusing racism from any source.
This article (along with the recent Times article about racist Turkish soccer players in France) continues to show the lie about this whole "people of color" concept. East Asians in general and Chinese in particular can be EXTREMELY xenophobic and racist.
It's time that Africans, Kenyans in this case, started being a bit more xenophobic themselves. If they won't then Kenya will soon be a Chinese colony in all but name. It's not like the Chinese haven't shown the Kenyans who they are.
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As a brown person in Taiwan who the Taiwanese seem to be 50/50 on whether they think I'm from India or Africa, depending on how close we are to the nearest tech school when the conversation happens... honestly they are really not that bad. Americans like to feel better by imagining other people out there being worse, but I was born in Argentina and raised in South Carolina and went to college in Virginia and when it comes to ambient racism I'll stick to Taiwan thank you very much.
I've barely personally experienced racism at all here in the last 10 years, and none of it was as poisonous or demoralizing as the things I experienced growing up in the US.
And this is all anecdotal sure, but I hear people say this so often, people even tried to convince me not to move because of it and that would have been the worst decision of my life if I'd made it.
17
The Kenyans do have something to worry. This is how subjugation starts -with silence from those who are being "put in their place", criticized unjustly, regarding them as subhuman. Let's hope these racial incidents were nipped in the bud for good, for otherwise, tolerating them would lead to them being even more subjected to such ugliness and could progress to them being "subjugated." It's irksome. We should all be concerned and supportive of the weak and not shy away from calling out and criticizing the abusive arrogance of the "strong".
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This is the elephant in the room in all our discussions of racism and white privilege. These are abhorrent issues but we are always coming from a western perspective. Because of this we give the racist the excuse to say - but non-whites can be racist too. In North America this argument is disallowed. The situation in Africa is truly sad. The 19th century definition of race and classification of "the African" has made it's way into all cultures and sadly, there is no incentive to change among many of these cultures.
7
China cares not for Kenya, Africa, or any other country. The elites are what we see out of China here in the US, the west, and Africa. Not the average Chinese citizen, whom the elites treat badly as well. It's time to stop China from investing, controlling, and influencing other countries. While it's hard to say 'no' to a country that appears to be investing in your country and bringing jobs, have no doubt that they are NOT investing in you or your country. They are stealing precious resources and intellectual property world-wide. While the racist comments are outrageous, the real devil has nothing to do with racism, but a takeover. Once completed, we will all find ourselves subservient to the Chinese elites, aka the communist party.
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@Ma. Right on. That is exactly what China is doing, pre positioning for the next move to cheap labor. They've seen the us export jobs to Japan for cheaper labor bigger profits only to see the workers and economy grow, so we moved it to Hong kong and Taiwan and now look, not so cheap anymore. The Chinese are propositioning the.selves all over the world with "investments".
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I spent time as an African American woman teaching in China. While most of the experience was great, I did witness some racist incidents. A very dark-skinned, Kenyan male teacher was with our primarily white American group one evening when a Chinese man ran up, rubbed his arm as if to test its blackness, and then took off. Our Chinese tour guide was mortified. She blew a whistle, a policeman appeared, the errant man was captured and brought back. He was then forced to apologize to the Kenyan.
At other times during the experience, we saw people stare at him, at my husband who is African American and ask him, "Are you a basketball player?"
The other racist incident was the open contempt with which many spoke of the Uighurs, Muslims who live in northwest China and in the ghettoes of Xian.
But there was a breakthrough experience also: in the ghetto of Xian, while leaning forward to look at scarves in the Uigher market, two little Uigher girls who were hiding under the table, came out and touched my hair. They giggled with delight at its curly kinkiness. I offered them hugs and they pointed to their straight hair indicating they wanted hair like mine.
There smiles made me realize how racism and the concept of racial difference preventing human connections is an evil that has to be taught. If only we could become like children and just accept each other. As Jesus said, such openness to others is the nature of heaven.
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@Sierra After reading your comment, it seems it's okay for little girls that have never seen curly hair to touch, but not okay for an adult who has never seen a black person tough their skin? It may be that he wanted to see if it felt the same as his skin, but you assumed he was trying to rub blackness off. I'm discouraged that one's first thought is racism. When you travel outside your country, it is possible for people to be curious about you. When I was at camp as a kid, I was one of a few white people; most were blacks. They constantly touched my hair and rubbed my skin. They asked my people were called white when we were really pink. I didn't think they were racist. Was that because I was a kid?
