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Comment by noja | Hacker News Reader

It's a taboo subject, because the Japanese aren't very open to non-locals.

It's also taboo for white people to call some non-white people racist but then we can't actually have a discussion about racism.

My two cents here: non white people can certainly be racist, but racism is a structural thing, so it doesn't make sense to talk about racism by people that are not white, in the United States, since the structure isn't there. But I think it makes perfect sense to talk about it in other places.

So what is a dislike for another race called?

Bigotry.

In the context of disliking people from other countries, xenophobia.

Racism is a not a "structural thing", and neither is it about whites or non-whites.

Everywhere you go on Earth you will find racist people, whatever 'race' they are some will be racist against other 'races'.

Specifically regarding your point: there are people who are black and racist in the US or any other country.

Racism absolutely is a structural thing. This can include things such as redlining in the US or more on topic, Japanese banks refusing to work with foreigners and the treatment of the Ainu in Japan.

There's a very important distinction to make between those that write the laws and those that don't.

These are examples of the consequences of racism.

But racism does not start there.

I don't think the discussion was about the origins of racism, was it?

Racism builds systems of governing and laws that can be racist. Ergo, you see structural racism (again, redlining) which can exist long after the racial zeitgeist has passed.

But you have applied a predicate (ie. 'structural') to specify a kind of racism, implying the general form of racism, which is, simply put, any discrimination on the basis of race.

Yes, and? This was specifically in response to the denial that racism is not a structural thing, which we have objective historical examples of structural racism affecting different populations.

Ok, well, it seems we are in agreement.

As a non-white person in a white majority country, I can't wrap my head around thinking like this.

Have you been there lately? They are actually quite many non-local workers these days. Not sure they are treated well though.

My father works for a japanese oil exploration company, and has been for about 25 years.

He just got back from a trip to give a presentation in Japan...first thing I hear when he gets back is how badly racist the Japanese are.

I know it's just an anecdote...but it's been his experience in general over the years.

That is probably enough info to ID him- you may want to edit that in case of unintended negative repercussions for him...

Fair point, I've updated it.

I've been reading Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld recently (fascinating read about the yakuza's history in Japan) and it mentions that a large percentage of Chinese and Korean immigrants turned to gang life because they were considered a lower caste, like the burakumin (Japan's untouchables). Maybe things have changed since the 80s-90s?

Not drastically, it seems: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_issues_in_Japan

There are several foreign workers but they mostly work for established international companies with offices there. Few of these companies are Japanese (people do work for Japanese companies but usually outside Japan). It's not only about xenophobia, Japanese work culture is deeply hierarchical and seniority-based (the person who's been in the company the longest gets to run it, regardless whether they're any good at their job or not). Companies change their policies very slowly. They fear that foreigners would not understand this culture and try to disrupt it, for good or bad.

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