Hacker News Reader

Comment by monkeynotes | Hacker News Reader

> White people don't deal with this.

I am white. I get called 'brit' or 'pom' or 'white guy' and so on all the time by colleagues of various ethnic or cultural backgrounds. I take it as friendly jibing unless I can see there is clear intention to upset.

View on HN

Monkeynotes, don't take this the wrong way but you will never understand what it's like to be called a derogatory term as minority in a society that constantly denigrates your background. It's just not the same. It just isn't.

I think you're very sadly mistaken - white people can be victims of racism, too, you dig? I grew up and went through a school system where white people were by far the minority, and yes, I had to deal with racism.

edit: Downvotes? Yikes. Like most people, I'd prefer some constructive replies instead of silent detractors, but it is what it is.

I'm never going to change your mind on this and you will never change my mind so let's leave it at that.

No worries. Sorry we don't have the opportunity to have a more in-depth conversation about it.

What if I moved to a country where I was the minority? Could I then understand?

I guess. If you were born in that country and every day you dealt with negative portrayals of people who like you (William Hung, Long Duck Dong, etc), you would probably understand.

More importantly, I'm not asking you to understand. It's not your responsibility and I don't blame you for any of this. It's just something that Asian males have to learn to deal with. We just have to man up and deal with it.

I agree that people can be racist against whites too. However if you're the majority in the country you'll experience it far less than if you're say 6%.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com