In this thread Discussion of white "privilege" [kinda'long] - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board a claim is made that the US is the least racist country on the planet. It’s sort of derailed the thread, so I thought it best to move the discussion.
So which country do you think is the least racist on the planet and how can such a thing be measured?
I’d assume it was the least populated one.
Or the one with the least races. Iceland, maybe. Xenophobic as can be, but not racist.
If we’re talking about a country with lots of people, and people of multiple colors or otherwise socially-defined racial groups, and, of all such countries meeting that description, it’s the one where everybody gets along with the least amount of racial prejudice/suspicion/hostility/group-competition in daily life – that is to say, such things are now things of the past (because I can’t think of a single country meeting that description where they’ve never existed) –
Difficult one. Hard to know. How are racial feelings in Canada these days? Or Australia?
What definition are you proposing for racism/ being racist?
Won’t mine in post #4 do?
Definitely one possibility- I was wondering if the OP had a specific one in mind.
Iran. Not only do they have no homosexuals, they have no racists.
Vatican City
ETA:
Okay I guess, as far as Western countries are concerned, but there still is plenty of racism in both of them.
I had a pretty big issue with the US being called the least racist in that thread. I dont know which country is the least racist, and I can only speak from my position in Canada and specifically my experience here in Toronto, and small cities surrounding with my visible minority stepmother.
I have never ever seen a direct act of racism in Toronto. That isn’t to say one hasn’t happened around me, but if it did it wasn’t overt enough for me to notice. I know some older folks here still use racist terms and stereotype a lot, so it certainly does exist.
In my schools (pretty good neighbourhood) the classrooms were about 1/4 white, 1/4 Asian, 1/4 black and the rest were likely Muslim/Indian. We were always taught to respect others regardless of their race. Do I think Canada is the least racist? I would hope not. It is at least on its way to being equal (at least Toronto) though. It would be hard to be racist when there is no one major population group to be racist against (white included). If you’re racist against them all then you have become the minority. I do not know anyone (of my generation) who actually holds racist views, or at least who makes them known.
I have certainly seen some people be racist to my stepmother when we went a few hours outside of the city. I would say aboriginals face the most racism in Toronto, but they are so few I dont have any evidence to back it up.
I am a white male, take it however you want.
I’m not sure how this is answerable. I am certain racism is more prevalent in Canada than it is in, say, Laos, but in Canada there are far more opportunities to be racist than in Laos.
In terms of a country that successfull lives with an unusually diverse population, though, Canada would obviously pretty heavily trump Laos.
This will, necessarily, be subjective, because I don’t know how you even measure this sort of thing.
A country can be very racist without having a lot of races there. I lived in Poland in the 80s, when almost everyone there was Polish. They were still quite racist towards blacks, Asians, etc. Most people had never seen one of those people in their lives, but they still had strong prejudices against them.
Me too on your first point, although it’s many years since I’ve visited there.
Muslim/Indian leaves me confused.
Palo Verde a West Indian friend of mine is thinking of visiting Poland, but his cousins in England laughed and said good luck, Poles don’t like black people. Pretty sad since the cousins haven’t been to Poland and can only go on Poles they’ve met in England.
I don’t think so. AFAIU, from talking to people from Laos, Thailand, Singapore and other places, racism in Asia is rampant. Thais, Lao, Malay, Vietnamese etc etc etc - all are very xenophobic to each other, and dislike of the farang/gaijin/whites is well known. I have seen widespread serious bigotry in Europe and Russia, I have read about widespread bigotry in Asia, Africa and South America. Hell, even among the Scandinavians, who are supposedly so liberal, there is widespread bigotry between Swedes, Danes, Norwegians and Finns, probably based on past conflicts.
Here in the US there is sometimes this feeling among some people that the non-whites out there in the world are not racist to each other. That’s runs completely counter to reality.
Yes, I would say US and Canada are among the least racist countries in the world - both in terms of people’s attitudes and in terms of overt racist actions. Doesn’t say much for the rest of the world, though.
They didn’t all split for Pakistan, did they?
I dont think you can really assess that. But the myopia of “the US is the least racist country on the planet” is fucking incredible to me.
So, the only thing you can do is shoot down such idiotics claims, not make them yourself.
I would say the UK by far.
Seriously?
(Do gingers count as a “race”?)
It wouldn’t shock me to find out that an impartial study setting out to find the least racist country in the world ended up with U.S.A as the winner. I wouldn’t be surprised to find Canada or England as the winner either.
Problem is, there isn’t much competition.
I think many underrate the potential of the U.S.A. Hell, I even think the U.S.A. is ‘resting’ now and will emerge into another spurt of growth within 100-200 years spreading into Latin America…another age will emerge where some nations there will want to become states. We are not close there yet but, within my lifetime, I have seen large changes. The U.S. that does this will look different from today. It will have a more Hispanic/multiculture ‘flavor’ which will then attract those nations.
I see the possibility of the U.S becoming a real Mecca for multiple races and cultures. A true beacon of light on a racist planet and one that will pay big dividends. Once generations keep marching on this may become a point of pride of U.S. citizens…become a large fabric of our culture, our self identity. I see it damn it! I see glimmers of this around me when I look.
Put it this way…of all the countries on the Earth, the U.S. is probably one of the most likely to achieve something like this.
Or I might just be a stupid, naive optimist… 
Here’s an idea: How about formulating an opinion based on actual data, rather than relying upon mindless speculation?
From the World Values Survey (Four-wave Aggregate of the Values Studies) :
*A125.- On this list are various groups of people. Could you please sort out any that you would not like to have as neighbors?
