[Angostura]

These comments, particularly those about toilet habits don't really look too different from the comments I was reading 5 years about about the behaviour of Chinese tourists, so I'm not sure what to think about this.

If you took a contemporary Chinese sophisticate and transported him or her back to 1920s China, what would his or her comments be like?

[the_af]

Shock at different toilet habits is actually the least racist and more understandable reaction. But some of his assertions are indefensible:

> “I noticed how little difference there is between men and women; I don’t understand what kind of fatal attraction Chinese women possess which enthrals the corresponding men to such an extent that they are incapable of defending themselves against the formidable blessing of offspring”

and

> “It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary.”

White supremacists could easily hold these views as well.

[mooseburger]

Those statements boil down to "I think Chinese people are ugly". Do men have a moral obligation to find women of all races beautiful?

[the_af]

I can say "I don't find most Chinese women attractive". Or I can say "Chinese women are so ugly, I cannot understand how people manage to reproduce in China". Do you see the difference? One statement is not racist and the other is.

[13years]

So you are saying racism is defined by the degree of some dislike vs. collectivist categorizations?

Otherwise, they do seem to be the same.

[coldtea]

Actually both are not racist. Both are subjective statements.

One needs not explicitly add "I, personally" to his personal correspondence.

"Chinese women are so ugly, I cannot understand how people manage to reproduce in China" should be read as: "I find Chinese women so ugly, that I cannot understand how people manage to reproduce in China".

[the_af]

I don't understand your point.

It's understood that in personal correspondence everything stated is the opinion of the author. Both my fictional examples were written from a personal point of view.

The actual difference was that one expressed a personal preference without being offensive; the other called a vast group of people "ugly", which is offensive, and expressed incredulity that they even managed to find each other sexually attractive enough to reproduce (which is naive as well as offensive).

Racism is primarily subjective, so that's no excuse either. Rational justifications for racism are more often than not a posteriori justifications.

[coldtea]

>It's understood that in personal correspondence everything stated is the opinion of the author. Both my fictional examples were written from a personal point of view.

Having established that...

>The actual difference was that one expressed a personal preference without being offensive; the other called a vast group of people "ugly", which is offensive

My point is that racism is not about being offensive (or not) in one's subjective opinions. Being rude is not the same as being a racist -- even if the characteristics you're rude about belong to a race of people.

>Rational justifications for racism are more often than not a posteriori justifications.

They might be, but without them there's no racism. Just personal preference or dislike, which people are entitled to.

"Freedonians look ugly" is not racist. "Freedonians are genetically inferior" is.

Even saying "freedonians are stupid" is borderline, because they might indeed be by the criteria of the one making that statement (e.g. they might value leisure, where the one making the statement might think that it's smarter to be productive).

[true_religion]

If racism were subjective, we wouldn't ban it in the public scope as there would be no clear standard for anyone to follow in their self-censorship.

Racism should reflect an attribute that can be factually proven---intelligence, strength, moral character at birth, etc.

It should not reflect a totally subjective physical attribute like beauty.

[no_one_ever]

> "It would be a pity if these Chinese supplant all other races. For the likes of us the mere thought is unspeakably dreary."

What if he is just implying that the loss of global racial diversity would be dismal, given that Chinese dwarf all other races in the world by a large margin? FWIW I know this is unlikely given the context of this post.