5/10    Today's title page engrish is pretty good:
        http://www.engrish.com
        \_ Six years of living in Japan, and I'm still astounded at how
           clueless Japanese people are about inherent racism. --erikred
           \_ "What do you mean?  There's no racism in Korea!" --most
              Koreans. (jrleek)
           \_ There was a brand of toothpaste in Asia called Blackman or
              Blackie toothpaste that had a picture of a black dude on it
              with a big white smile.
              \_ I used to use it exclusively when I was a kid in Hong Kong.
                 The brand name used to be Darkie and the Chinese name was, and
                 still is, "Black People's Toothpaste".  Then Colgate bought
                 the brand and renamed it Darlie and changed the logo.  The
                 idea was that most Hong Kong people had an impression that
                 black people's teeth look very white (probably because of the
                 contrast to the skin color), so if you want your teeth to look
                 like black people's, you'd better use Black People's
                 Toothpaste.  It was very popular because of the brandname.
                 You need to understand that it was not racism against
                 Africans.  I'd think of it as "positive racism", if there's
                 such a thing.
                 \_ No we don't need to understand that.  To say that ignorance
                    of this sort is not grounded in racism is to misunderstand
                    racism.
                    \_ Okay, at least please don't think that this is racism
                       *against* Africans in this case.
                       \_ Okay, raised with a cultural icon like that, what
                          is the immediate gut response when meeting a black
                          man for the first time?  It's as racist as the
                          portrayal of Chinese in Hollywood for decades.
                          \_ I checked out his teeth.  Yeah, it's funny.
                             \_ See, racism is about disrespect of a person or
                                people because they don't look like the people
                                around you.  It doesn't have to be "negative"
                                to be hurtful.  If it puts up a wall or causes
                                objectification when you interact with someone,
                                it's something to fight against.
                    \_ BTW, some other common impression in HK on black people
                       are "black people are better at jazz, rap and other
                       rhythm-centric music forms" and "black people are better
                       at sports that need either explosive power and very
                       short endurance (100m), or very long endurance
                       (marathon)".  On the other hand, the common impression
                       among Americans that "black people have big penes"
                       wasn't widespread in HK.
                       among Americans that "black men have big penes" wasn't
                       widespread in HK.
                       \_ OTOH, the sterotype of black men having larger
                          genitalia is alive and well in Japan. --erikred
           \_ If it's any comfort, there's also a brand of toothpaste in Taiwan
              called Whiteman. I have a tube of it.
        \_ Is that condom?
           \_ yes