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Comment by rakpol | Hacker News Reader

Perhaps there's more to it than snobbery? Take, as an anecdote, this list of food safety incidents in China [1]. Whether or not that's comparable to the issues in the North American food supply chain, someone felt that there was enough concern surrounding the quality Chinese food to write an article about it. Food for thought.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_safety_incidents_in_China

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Exactly. This is why I use the word prejudice. We can extrapolate this to Muslims. Though the conversation won't be as lighthearted.

I think snob effect is the main factor, as I listed it first. Assuming I jumped to xenophobia as the deciding factor is biased. Of course how we view Muslim immigrants and Chinese produce are orders of magnitude apart in impact.

Your original post mentioned that you thought the author was inappropriately associating low prices with low quality ... that's not prejudice, though, right? That's a bog-standard standard heuristic people in my culture use to establish value (see: putting weights in electronics to make them feel more 'premium'). IMHO, it is genuinely terrifying that melamine made it into so many chinese dairy products. Perhaps the media sensationalized it too much, making the event stand out in my memory over similar local events? Who knows.

I guess what I'm getting at is rushing to the conclusion that xenophobia is the only deciding factor here seems a bit premature, and that the problem itself is likely multifaceted.

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