Self Segregation

[SWPIGWANG]

I've seen self segregation happen, and I think I have done so myself. (I'm Chinese (Taiwanese)-Canadian immigant by the way)

It is done out of familiarity, for the most part. In the absence of other information, race (which often implies a certain background) do provide a bit of information which may not be always accurate but at least better than nothing.

And it works. Previous experiences with Chinese means I have a context to compare with, which I do not know if I should use on other groups of people. Just by identifying race I can quickly ask relevent questions and make connections to narrow people down and have a rough guess of a person. There is also alot of shared information that other groups simply is unlikely to know about, for example China-Taiwan relations.

The current place I'm renting at, for example, I could guess that my landlord is probably not into political hysteria by linking up the fact that she grew up in China and she worked in Japan. If this is someone within another background, I wouldn't be able to make a deduction like this.

In some sense this is self reinforcing since there simply isn't all that much contact with the other groups to understand them well enough to interact effectively and safely.

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And I speak english just as well as I speak chinese and I can write far better in english than otherwise. The fact that I only surf english sites (unless I need something otherwise unavaible) means its not so much the language. Race/Nationality whatever is simply a visible information indicator that often is the first source of info before the ice breaks.

I'd still buddy up with people from any race provided they've show themselves to be similar or at least familiar. Normally it never quite reaches the point because the initial familiarization is hard, and I'm not an adventurous person.

[The Jester]

China is one of the most racially and culturally homogeneous societies around, so it's not surprising that Chinese people in general, especially those who have not travelled much beyond China, are not very aware of the social niceties involved in interacting with other cultures.

The Ethiopians are just as rude though, and the thing that really gets to me about them is that they all speak English very fluently.

Is it ignorant to ask how the hell you can differentiate between Ethiopians and Kenyans?

There are very obvious visible differences. E.g. Ethiopians have a lighter skin colour. Their accents are also different and their languages sound different. It's very easy actually.