Being colored
It seems racism exists every where you go no matter how hard you want to deny it. I am dark tanned and my facial features is something hard for others to tell. I could be Asian, Pan-Asian, Nothern Indian, Spanish, Latina, Islander, etc.Whenever I visit a different country, a lot of them tend to be surprised on how well I can speak English with of course an accent in which it is very hard to tell.
During my teenage yearss, I studied in a government funded Malaysian school. And then I attended a Canadian school for my Grade 13 for almost 2 years before I decided to move to Australia to pursue my degree. I ended up living and working in Australia for almost 10 years.
I have been back to Maalaysia and it haas been almost 7 years now. I am working with an American company right now so I deal with the American clients for the past 6 years and I am aaalso a frequent travekler to the US.
Having said that, my accent is more like a mixture of Aussie, American, and Malaysian. Yeah, a potpouri if you would like to call it.
I am proud of what I am and who I am. I couldn't care less if people want to judge me by my accent and the color of my skin as long as I know how to adapt with the social expectations.
My apology if my contribution in this forum might hurt some feelings but it is never my intention to do so. I am just merely sharing my experience. White, Black, Brown, Yellow, we're all one race. The HUMAN RACE!

Love,
Nat
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If that's you in your avatar, you're pretty.
Personality makes a difference, skin colour does not.
Thankfully, it is usually just an annoying minority who practise it, but some countries (your native Malaysia among them) do even have a government-sponsored variety.
But with nowadays globalisation mixed, cosmopolitan (and open-minded) people like you are the future and monocultural bigots hopefully a thing of the past one day.
HaileyinHongKong wrote:If only there was a topic on racism somewhere.
It's a subject that brings out strong feelings.
We're seeing it in Indonesian politics at the moment, where one candidate is pushing the "evil foreigners" card.
Beppi mention racism in Malaysia, and he's right. The races rarely mix and there's a lot of distrust, mostly because of some rather nasty history since independence.
The Malaysian government is doing a balancing act, one that is far from perfect, but it keeps the idiot end in check, avoiding violence.
HaileyinHongKong wrote:If only there was a topic on racism somewhere.
Nice one, Hailey!
Actually, in my observation nationalism is far more dangerous in the world than racism. Wars are fought between nations much more than between races. Yet racism gets all the flak while nationalism gets a free pass most of the time. Why is that?
One of the things I learned when I am in Asia is that Asians are very conscious of their "White" skin.聽 They know they are not Caucasians but skin color is not the same as race.聽 Most Asians- Chinese, Philippinos, Koreans, Japanese, Thais and others, have white skin and they value their whiteness. And I have noticed that many feel they do not want to have dark skin and try and avoid the sun.聽 Many, too many, dark skinned Philippinos, Asians in general, feel insecure with the color of their skin and this is felt from their society itself, not from Western society.聽 I personally prefer dark-skinned women in general.聽 My pinay is on the dark side and I love her skin.聽 So sexy!聽 But she says she does not like her morena skin.聽
Why do you think that Japanese, Koreans and Chinese operas have the women in heavy white pancake makeup?聽 Its because the ideal of beauty is having very white skin.聽 This is not just a Western ideal.聽 It has been an ideal of beauty in Asia for thousands of years.聽 聽Also, it has something to do with labor.聽 If you have dark skin,聽 it means you worked as a laborer in the sun and thus there is that聽 negative connotation.聽 In India, there is the same situation.聽 Just remember, diversity is the spice of life.聽 There are many beautiful white women in the world, but I would not trade my pinay morena for anything.
Gordon Barlow wrote:Actually, in my observation nationalism is far more dangerous in the world than racism.
Nationalism, "be the best you can be to help your country be the best it can be", is great. Salute your flag all day long and pull together to improve everyone's lives, and I'll support you without reservation.
Nationalism that excludes foreigners or creates enemies within sections of a society is clearly stupid, and usually damages the country these fools claim to love.
It always turns to racism or bigotry in one form or another, and that always brings trouble to everyone.
You've been to Canada for a few years and just what did you experience there? Canada is a true melting pot with people of every different race and color. Did you feel uncomfortable there or feel that people were paying too much attention to your color? I ask that because to me you wouldn't even be considered "colored" in any way. You would get lumped in with all the "whites" and I don't even think you'd get called "tanned" by most Canadians. I'm certain that you didn't attract one bit of unwanted attention in Canada.
Here in Brazil where I've lived for almost 13 years now you'd pass completely unnoticed, with the obvious exception of you good looks. I doubt that even your mixed accent would get any attention here either. The only "white" people here are those who've just arrived from the frozen north, within a few days they're "red as lobsters" and depending on how long we stay we start tanning quickly until we're almost all "bronze". Brazilians, due to the ethnic mix of the colonizers of this country range from the "near white" blond haired blue-eyed, to "coffee colored", to "ebony". The only people in this enormous country that attract attention because of the color of their skin are the ones I've previously mentioned who've nearly killed themselves with sunburn those who are redder than the Maple Leaf on my Canadian flag.
While you may not be as light skinned as a Swedish girl, you're certainly not what anyone I know would even consider "colored". I really find it difficult therefore to understand the thrust of your entire posting. Is it really about racism or are you really mistaking something else for racism?
Perhaps what you are really talking about here is xenophobia, the fear or dislike of foreigners. While almost as bad as racism, xenephobia is not the same as racism per se. It's the US v. THEM attitude that you find in some countries. Some people (not many thankfully) dislike anybody from other countries and actively discriminate against them. To some degree it exists in many countries and may single out certain nationalities over others. It's a sad fact in the post-9/11 world we live in, unfortunately. For example, I certainly would not want to be someone from an Islamic nation who travels to many parts of the globe. They are often discriminated against not only for their ethnicity, but also their religious beliefs. They can be treated very badly because some narrow minded people see them all as terrorists, blame all of the terrorist attacks on the whole population rather than the very few extremists who are actually the responsible ones. So you can see that in some cases xenophobia can actually be even worse than racism. Thankfully in many countries it doesn't go far beyond the US v. THEM attitude, because even that is bad enough.
(In the end, luckily, Stanford university allowed his delayed start of studies without loss of the scholarship and he is now a fairly famous scientist in the USA.)
Moral of the story: The biggest obstacle to achieving "one world" are not the colours of our skins, but religious fanatism and official stupidity!
In the no-win situation you described, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.
You really can't fix DUMB, can you?????
beppi wrote:he was told that be will be subjected to a Muslim terrorism background check that takes three months
What is the name of this program?聽 I've never heard of such a thing.
HaileyinHongKong wrote:beppi wrote:he was told that be will be subjected to a Muslim terrorism background check that takes three months
What is the name of this program?聽 I've never heard of such a thing.
No idea - this was over 10 years ago (and I just posted it to show the stupidity of some regulations).
Racism is unfortunately unavoidable.聽 You will always encounter someone who is ignorant and narrow minded.聽 You can fight this cruelty by being strong and be confident.聽 Don't focus too much on what people think or say about you, instead channel your thoughts in a positive energy.聽 聽Apply positivity in your life on a daily basis...surround your energy with positive thoughts.聽 You know who you are, hence, you don't need to justify yourself to anyone, you don't need validation from anyone.聽 Just be you, stay true to yourself and you will be fine and most of all be happy and be contented of what you have.聽 Cease the day...I know you are a very good person and that's all that matters.... be cool

Ems
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