[mikeash]

Which of these is supposed to support the idea that it's disproportionate?

Of course they love gold. Everybody loves gold.

Americans are going crazy over the gold iPhone too. But nobody's talking about that, because they'd rather talk about Asians.

If it can be demonstrated that cultural preferences have translated into a disparate demand for gold iPhones in Asian countries, then and only then can this claim be made with a straight face. As it stands, it's just uninformed discussion about people who are "different".

[tokenizer]

> Americans are going crazy over the gold iPhone too.

That's racist!

^ This is what you sound like ITT...

[mikeash]

What's your point?

[tokenizer]

That you're just making threads toxic with your white knight attitudes.

Saying that BI is racist because they generalize the Asian market is what's wrong with the world. Not only do you generalize an entire continent by reducing it to race (racist against all Asian races?), but you then go on about how they can't generalize.

Almost all markets generalize. They need to. It's how you do business. If target age 24-32 female, white, etc...

Stop being such a white knight and attempt to read the article and bring valid points up for discussion instead of derailing it and wasting many a programmers time.

[mikeash]

"White knight"? Sure, because I couldn't possibly be directly affected by issues like these.

Until and unless the assertion is actually supported, it's racist BS.

I read the article. It completely fails to support its assertions. It talks about behavior the entire world appears to be engaging in, but singles out Asians for no reason.

They're telling a story they've basically made up, and are taking advantage of the "mysterious other" to do so.

This story would not pass muster if it were about black people. The author would get run out of town!

I believe that my points are perfectly valid. There's been a whole slew of articles about "Asians love gold" with absolutely no data to back them up, which are clearly based on a racist narrative rather than anything rational. How is that invalid?

"Wasting many a programmer's time"? That's hilarious. Even if the story is completely true, it's a waste of time to read and to comment about.

Personally, I think pointing out how casual racism is tolerated and ignored in certain situations is quite a bit more useful than the other comments on this article.

[jiggy2011]

They're talking about geographical markets, not categories of people.

Saying "X is popular in africa" would not be racist either.

[tokenizer]

Thanks for the ray of logic.

Personally, I find it more offensive when people get offended by non offensive things than by ignorant generalizations, like grouping all Asians into a race, by grouping all black people into a culture, by mixing up culture and race (this one is tricky however), etc..

[tokenizer]

>Personally, I think pointing out how casual racism is tolerated and ignored in certain situations is quite a bit more useful than the other comments on this article.

The real ignorance spawned when you compare Asians (multi-racial, genetically diverse, many cultures) with black people (colour of skin). That is racist. You are generalizing a continent of people into one homogenous ethnicity.

Of course the author wouldn't group "black people" into a category. Firstly, "black people" are the most genetically diverse group of people on the planet. Africa is also home to again, many, many cultures.

I think you attempting to be PC, has clouded your judgement. Look at your upvote/downvote ratio. Do you believe most people are just "ignorant" to your "valid and true" beliefs on political correctness? You said it yourself that this is just casual racism. And to many (including me) it wasn't that at all. If anything, you were the one who brought race and conflict into this discussion. Ask yourself if you're truly right.

The story is simple. Apple got sold out of their gold iphones in parts of Asia. You're right, everybody likes gold. They state that in the article. Let's see the articles sources shall we?

> gold in Asia is perhaps even more fetishized than in the West.

Wow, talk about bias! Perhaps!?!?!?

> said Mr. Lian, who works at a local TV station. "Chinese people like gold."

What?!?! A Chinese person generalizing their society?!?!? Hold the phone. We got a self hater here says mikeash...

Now this is just hurrible... Of course this POS article doesn't have contrary opinions... Oh Wait!

> 28-year-old Chris Wong who works in marketing. “I think the metal casing looks much better.”

And there you have it. A different opinion.

But yes. The article is racist. I'm racist. The people who downvoted you are racist. The whole word is racist. How about you take your white knighting to tumbler social warrior! We'll miss you!!!!

[mikeash]

"Apple got sold out of their gold iphones in parts of Asia."

"Parts"? Apple sold out of gold iPhones everywhere.

"You are generalizing a continent of people into one homogenous ethnicity."

Where the hell did I do that?

"If anything, you were the one who brought race and conflict into this discussion."

Excuse me? Race is in the fricken headline of the article we are commenting on.