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I am a native CHINESE and I want to give my comment on this article. I think the normal Chinese people are not cleat that how how bad the word racist mean in the western world. I believr CHINESE discriminate people not because the race itself but because the social status. In the video the Chinese manager is the boss, he has a higher social status so he dare to behave like the racist. but if the kenyan is the boss then this will.not happen.
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@tianxu
If this is so these managers need to understand that they are guests, regardless of their social or economic status, in Kenya and will be expected to act accordingly. This means in their behavior in addition to the words. RESPECT for all people, regardless of their nationality, social or economic class, is expected. It is the ONLY form of behavior that is acceptable.
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@tianxu
From my experience in China, I believe that your analysis is accurate. That said, neither classicism nor racism is fair, so the boss's behavior still must change. Everyone is an equal. As you no doubt know, equality of all people and genders is a central tenet of Communist thought, the ruling governance of China. It is certainly the rule of thought in a democracy like Kenya.
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@tianxu, I am a natural born AMERICAN, and I want to give you my comment. I think a lot of Chinese people don't believe other people are smart enough to understand them when talking out loud in front of them in Chinese. And you know what? A table of Chinese people, all with Ph.D.s in subjects like engineering, computer science and the like, laughing and joking about 黑鬼 derisively, are not defended by an argument about social status or lack of awareness or anything else.
I invite readers of these comments to cut and paste that expression into Google translate. Even Google hesitates to translate it as what it means, using a modified term you might hear in a rap song instead.
Han China disparages its own ethnic minorities, and it isn't infrequent to hear a Chinese, in Chinese, talking about how bad the Hakka people smell.
You can chant, Tian bu pa, di bu pa,... all you like but eventually the truth does out.
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While these experiences are disheartening, they are not at all surprising. Many East Asians (Chinese, Koreans, Japanese) believe themselves to be of a "pure" race and thus have little need for anyone else who is not part of their world. While they make exceptions for white people--who are still regarded, especially in Korea, as model foreigners, even with copious evidence to the contrary--, to be a black person in these countries is to be a source of, at best, amusement and at worst, ridicule and debasement.
Having lived in Korea for over five years, I have felt the stigma of being "less than". East Asians use skin color as an economic and intellectual gauge, with darker-skinned people at the bottom of the curve. Having experienced firsthand the paradox of being simultaneously an object of profound curiosity and one of complete disregard, I find myself with little to no sympathy over the "plight" of Asians in America, who find themselves in a court battle to be treated, funnily enough, fairly in the university admissions contest.
It is shame. And the shame is compounded when you come to realize that East Asians would NEVER treat their white counterparts with the same disgust as they do black people. I wonder who provided them with their view of race. Hmm.
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@Jared Wood: You seem to be suggesting that East Asians may have gotten racist attitudes toward blacks from white people. Small children the world over who have never seen a black person in person or in media go wild the first time they see a black person.
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@Steve You seem to be stating findings for which you have cited no evidence. Where is the data to support your last statement?
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Interesting perspective but the way you attempt to downplay the plight of another group of people due to their background is rather condescending and baseless. To judge another group’s discrimination based on people of same race is similar to saying that the world should expect the current GOP’s viewpoint is that of every citizen in the US.
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“They are the ones with the capital, but as much as we want their money, we don’t want them to treat us like we are not human in our own country,” said David Kinyua"
Sounds like a case of wanting to have your cake and eat it too. Since when do the recipients of anything decide the terms? Maybe they should be grateful that the Chinese are building infrastructure and an economy for them instead of focusing on hurt feelings?
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The Chinese are not there as a favor to the Kenyans, but to make money. And accepting racism as a condition of employment is wholly unacceptable anywhere.
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People like to think we have big problems here, but racism and bigotry in general are alive and well in the rest of the world far, far more than in the US. The experiences noted in the article are pretty tame compared to what I've seen, especially in more culturally insulated societies with little immigration, zero anti-discrimination laws and no mechanisms in place to address such issues. Travel the world a bit and you'll see, the U.S. is easily the most tolerant country on the planet - by leaps and bounds - likely due to our 'melting pot' history.