People of a different race*
BASE=248194
Weight [with split ups] Neighbours: People of a different race
Country / Total / Not mentioned / Mentioned
Albania 1999 (100%) 80.9 % 19.1 %
Algeria 1282 (100%) 72.0 % 28.0 %
Azerbaijan 2002 (100%) 87.8 % 12.2 %
Argentina 4366 (100%) 96.3 % 3.7 %
Australia 3276 (100%) 94.9 % 5.1 %
Austria 2984 (100%) 92.7 % 7.3 %
Bangladesh 3025 (100%) 55.7 % 44.3 %
Armenia 2000 (100%) 80.8 % 19.2 %
Belgium 5849 (100%) 84.2 % 15.8 %
Bosnia and Herzegovina 2400 (100%) 81.1 % 18.9 %
Brazil 2931 (100%) 96.1 % 3.9 %
Bulgaria 3106 (100%) 72.0 % 28.0 %
Belarus 4107 (100%) 89.3 % 10.7 %
Canada 4918 (100%) 96.1 % 3.9 %
Chile 3700 (100%) 89.5 % 10.5 %
China 3500 (100%) 82.6 % 17.4 %
Taiwan Province of China 780 (100%) 82.9 % 17.1 %
Colombia 2996 (100%) 98.0 % 2.0 %
Croatia 2198 (100%) 86.5 % 13.5 %
Czech Republic 6088 (100%) 82.2 % 17.8 %
Denmark 3230 (100%) 94.1 % 5.9 %
Dominican Republic 417 (100%) 81.5 % 18.5 %
Estonia 3034 (100%) 86.1 % 13.9 %
Finland 2613 (100%) 84.9 % 15.1 %
France 3817 (100%) 92.2 % 7.8 %
Georgia 2008 (100%) 90.5 % 9.5 %
Germany 7288 (100%) 92.5 % 7.5 %
Greece 1142 (100%) 85.6 % 14.4 %
Hungary 1649 (100%) 78.8 % 21.2 %
Iceland 2596 (100%) 95.5 % 4.5 %
India 6542 (100%) 62.7 % 37.3 %
Indonesia 1004 (100%) 65.3 % 34.7 %
Iran (Islamic Republic of) 2532 (100%) 75.8 % 24.2 %
Ireland 3224 (100%) 91.6 % 8.4 %
Italy 5366 (100%) 87.3 % 12.7 %
Japan 2215 (100%) 90.2 % 9.8 %
Jordan 1223 (100%) 80.0 % 20.0 %
Republic of Korea 3421 (100%) 62.6 % 37.4 %
Kyrgyzstan 1043 (100%) 81.6 % 18.4 %
Latvia 3116 (100%) 93.0 % 7.0 %
Lithuania 3027 (100%) 85.5 % 14.5 %
Luxembourg 1211 (100%) 93.7 % 6.3 %
Malta 1862 (100%) 85.6 % 14.4 %
Mexico 5430 (100%) 79.7 % 20.3 %
Republic of Moldova 1992 (100%) 90.6 % 9.4 %
Morocco 2264 (100%) 88.7 % 11.3 %
Netherlands 3241 (100%) 92.2 % 7.8 %
New Zealand 1201 (100%) 97.0 % 3.0 %
Nigeria 5019 (100%) 73.4 % 26.6 %
Norway 3417 (100%) 90.0 % 10.0 %
Pakistan 2000 (100%) 93.5 % 6.5 %
Peru 2712 (100%) 88.6 % 11.4 %
Philippines 2400 (100%) 77.3 % 22.7 %
Poland 3230 (100%) 81.9 % 18.1 %
Portugal 2185 (100%) 88.2 % 11.8 %
Puerto Rico 1884 (100%) 94.2 % 5.8 %
Romania 3488 (100%) 72.7 % 27.3 %
Russian Federation 6501 (100%) 91.0 % 9.0 %
Saudi Arabia 1502 (100%) 62.3 % 37.7 %
Singapore 1512 (100%) 95.3 % 4.7 %
Slovakia 4028 (100%) 78.6 % 21.4 %
Viet Nam 1000 (100%) 67.8 % 32.2 %
Slovenia 3026 (100%) 76.8 % 23.2 %
South Africa 5935 (100%) 82.5 % 17.5 %
Zimbabwe 1002 (100%) 80.2 % 19.8 %
Spain 10070 (100%) 90.3 % 9.7 %
Sweden 4025 (100%) 95.5 % 4.5 %
Switzerland 2612 (100%) 94.7 % 5.3 %
Turkey 7544 (100%) 65.7 % 34.3 %
Uganda 1002 (100%) 81.8 % 18.2 %
Ukraine 4006 (100%) 90.8 % 9.2 %
Macedonia, Republic of 2050 (100%) 77.4 % 22.6 %
Egypt 3000 (100%) 34.2 % 65.8 %
Great Britain 3651 (100%) 90.7 % 9.3 %
Tanzania, United Republic Of 1171 (100%) 83.3 % 16.7 %
United States 6906 (100%) 92.2 % 7.8 %
Uruguay 1000 (100%) 93.2 % 6.8 %
Venezuela 2400 (100%) 82.2 % 17.8 %
Serbia and Montenegro 3780 (100%) 86.6 % 13.4 %
Germany West 1305 (100%) 88.6 % 11.4 %
Northern Ireland 1616 (100%) 90.1 % 9.9 %
Total 248194 (100%) 84.3 % 15.7 %