Have You Experienced Prejudice Or Racism In Argentina?

[sere]

I'm from China but I've never been called chino so far...Everyone's been friendly and helpful, except there's this one incident that happened during the second week after my arrival. My husband and I were waiting for the passengers to get off the bus before we could get on and we were the first to give a hand to an old trembling lady, but she only said thank you to the Argentino who also helped her without even bothering to look at us. I hope it was just she didn't know what to say to an obviously foreign person.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

Last night one of the guys on my speed skate team yelled at me, "Hey Yanqui! Close the gap!" He's a bit of an a**hole and rubs me the wrong way anyway. I told him very clearly to call me by my name or keep his mouth shut. That the next time he calls me "Yanqui" that he and I would continue the conversation one-on-one outside the fence.

I can't say I've ever heard "Yanqui" used in an endearing, affectionate way.

 

[Matiasba]

Am not sure that "Yanqui" is discriminative or prejudging (is that word correct?).

I wouldnt say Yanqui is used as endearment, but I wouldnt say the contrary either.

Per se, for me, is just descriptive.

 

[camberiu]

Am not sure that "Yanqui" is discriminative or prejudging (is that word correct?).

You are telling that to a Southerner?


http://youtu.be/C29Fs-WNIrg

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

Am not sure that "Yanqui" is discriminative or prejudging (is that word correct?).

I wouldnt say Yanqui is used as endearment, but I wouldnt say the contrary either.

Per se, for me, is just descriptive.

So is che boludo.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

You are telling that to a Southerner?

That's a further refinement, y'all.

 

[thorsten]

I always have to smile when Argentines want to use the word "Yanqui", but say "Junkie"

 

[jackbower]

Yeah, it's a charged issued - I'm almost too frightened to post anything on it.

Mati, I respect the angle you are taking when you say that certain names are not considered offensive in Argentine society.
However, I also believe that racism usually affects via the way it is interpreted and not by the way it is intended. I think that an Asian (non chinese) person would have every right to be offended by being called 'Chino' - Imagine if they were Tibetan for example? I think that would be hugely offensive to call a Tibetan Chinese over and over again.

My girlfriend used to call her old boss 'chino'. When I saw a photo of him I saw he was Japanese and I asked her if she would like being called "Mex" in my country because she has dark skin and speaks Spanish - so she must eat burritos and be from Mexico, right?. She said of course not and I agreed that she should never ever have to tolerate that, even if it was intended 'affectionately'. On a personal note I asked if she would mind not using the term anymore because I found that level of ignorance really unattractive in a person I want to be involved with long term. In a way it's totally uncool imo, but in another way I try to understand as she just didn't know any better because she has grown up and lived around that sort of attitude.

When I met her old boss and his wife I found out that they were actually both from Okinawa, which is a kind of Japanese sub culture (They consider themselves a different in some ways to the 'mainlanders' similar to the Catalans and the Spanish. He took zero offence to the nickname of course, because it is 'par for the course' here. Perhaps this is the boundary between ignorance and racism - intent to offend or degrade (I suppose we call it 'casual racism' also)

Mats, you sound like an intelligent dude and I think you bring a lot to the forum and I don't think you're a racist. But I think using those names is ignorant, and if the names are cool to use in some (not necessarily all) Argentine circles then in my opinion those Argentine circles ignorant. I certainly don't want to say that people who grow up in Argentine society are ignorant, because its certainly not true, but I do interpret these words as ignorant. Sadly, this attitude may result in a tolerance for racism / discrimination on other levels, whether it be against Bolivians, Paraguayans - whatever.

I've tried to put down some thoughts down without committing ignorance toward Argentina's customs myself, because they have their own way of doing things here thats for sure (Different to the western bubble I grew up in - and we definitely have our flaws too). I'm just saying it's not the same everywhere and in an international environment one needs to be sensitive (of course there is a line that crosses into over-zealous political correctness)

thanks for posting. Not long winded and very concise and exactly how I feel about the subject.

 

[Jaredberryman]

Matias, I'm not sure all of those terms have racist undertones (racist: the belief that your race is superior to others. Some of those terms do not even refer to race but to country). But the very statement: "if you come from another culture you are not in a position to judge the other culture" is in fact a judgment itself, thereby making it self contradictory. Your statement has been produced by western culture, therefore we have no way of knowing whether it is valid if cultural relativism is true. If something is wrong, it's just plain wrong, period.

However, Jack, I think Matias was explaining that some of those words don't even have a racist component at all; they're just pet nicknames, while some of them definitely do. They do that everywhere in Latin America (refer to people by their appearance or nationality). That might even be annoying or disrespectful, but I don't think all of that has a racist component. For instance, Ponja doesn't seem to have a racist component to it as most Argentines highly respect Japanese culture.

Sometimes, though, constantly getting referred to as Yanqui can get a bit annoying. I know I am from another country, is there a reason I constantly have to be reminded constantly? I realize that people here, though, like labels and putting things in categories. I also realize that as we in the United States do not have very thick skin sometimes and get offended at minutiae sometimes.

 

[Bajo_cero2]

If you were more educated youd understand just how ignorant and backwards you sound right now. But as I said, its clear what social class you come from. Keep calling people names, im sure someone will eventually plant you on your ass for it.

I m afraid that you might be right if we were refering to other country with big issues with racism like the US where there is people without rights, a cultural inheritance of slavery i guess. In that culture, to refer to a nationality or race has a strong content.

However, It is interesting that they, instead of recognize foreigners as human beings, they focus on a proper way to call them, as you mentioned.

BUt n this country people has rights because they are human beings, no matter where did they were born or their immigration status.

Matías is accurate when he assets that those nicknames haven t under tones, you need to add an insult to make it racist or a particular entonation.

My wife gets upset when somebody call her chinita just because they show how ignorant they are about Asia.

Racism, in my opinion, has to do with having different standards because on where are you from, your legat status or citizenship.

While immigration allows you to abuse of the tourist visa, they deport chinese and dominicans every day.

I do a living on fighting racism at federal courts and i have to deal every day with people who have racial hate.

And i disagree that JB is judging our culture, he ignores it.