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@Dave T Not sure if its the most tolerant, but its certainly not the least, like some peoples’ narratives would have you believe.
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@Dave T
Maybe those culturally insulated societies don't need anti-discrimination laws and associated mechanisms because they don't have racism and bigotry? I just had this crazy thought that perhaps immigration and diversity leads to such problems in the first place.
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@Dave T I'm still waiting for another where the white supremacists are literally rioting with tiki torches on the street.
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This article helps illustrate the sad reality that racist attitudes are more prevalent and also more innate to human beings, than I believe our present day First World politics can contend with. Also, while identity politics in the US wants to make white people at fault for everything, this story shows the reality is more complicated.
I just dont' think it's realistic to expect to "prohibit" people from having certain thoughts -- however, coroporations can certainly have rules against their employees making offensive comments to others. And Kenya can terminate contracts with companies who fail to take action against inappropriate behavior by their employees.
Ultimately, you cannot FORCE one type of person to like a different type of people. Much openneess to others is accomplished just because human nature tends to be open and we are naturally interested in other people. However, where openness and curiosity fail, legislation does not belong. People may like others more when they find something interesting or admirable in that person's culture.
When a type of people is too often associated with begging for help from others, this doesn't bode well for their international image. Along with the racist comments in the video, note what the Kenyan man says. He's basically arguing that because Kenyans are poor, others should just give them stuff. This problematic dependent attitude is too common in blacks in America and appears to be a problem in Africa too
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This sad state of affairs is prevalent throughout the world, and can be mitigated only by giving people a good education that includes history and the arts, and exposure to a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society where the laws mandate equal treatment of all people. Just watching that Chinese manager go at the Kenyan employee with his racist epithets should disgust and disturb all viewers, and re-enforce our efforts to eradicate this ugly aspect of human nature from society.
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Chinese investments mushrooming in different parts of the world are not without risks for the nations they claim to help ! It is an other form of colonialism in the guise of development. Poor nations have no chance unless they reject such help and find honest leaders to use their own resources to remain independent and free .
No one has been able to challenge human right violations in real sense to the these dictatorial Communist regimens. They have internment camps of a Chinese minority right now in millions in China and the civilized world cannot raise a finger at them including United Nations .
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I understand discrimination in America. America is a European nation but even America is attempting to get better.
But how are you going to allow people in your own country to be disrespectful? There are solutions for these transgressions. Maybe they're not pretty ... but they exist.
@Curtis Sumpter How is the US a "European" nation? I would claim it's not. It's a matter of different culture(s), circumstances and history. European countries have been multi-ethnic for millennia, with lots of hatred and conflict. Yet you didn't find Jim Crow laws in European countries in 1965. There was no black slave class working the fields in France. So maybe there's a reason black US soldiers felt more welcome in France during/after WWII than at home.
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The Chinese NEVER make any kind of a deal with anyone that does not benefit them more than it does the other party. This is all painfully evident in Kenya - and many other parts of Africa - as China makes inroads to achieve their goal of economic slavery for the continent. Deals with China are deals with the devil, make no mistake.
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Racism is not only alive and well in the USA, its alive and well all over the world. Maybe if we all stopped labeling, judging one another by the color of our skins, put our cultural differences aside and embrace one another for who we are, we can put a larger dent into racism. The human race should be ashamed for creating and allowing racism to fester in the first place.
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What is the Kenyan government doing? It is beyond outrageous to be discriminated against by foreigners with such consistent malevolence in one's own country.
If Chinese nationals are found guilty of this sort of mass discrimination, they should be denied residency and deported.
Kenya is being colonized, and the Kenyans are looking on like spectators. Why?
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@ThoughtfulAttorney Why? How about $$$$?
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@ThoughtfulAttorney: Did you not read the article? The Government of Kenya had the man deported after his racist tirade was recorded.
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Generally speaking, Chinese (and many other Asian countries) exhibit far more overt racism than Western countries do, as most people that have traveled there or have any firsthand experience can attest. The idea that all people and groups of people are equal, and must be treated the same, has just not bought into the same as it has been in the West.
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I have lived in East Africa for sixteen years and spent some of my childhood in Africa too. "Settler" is definitely an inaccurate term, and would be used in Kenya to refer to second and third generation British families who have settled, adopted citizenship, submitted to the government, accepted the culture, and contribute in a respectful way to the economy.
