Can’t think of any present-day examples, but wouldn’t the Khanates of Astrakhan and Kazan have been examples way back in the Middle Ages? The white Russian majority living in abject poverty and oppression, with the small Mongol elite entrenched firmly on top?
Here’s a modern-day example: the Uyghurs in Xinjiang are a Turkic people that could be considered “white,” especially since we were suggesting that the Ottoman Turks count as white. And they are big, big time oppressed by the Chinese: crowded into third-rate segregated schools, systematically denied employment, subject to arbitrary land confiscation, and regularly victimized by lynchings.
The Hmong of Southeast Asia and the Ainu of Japan may qualify. We westerners think they look pretty Asian, but I gather that view isn’t shared by most east Asians.
I spend most of the year in Korea teaching English (though I’m in Seattle at the moment). I didn’t feel particularly oppressed, although it was clear from day one that I would never fit into Korean society. Once in a while I felt like the scary Black guy on the sidewalk–until I ran into several Black American teachers there and lots of Black GIs in Seoul.
One person I knew suggested that whites in British Columbia are the poorer minority. The asian immigrants especially Hong Kong expats are very rich and (some) are frighteningly smart and work-motivated. The joke was that the waiters were all white people and the restaurant patrons mainly Chinese.
This is a little off-topic, but seems related. In Bailey’s Crossroads, VA, one of my favorite Pho restaurants needed to hire a dishwasher, so they put up a “help wanted” sign. In Spanish.
I thought it was funny…
Not really. Appalachian Highlanders and Scots-Irish aren’t oppressed, and they aren’t minorities. They’re just poor. In fact, the Appalachian mountain region tends to be whiter then the rest of the country. For example, blacks make much a much smaller percentage of the population in West Virginia than the US as a whole.
Could whites living in enclaves in predominantly black cities (Detroit, Forest Hill in East Cleveland, Miller in Gary, etc) be considered oppressed? They don’t experience apartheid- or Jim Crow-style discrimination, and financially they are well-off compared to their black neighbors, but they have little to no political power or clout in their communities.
What about haoles in Hawaii? Again, probably not real discrimination, but also supposedly not a group that gets much love from Asians and native Hawaiians.
The NBA??
Cite for any of the assertions here, especially as phrased. The one which can get a pass is “celebrated for their diversity.”
It’s not impossible to obtain either status but there a many more permanent residents than naturalized Japanese. Granted, it’s more difficult to obtain permanent residency than green cards were pre-9/11 because of the length of residency requirement (more than 5 years of work history and unofficially closer to 10 years), it’s fairly straightforward once you’ve been here that long.
White expats working in Japan must, in general, have a college degree to get a working visa, and command wages which are not poverty-level at worst.
While the Ainu meet the the criteria of poverty and discrimination, the OP is asking for “people of European descent.”
Ha Ha Ha! No. Just…No. There *are *poor whites, but they in no way constitute an oppressed minority, nor are Whites singled out for oppresion of any sort. The Huntley case was just a collossal fuck-up on Canada’s part. Huntley just made shit up.
Anyway, Brandon Huntley isn’t even really White, he’s a self-hating Coloured, as far as ancestry goes.
I wouldn’t go that far. While there is a large population of wealthy Asians, it’s only “noteworthy” because they aren’t white. There are a ton of wealthy white people in BC as well, but that isn’t an interesting observation and thus nobody really thinks about it.
I should also point out that we are really only talking about the Lower Mainland here. The rest of BC is a very different place.
very interesting replies. Thanks to all.
And with any luck, we’ll get replies from people who have been asked for cites.
a bit of a stretch but the Turkic language Uighers of fare western china maybe fit the bill. Certainly they look ‘white’ compared with Han Chinese. They are also impoverished desert dwellers. The status in China is generally as an dispised underclass.
The internet?
:dubious: There are ‘Caucasoid’ Turks & ‘Mongoloid’ Turks, but with the tendency toward strong epicanthal folds, I would lean toward Uyghurs being toward the Mongolesque end of the spectrum. Some of them are pretty light-skinned, but that’s true of ethnic Japanese & Manchu as well, & we don’t typically class them as ‘white’.
As for the Chinese perception, surely it’s the lack of either Sino-Tibetan linguistic heritage or historical ties to a Han ethnic identity that’s in play here; the Uyghurs are seen as barbarians &/or backward people of the interior. Do the Chinese really say, “You’re not yellow enough.”? If so, I’d like some confirmation.
Also, nice to see you on the boards again.
I thought so myself, but then I look at this girl, who is blonde and has white skin, but whose eyes do show epicanthic folds as you point out. I can’t decide which “race” I’d classify her as.
It doesn’t seem likely that whites living in the richer Arab countries have much social status. The UAE has an extremely high standard of living. I’ve always heard that their citizens get a stipend from the government. So far, I haven’t found a cite.
Why wouldn’t it seem likely? AFAIK, most whites in Saudi Arabia, for example, are white-collar foreign employees from Western nations, hardly an underclass.
Merely not being as rich as the wealthy native elites doesn’t count as being an “oppressed minority”.
Well, there’s also religious issues for whites living in Arab countries. At the very least, they have to tread carefully and observe Muslim customs. I haven’t lived there and don’t know how big of an issue it is. It would be interesting to hear first hand experiences. For example, how hard is it to get a local job, or attend social functions. I’m disregarding terrorism in this scenario. I realize the majority of Muslims don’t support it.
Then the issue isn’t them being white, but them being non-Muslim. A Muslim, non-Arabic white person might not face these problems.