# Which countries have the least problem with racial inequality? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 3, 2020, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992 "2020-06-03T17:28:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992/41 "2020-06-05T16:48:16Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > 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 once wandered on to a Singaporean forum and you could’ve fooled my by telling me it was Storefront. Blatantly racist. One problem is that diverse societies may have more tension because there are more chances for it, while homogenous societies won’t have the quantity but have worse private attitudes. It depends on how you quantify it but one measure I’ve commonly seen is asking people whether they want X group as a neighbor. For example, this one looks at “migrants,” and puts Iceland as most accepting, with Western Europe, North America, and Africa generally more accepting than Eastern Europe, parts of Asia, the Middle East. > **[New Index Shows Least-, Most-Accepting Countries for Migrants](https://news.gallup.com/poll/216377/new-index-shows-least-accepting-countries-migrants.aspx)** > > Many countries on the front lines of the recent migrant crisis in Europe are among the least-accepting countries in the world for migrants, according to Gallup's new Migrant Acceptance Index. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992/42 "2020-06-05T16:58:37Z")
> [@filmstar-en](#): > > If a country has little problem with racial inequality, maybe because everyone is of the same race. You can bet they are divided in some other way that may also create great unfairness. > > Religion > Economic Class > Ethnicity > Language > Ancestry > National identity Right. Some of the worst divisiveness is in places where most people are of the same race, but find some other excuse for discrimination and hatred, for example Ireland, Rwanda/Burundi, and the former Yugoslavia. ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992/43 "2020-06-05T17:55:32Z")
Iceland is an interesting case. A small population of 364,000 with few comings and goings through its history, it lacks genetic diversity and people have to be careful they don’t date someone who may be related. They even have a smartphone app to warn that you may be getting a little too friendly with a cousin. In this context a person who is clearly an immigrant with no local relatives may get an especially warm welcome. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992/44 "2020-06-05T18:04:49Z")
Paraguay has the unique distinction of passing a law in 1814 that made it illegal for a European man to marry a European woman. > **[From Paraguay, a history lesson on racial equality](https://theconversation.com/from-paraguay-a-history-lesson-on-racial-equality-68655)** > > The strange and enlightening tale of a South American dictator who tried to prevent white people from marrying other white people. > [@](#): > > ut was that Francia’s intent? Scholars differ on the reasoning behind his law, which is unique in all Latin American, if not in world, history. > > Sergio Guerra Vilaboy sees it as an economic effort, noting that in newly post-colonial Paraguay, Europeans still held a prominent position. By curbing their power, Francia dealt “a hard blow to the old trade oligarchy of [the capital] Asunción”, allowing other social classes to thrive. > > For Julio César Chaves, the 1814 marriage decree aimed to reduce the political threat posed by royalist Spaniards in Paraguay, and it was one of many such provisions. In addition to forbidding Europeans to wed Europeans, Francia also confiscated royal and church lands and gave them to indigenous peasants as “state ranches”. In return, they served as soldiers loyal to the Supreme Dictator; no one was allowed to hold a rank above captain. > > According to historian Richard Alan White, all this added up to the “first autonomous revolution in the Americas”: Francia launched a successful program of economic development without any foreign financing. > > An alternative interpretation of the 1814 marriage decree is that it was about equality – just not racial equality. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992/45 "2020-06-05T19:18:12Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Paraguay has the unique distinction of passing a law in 1814 that made it illegal for a European man to marry a European woman. > > [From Paraguay, a history lesson on racial equality](https://theconversation.com/from-paraguay-a-history-lesson-on-racial-equality-68655) Would that be the Bulworth law? ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992/46 "2020-06-05T19:35:58Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#): > > Would that be the Bulworth law? To some degree but I dont think there was any sense of racial equality at the beginning of the 19th century. . The was aimed at eliminating a permanent Spanish upper class and to create a unified Paraguayan identity. He also confiscated royal and chirch property and gave it to indigenous people in return for military service. But it did end up making Paraguay one of the most egalitarian societies in the world at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992/47 "2020-06-05T21:59:14Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > I also think lack of racial diversity is certainly not a sign of racial equality or good relations. Often quite the reverse. I think it’s especially true in a place where ethnic diversity existed in the pace and the people in the ethnic minority are now all gone. ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2020, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992/48 "2020-06-06T04:20:21Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > 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. Maybe “outward” tension. When I spent several weeks hitch hiking in peninsula Malaysia, whenever I got picked up by a Malay, they would go on and on about how the Chinese were ruining the country and vice versa. ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2020, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992/49 "2020-06-06T07:57:51Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > … > Let’s not forget the London riots of 2011, which spread to all major cities in the UK, caused by a black man being killed by Police. They didn’t, though, did they? They mostly happened in major and really-not-major cities in England, with a few arson attacks and attempted looting in Cardiff. > **[2011 England riots](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots)** > > The 2011 England riots, more widely known as the London riots, were a series of riots between 6 and 11 August 2011. Thousands of people rioted in cities and towns across England, which saw looting and arson, as well as mass deployment of police and the deaths of five people. > The protests started in Tottenham Hale, London, following the death of Mark Duggan, a local black man who was shot dead by police on 4 August. Several violent clashes with police followed Duggan's death, along with the de... I can’t remember exactly, but I don’t think most of them were preceded by any peaceful “justice for Mark Duggan” sort of protests. And whoever killed the three Asian guys in Birmingham can’t really have thought of it as a way to improve the behaviour of the Metropolitan Police. So I’m not completely sure they were all “race” riots, but inclined to wonder whether the events in some places were more like copy-cat looting. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2020, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992/50 "2020-06-06T09:10:26Z")
Seems like there should be ways to measure some of this. For example, economic inequality BEFORE government transfers, educational attainment, number of hate crimes incidents(where that is kept track of), the ethnic makeup of the country’s prisons, etc. ---
**Author:** ![filmstar-en](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/50afbb/32.png) [@filmstar-en](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmstar-en)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2020, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992/51 "2020-06-07T03:48:02Z")
> [@Celyn](#): > > They didn’t, though, did they? They mostly happened in major and really-not-major cities in England, with a few arson attacks and attempted looting in Cardiff. > > [2011 England riots - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_England_riots) > > I can’t remember exactly, but I don’t think most of them were preceded by any peaceful “justice for Mark Duggan” sort of protests. And whoever killed the three Asian guys in Birmingham can’t really have thought of it as a way to improve the behaviour of the Metropolitan Police. > > So I’m not completely sure they were all “race” riots, but inclined to wonder whether the events in some places were more like copy-cat looting. It started in the aftermath of a police operation targeting an armed gangster who was shot by police. They did not deal the concerns of the friends and family of the deceased very sensitively the next day and an angry crowd developed that started smashing up police cars. The police could have nipped it in the bud, if they mustered the numbers, but they did not move fast enough. Word spread quickly that the police were not going to confront rioters. Pretty soon local teenagers decided to help themselves to new pairs of Nikes and set fire to local shops. Behaviour that spread around London and to other cities. The police were said to be busy dealing with big football matches that were taking place on the same day. There have been other anti-police riots in London, notably in the 1980s. Many as a result of poor judgement by the police when targeting known criminals and poor use of stop and search powers. The British police are not armed and when they go after someone they suspect to have firearms, it seldom goes according to plan. They have made some bad mistakes in the past that enraged local communities. The 2011 riots left a huge amount of damage on its wake and several people died in fires. London has a problem with drug gangs feuding with each other. Sometimes they get hold of a gun, but more often it is knives and there a lot of concern over kids, teenagers, killing each other. There have been some tragic cases and the police are expected to do something about it. It is nothing like the US, but nonetheless London is a big city and stuff happens from time to time. There are problems of racial bias but they are mainly institutional and systemic. The police have been subject to a lot of scrutiny over the years but there are other areas that need to be examined. The judicial system, prisons and the policies of the UK Home Office and behaviour of the Border Agency in the way they deal with immigration issues, asylum seekers and refugees is quite a long running scandal. Problem is that populist politicians know there are votes to be won on playing the immigration card and that panders to people who are informed by bigotry and prejudice. The activities of the police in the US have really shocked the world and there is a lot of soul searching going on, it is big wake up call. Which is probably a good thing as long as the protests remain peaceful and energy is directed into fixing these serious problems long term. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-countries-have-the-least-problem-with-racial-inequality/854992.md?page=2)