Migrant worker (singular labourer), foreign investor (business owner), or expatriate personnel (to speak of all), could be more suitable alternatives, with their national identity tagged alongside.
i was in Kenya only last week, mingling with citizens and long-term foreign residents, and this racism from Chinese employees was mentioned in conversation, without any enquiry on my part. Also, major concerns about the indebtedness of Africa to China. I also travelled in economy class on the very SGR railway mentioned in this article, and the dominant presence of Chinese employees was evident everywhere I looked. The Kenyan employees were smartly, dressed, efficient, professional, helpful and friendly.
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Why is this surprising?
9
“And many arrive with hierarchical views of culture and race that tend to place Africans at the bottom, said Howard French, a former New York Times correspondent who wrote the 2014 book “China’s Second Continent,” which chronicles the lives of Chinese settlers in Africa.”
“Settlers”? Aren’t they immigrants? The term settler is volatile, even here in America, where white supremacists insist on the designation for whites who arrived here. Other, more derogatory terms are used for the rest.
The word has become a red flag for me. That flag waved vigorously when I saw it in this sad article.
8
My naivete knows no bounds. I have always believed as technology and Society move forward we would have less and less racism as societies intermingled. I was ecstatic when President Obama was elected. Again, naively I thought it was the end of racism in America for the most part. I have had my epiphany. Humans seem incapable of truly evolving past fear and hatred of people not exactly like them.
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@Me Don't give up hope just yet.
America is more advanced than China when it comes to race. That statement in and of itself is anathema but it's true.
There are no black people in China or very few and they are treated rather poorly. America is light years ahead of China due to the nature of their country and the rural nature of the vast majority of their people. China is not a cosmopolitan nation. It is parochial at best and full of people who have never been exposed to any other types of people.
They are not the standard.
7
That's progress. The Chinese bring new investment and new jobs, and they bring some weaknesses borne of their isolation. But the Kenyans are also isolated. They haven't experienced racism because their entire experience is with other Africans or with white foreign aid workers, who are usually educated and taught to act nice.
There's also a hidden reality that anyone who has traveled outside the United States can tell you about how we treat people here: There is no place like home, no place like home, no place like home.
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@Real D B Cooper you kidding, right? Kenya was a British colony. That means they had white overlords and a governor general. Think of Melania Trump wearing that white colonial hat in Kenya a few day ago. That's how whites looked back then all prim and properly dressed while the natives did the hard work and the white colonialist were ferried around. I'm sure the older generation knows about discrimination. And the Chinese should be ashamed of themselves because they teach about the century of humiliation when parts of China were colonized by Europeans powers. Even the Germans colonized part of China where they had their navy in the Pacific.
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@Wayne
it's easy to blame conditions in almost every African nation on colonialism. but when are these nations going to stand on their own and govern themselves properly? It's not like this was the case BEFORE colonialism.
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“Taught to act nice?!” Ever heard of the Mau Mau uprising?
7
Racial discrimination is a sad fact of life all over the world even today but it is far worse in China, Japan, and some other homogenous countries, and if anything, it is becoming more frequent and more blatant in the 21st century because of globalization. Chinese in mainland China and the Japanese in Japan are not exposed to diversity unlike America and some other western countries. Blatant racism is far less common today in America and Europe when compared to these Asian countries because people are exposed to different races, unlike China. What I read in this article is horrible, the Kenyans are called monkeys in their own country by the Chinese workers, very sad.
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That the video of Mr. Liu resonated deeply among Kenyans is a sure sign that the recorded behaviour reflected a shared experience with expat Chinese in the country. It would be interesting to know if a majority of Chinese managers/employers feel the same way about their host country nationals, and why -- is it due to racial stereotypes acquired at home, or after arrival in Africa? If Chinese business representatives in Kenya despise their workers this doesn't bode well for a sustainable cycle of investment and development. Based on my experience in West Africa, the Chinese capitalists in Africa must hold a range of different views about Africans -- would have been nice if the article had explored these a bit.
3
The next time you are called a monkey, remind that person of the clever Monkey King, one of the most revered figures in their epic "Jouney to the West". That will stop them cold.
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Very sad but not at all surprising. For some reason people think that only white Americans and Western Europeans are racist. That is simply not true. Sadly, racism is deeply rooted in every culture even if the word racism is not used.
