Couldn't quite belive this!!!

[clooz]

Oh come one! How is this possibly derogatory???
Give me a break!

It's not per se. A reader who views it as derogatory has taken something more from the context.

 

[nativexpat]

Oh come one! How is this possibly derogatory???
Give me a break!

I don't think the OP meant to say that it was derogatory. It is just that it is not very PC in multicultural background... You know, you can be born in China from a black mom and a Chinese dad (highly unlikely now that I think of it heheheh) see what I mean?

I understand that the issue is that the magazine is generalizing/stereotyping - at least from my point of view...

 

[Davidglen77]

When I lived in the USA, I once received a card from a co-worker from my birthday. I hung it up on the window of my office along with the other cards from co-workers and clients. I didn't realize that the front of the card had an image of a black man on the front. When I received it I opened up the envelope, quickly opened it and read the inside which had a standard message and thanked my co-worker (who was a black woman). I never noticed that the man on the front of the card wasn't white. As people passed my office and noticed it they made all kinds of comments to me and some of my black co-workers got upset and thought I was making fun of them, and to top it all off the director of human resources called me and asked me to remove the card. Apparently Hallmark had put out a line of greeting cards called "The Mahogany Collection" which have African American themes and is geared towards the black community. I grew up in a mixed nationality (russian / cuban) family and we were constantly labeled, categorized, even made fun of and discriminated and asked billions of questions.
http://www.hallmark.com/Browse/Index?n=&ctx=ContentSearchProfile&pg=1&rpp=&sort=&k=mahogany&npath=

 

[brownlove]

Of course it's derogatory, it's like saying "jewish people have hooked noses and thick lips" for example, something I have read in historical literature relating to 1939-1945 war.

 

[Hache]

"Los Chinos tienen el pelo lacio y los ojos chiquitos..."

Derogatory or not, it's still wrong all the way. ALL of them have limp hair? "Small" eyes? "Squinty" eyelids, maybe... Anyway, limp hair and squinty eyes: Chinese for sure.

 

[marcopolo]

So? It would be better if they said "Most chinese..."? This is the least racist country I have been, and I have been around.

...yes, perhaps as a Caucasian from the developed world, but I assure you that your view would not be shared by the majority of Asians,Africans and immigrant labourers from neighbouring countries.

 

[clooz]

Of course it's derogatory, it's like saying "jewish people have hooked noses and thick lips" for example, something I have read in historical literature relating to 1939-1945 war.

Help me understand the idea or use of a derogatory view. Let's take a couple of less loaded generalizations as examples to consider, about the appearance and skills of groups of people. The example quoted above refers to a political context that allows derogatory intent to be inferred. I'm going to remove political context from my examples to make the ideas separate. My assumption about the OP context is that for children, generalization as a language skill is learned very early, and that we don't benefit by shielding them from use of generalization.

So if I say for example, the English have brown hair. Is this derogatory? Or would it become derogatory if it occurred in a children's magazine and the readers had no other way to know about the hair color of the group?

Here's my second example generalization to consider. If I say, the English speak French badly. Is this derogatory? I pick the second example as having a negative attribute.

Clearly, we can disagree with a generalization's accuracy. But for the sake of this discussion, let's assume that both my examples are accurate and therefore true generalizations. By accurate I mean that there are exceptions but not so many as to make most members of the group if polled say they did not have the attributes.

 

[bebero]

but i don't understand how is that derogatory, offensive or racist...it's true! don't they have small eyes and straight hair? and what's wrong with that?
i think that all the political correct-ness that happens in the states is a lot more offensive, actually. i mean: what's wrong with saying small eyes? are they worse?no! then why can't we just say it??

 

[bebero]

is not like saying jewish people have hooked noses because not every jewish nose is hooked. but EVERY chinese eye is small.
god, you all need to lose that deep fear of being politically incorrect. must be exhausting to live lile that!

 

[KevinK]

to paraphrase the political comedian Bill Maher...To say that:

"The chinese have small eyes and smooth hair"

.... is simply an observation....


but To say

"These small eyed smooth haired pr****S are a #%$&*%^!!"

now we are talking politically incorrect.

the day that observations become politically incorrect is the day that
evoulution is taught as one theory of many....oops in the states they are trying to do that too..