The US certainly isn’t the only country in the world where racism is causing major problems. I’m guessing it’s not even the worst.
Going in the other direction, what countries have the least problems with racial discrimination/inequality?
Depends on who does the studies but it seems that most Latin American Counties are the least racists.
Some studies show the US very bad and others show us as very good, I think the truth is in the middle. But with the US leaning towards the bad.
If you do not mind a possible hijack/extension, would people offer (if they know) whether the other countries are similarly or more diverse than the US?
I have been wondering about this issue myself. It seems that there is considerable sectarian strife in many countries, which reflect factors other than the black/brown/white racial distinctions in the US. For example - Indian/Pakistani strife between Hindu/Muslim.
I recall a Mexican complaining about how Indians, Native Mexicans, are treated.
From my visit to Poland a few years back, I imagine their problems with racism are very low. If for no other reason, the only non-white person I saw was a lifesize advertising cutout of Mike Tyson. Then again, there might be issues between various white ethnicities such as Czechs, Slovaks, Germans or whatever, but Wikipedia lists their ethnicity as 98% Polish.
I don’t know have a definitive answer, but my guess is that it would be a small country or territory with very little diversity. Maybe Greenland?
Poland has been moving towards dictatorship due to the right wing ruling party which is very racist and xenophobic. So racism is a huge issue there.
Being one race is no guarantee of being racially tolerant. Japan is pretty homogenous and they’re pretty racist as a country. New York city is pretty diverse and pretty tolerant.
Not a nation but I’ve heard port cities are more tolerant since they have always had people moving in and immigrating there. The exposure to a wide range of people lowers prejudice.
So I’m guessing a nation built around a large port city would be more tolerant.
Relatively speaking that might be true, but there’s still significant racism.
Here in Panama “race” is not as clear cut. Many people are a mix of European, indigenous (Indian), and African. However, the upper class (known as rabiblancos, or “white tails”) tends to have more European ancestry, while the poorer classes have more African and Indian ancestry. Indigenous groups (those who still speak an indigenous language) make up 11% of the population, but most have poor education and live in considerable poverty.
Singapore
When I was in high school in the midwest US 30+ years ago, we had a foreign exchange student living with us for a semester. He was from a wealthy family in Mexico, and upon introduction he felt it very important for us to know that he was from Spanish stock, not indigenous stock.
New Zealand has a similar ethnic diversity to the US and largely without tension.
Australia is more diverse than the US (over 50% of Australians were either born overseas or have a parent born overseas). Australian race relationships aren’t as good as the Kiwis but are not in the US league.
The “US should get dispensation because we are so diverse” card often played on these forums is a furphy.
I hear a lot of good things about Singapore (since the 60s, anyway)
Regarding Eastern Europe … you’re going to have a pretty bad time if you’re Roma. Racial discrimination doesn’t *have *to be attached to a skin colour.
I trust you are not suggesting anything of the sort by me.
When I briefly tried to google this, I found the various methods of calculating diversity quite confusing.
In New Zealand, Maoris are 15% of the population and 50% of the prisoners. Home ownership rates among Maoris are half that of white New Zealanders. Pacific Islanders are 10% less likely to own a home than Maoris. Maoris have a life expectancy over six years shorter than white New Zealanders. Maoris are half as likely to have a college degree, and have a net worth 80% less than white New Zealanders.
Australiahas very large racial inequalities. Aborigines are 3% of the population and are 27% of prisoners. There is a ten year gap in life expectancy between aboriginals and non aboriginals. Aboriginal kids are 10 times as likely to be taken out of their homes. Aboriginal suicide rates are twice non aboriginals. Aboriginal’s income is on average 36% less than non Aboriginals.
Malaysia experienced horrifying race riots in May 1969, and it so traumatized the nation that their whole policy since then has been founded on good race relations and economic opportunity. It has worked. The country has been free of racial tension since then.
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Yea, that always puzzled me. How do you know who to be racist against if you can’t just look at them and tell? It is like racism on “hard mode.”
It’s also worth mentioning that race relations and diversity in the US are highly variable- often the larger cities and port cities are pretty diverse by anyone’s standards, and while the black percentage of the population is about 15-16%, that’s over the entire nation- some parts of the country are as high as 38% black (Mississippi), while other parts are as much as 93.4% white (Maine). Others are much more equal - Texas is about 42% white, 12% black, 5% Asian and 38% Hispanic, and California is similar, although the individual numbers are different.
So looking at a nation of 300+ million people as a single unit isn’t quite as illuminating as it might seem at first glance.
I don’t trust any other “white” majority countries opinions on race relations because it seems like they openly sweep it all under the rug just to point fingers. Like how there still literally isn’t any real good academic sources on colonial slavery in Africa in the 20th century because Europeans on the internet and especially the Straight Dope claim it literally didn’t exist based solely on the fact nobody talks about it.