Money buys power, power divides human beings, superficial differences justify the divisions. This is our reality unless we do more to promote the fact that there is only one race, Human and that we punish discrimination swiftly and equally across the planet.
My grandmother said people are like diamonds. Skin color is just one our many required facets that makes us beautiful and Human.
11
Ever been to mainland China?
Not the same understanding of personal space and social interaction as “European”.
There is a reason the Chinese government had to pass laws regarding rudeness while traveling overseas and being a Good Samaritan.
There is a very vast difference in understanding between Chinese culture and European that we are going to be more exposed to as more Chinese enter the middle class for the first time in 200 years.
13
I was in China for 8 years. It was meant as a degradation . To prove it, try comparing the perpetrator with something yourself and see what happens.
4
Awful and disheartening. Giving the Chinese a pass because white people enslaved Africans is a disgusting excuse. Unfortunately, East Asian culture is as much informed by race and skin color as their counterparts in the West and perhaps more so. This myth of lighter skin people being of a upper-class nobility is a devilish myth that didn’t originate with Western culture. It has to be debunked and the Chinese must see the humanity in those beyond themselves otherwise it is a completely exploitive relationship. It’s up to each one of us, to protest this dehumanizing behavior and treat each human being with a dignity we reserve for ourselves. Let me let you in on a little secret —I bet if East Asians test their DNA, it’s got African genes built right in there, just as we all do —they are as much ancestors to them as they are to us all.
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I work frequently in Kenya and the Great Lakes region on development projects. The massive change in Chinese presence is plain to see in recent years. Interestingly, some Kenyans - particularly children - have difficulty differentiating between non-African peoples. I used to be called 'Mzungu', which loosely refers to people of European descent. Now its not uncommon for kids to call out 'chingchong' or 'china' thinking that I'm Chinese, rather than European. Point being, while the big majority of European expats, NGO workers and tourists are respectful for our Kenyan friends and live among them, Chinese behavior of the sort described in this article also has the potential to be also associated with Europeans! Racism towards Africans anywhere, and in Africa specifically is not OK, I hope they get a short, sharp wake-up call.
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I agree with the premise that this awful and disgusting behavior must stop and the Chinese called out for their blatant dehumanizing of Africans, but let’s not pretend Europeans are pure of heart and tainted by the Chinese behavior unwittingly. If the Kenyans have confused boorish and racist Chinese behavior with all foreigners of a lighter skin color, it’s because they’ve had the same experience with Europeans. Let’s not forget Kenya is Kenya because of Europeans, so perhaps we not get on too high a horse here and feign outrage at Europeans being lumped into a group of racist foreigners in Africa.
22
I was in different parts of Africa last year (Malawi, Kenya and Ethiopia briefly). What this article says is very true. The Chinese workers, (and in one instance, some tourists from a church group from Taiwan) behave extremely poorly towards the Africans. You can see Chinese presence everywhere, especially in infrastructure building. With their widespread presence will come this kind of racism. When I saw this, I feared wide swathes of Africa will be recolonized - by the Chinese this time. It is shame. Money corrupts, power corrupts. And the Chinese will ruin Africa if they do this. Very sad to see indeed. The Africans will have gleaming roads and buildings, but something much worse - racism and extremely boorish behavior by the young Chinese work force. Hope Africa wakes up and stops this type of influx of money and power right now.
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It's time for the Chinese and Kenyan governments to create a joint force and set of legal measures to deal with this. Efficient and well-staffed bodies that can identify and certify instances of racial hostility.
Kenya needs to arrest and deport any foreigner (including while ones) who openly display any racist sentiments. Chinese citizens deported for violating these measures need to be tried and publicly disciplined. In addition to jail terms, demotion to the lowest level of social credit standing.
The residents of both countries need to make a simultaneous announcement of these measures in a joint appearance and press conference.
4
Believably disgusting.
33
The situation is intolerable. Shame on anyone whose embrace of racism reveals their ignorant arrogance.
9
Asians are hardly less racist than Westerners. I was shocked to see ads for managers and accountants, specifying that only Indians or Lebanese need apply - in Ghana. It's high time for African governments to stop putting up with this. Having more money or an imperial history - as China, India and the West all do - doesn't make you a better person, or a better people.
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