Am I a racist if...

... every time I see a 20-30 year old African male walking towards me I expect him to offer me drugs? Let me explain.

I live in an expat district called San Li Tun in Beijing's Chaoyang District. It is a very international area with people from all over the world. The bulk of the emabassies are within a stone's throw of my building. It is not uncommon to hear 15 different langiages on the street on a given day. Normal interaction with other expats is as you would expect in your home country--a polite nod or a smile or simply walking by without much acknowledgement, EXCEPT the Africans. Without exception every young African male that I encounter greets me with a hushed "can I hook you up tonight brah?" , "I got what you need" , or "whatchu want brah?" These guys as I understand it are here on student visas and dress the part of what I would consider "drug/thug" apparel except they seem to pull up their pants as opposed to their American counterparts.

Older African folks on the street do not offer me drugs. I suspect they are attached to embassies. So now every time I see a young black dude coming toward me on the street, I prepare to be solicited. And EVERY TIME, I am right.

Does this make me a racist?

 

Oh, and as an aside: drug peddling in China is a crime punishable by death, even of foreigners. I've heard of local Chinese earning a trip to the injection chamber for very small amounts of heroin and cocaine. Foreigners typically need to have a larger quantity for the DP, but not for a lengthy prison sentence. I'm not interested in finding out, of course...

 

Racist? Not necessarily. Do you think Africans are inherently inferior?

Now, I do think it makes you prejudice, at least in that particular situation. That doesn’t mean that the majority of Africans walking the street in that area AREN’T selling drugs. You can be both prejudice and right.

Also, it sounds like the drug dealers are being a bit prejudice as well in automatically assuming you are a drug user.

 

No, of course not.

Oddly, I agree. But I have yet to be proven wrong... It's uncanny.

To be clear, it's 20-30 year old African males who are dressed the part... I have never been offered drugs by an African woman or anyone appearing over 30. They are usually wearing suits or traditional African attire and are clearly either businesspeople or embassy personnel.

I think they must be prejudiced towards every white guy in that case. They DO NOT sell to the locals, only to foreigners.

 

Probably a wise choice. What are the odds a Laowai in China is going to be NARC?

 

Don't you know if you're a racist? Why would you need to ask?

 

Nice! 'Laowai' FTW!

From what I understand, the cops are in on it, too. I imagine the rules are "don't sell to locals."

 

You live in an area where an African nationality sells drugs, in another one maybe it is an Asian or a European nationality that does it .
I live in a city with many minorities as well and the drug posts are cut in "zones" by nationality not race.

 

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Common sense is never racist. Contrary to what the left will try to tell you.

 

The only other place known in Beijing for open-air drug dealing is called Houhai, a tourist area around the central lakes that eventually wind up at Tian'AnMen Square. Once again: Africans. And you only see them in these two places, cuz like I said, the cops are in on it. You'd NEVER be offered drugs, for example, at WangFuJing, Beijing's fashionable shopping street, and certainly nowhere near the Forbidden City, Tian'AnMen, etc.. Never in public parks, or anywhere else where dealing is common in the U.S..

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There is something to be said for empiricism. And stereotypes exist for a reason, I suppose.

 

No, you're not racist. You're simply someone who's experienced something on several occasions to the point that it's become predictable, and you've not been conditioned in a way that forces you to either remain silent about it or find some other explanation for what you've experienced.

 

I assume you aren't buying... That could be really stupid on your part given the limited amount I know of Chinese police protocols. Odds are at least one of them is probably working for the Chinese government.

 

Well------------------here in the US if you dont agree with Obama's every word, you will be called a racist no matter what color you are.

 

Simple observation is clearly not racism. If all the drug dealers in a certain area are African, then it is what it is. In Shanghai they were all Chinese when I was there. But I really didn't see many black people.

 

No that doesn't make you racist. What makes you racist is the fact that you posted this nonsense under the guise of seeking validation for your superficial impressions.

 

Racism is applying traits to people based on race alone.

You are not doing that. You are applying traits to people based on how people look, in a specific area, and in a specific age frame. It might be prejudiced, but it isn't racist.

A racist would apply those traits to all black people everywhere. From what you describe you are not doing that.

 

My understanding is that the cops are in on it. And no, I'm most certainly not buying.

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It was a rhetorical question.

 

no, you are not.

 

Careful. You're going to offend the sensitive with all that logic.

 

Actually, from what I saw you have little chance of getting caught or bothered there as a low level dealer and certainly for possession. For all the talk about them being totalitarian (and in many ways they are) they are also surprisingly chill.

 

Dictatorships genrally though not always tend to have rather corrupt police forces. You can't enforce everything and you generally aren't getting paid crap, and so as long as you aren't a direct threat to the state and you're willing to cut them in for a piece of the action the local gendarmerie will turn a blind eye will be turned to a lot of things.

 

I do have my moments...

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Yeah, as long as you aren't deemed a threat to the state--like certain religious followers, for example--they pretty much leave you alone. And if you are well-placed enough, you can pretty much bribe your way out of anything anyway.

 

I see, maybe you were hoping for a rhetorical answer.

 

People really don't know that. They think China is something it's really not. The truth is, at least in the places I've been, you are more free to live your life without interference from the state than the people here in the US. The major exceptions, of course, being any attempt to organize a large group of people for anything, having a large forum for criticizing the state, or your example. But it's not true that people there cannot criticize the state. They do it all the time. And being well placed in any country is a good thing, especially there. What I did not like about where you live is the air. Good God. Have you bothered to learn much Mandarin?

 

Sounds like you can take the brother out of the hood but you can't take the hood out of the brother.