Question

How racist are the Vietnamese?

Answer 1

As a Black person of African origin, having studied, worked and traveled in at least 40 countries of Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, I can say that Vietnam is the only country where in a market in Vinh ( South of the country, close to the Lao border) a man approached me and touched my skin as if it were a removable color.

By the way, I was traveling there as a tourist in August 2000, from Vinh to Da nang with a couple of Viet Khieu, which means Vietnamese living abroad; these were from Thailand.

However, I learned in a museum in Da nang that the original people in that area, previously called Tonkin, were Black skinned. I saw that in some of the artifactsthey left, and the Vietnamese tourist guide confirmed that fact.

That’s what I can say about racism in Vietnam.

Answer 2

If you want to make generalizations based on nationality, aren’t you being a little racist yourself? Your question is problematic.

Answer 3

They're so racist that hardly any Vietnamese likes Chinese. They're the most sinophobic country. Apparently, they're very proud of being sinophobic.

Answer 4

Veitnamese does not know what racism is , because they never practiced it , their country is a mix of many races and they live peacefully together.

Maybe many people are jealous of their culture and their unique community ???? and thats why they try to give them a bad name.

Answer 5

Racism is not a major problem in Vietnam. The presence of foreign people, especially blacks in Vietnam may draw attention and curiosity of locals, because we don’t usually see them. But there is no such thing like gang bullying, insulting of refusal to serve simply because you are black or any race.

In Vietnam, the real concern is not racism, but instead regional discrimination (discriminate against people who come from a few certain provinces in Vietnam, due to various reasons).

Answer 6

I’ve seen quite a bit of racism there. “racist” is a bad word in the west or in Africa, but not so much in Vietnam. They openly dislike the Chinese or Cambodians. Apart from that Africans or for that matter just about anybody who is not Asian gets stared at and will be called names. Black people are often treated as aliens, or as if they have a terrible disease. East Africans are popular as English teachers because they are often semi-native speakers and have a good accent and a good knowledge of the English language, but in many language centers they won’t get a job simply because they have dark skin. Same thing for Indians. It’s fashionable to have a western English teacher, even if he’s a drunken mumbling Irishman without a diploma of any kind.

On dating sites it’s perfectly ok for a lady to say she doesn’t want black guys, Indians or just people with a dark skin in general. Vietnamese people usually also have a dislike for Indians.

Strangely enough, the Vietnamese like anything American, especially crappy Hollywood movies, fast food, tasteless beer, and they love an American accent.

Japanese and Korean people are at the same time respected and disliked. Respected because they are major investors in Vietnam, but disliked because they usually want their Vietnamese employees to learn their language, and they are very demanding in general and socially they don’t mix with the Vietnamese.

Vietnam has long been an isolated country, so now it takes times for them to get used to people who look different. It happened to me too, i’m a regular westerner, but because of my height, I’ve been a freak there for each and every day of my 5-year stay. Then again, there’s no violence towards anyone. They will leave you alone, except the pickpockets around Bui Vien street in HCMC, who target every foreigner no matter what he looks like.

Answer 7

Some Vietnamese are quite racist. For example, some Vietnamese dislike the Vietnamese who come from the Thanh Hóa province. Some Vietnamese hate people from other Vietnamese regions. Internationally some Vietnamese dislike Chinese and South Korean people but indeed, they like the white people.

Answer 8

Well Depends. Vietnamese is a ethnicity. If you mean country then kinda.

disclaimer: Vietnamese census have shown that a lack of education on a topic may cause such a thing like racism. The majority of Vietnamese economic class is sandwich where they make too much money for one thing and but have to little for the other(in this case school). And the government does control everything and is quite discriminating.

The complex history of the country of vietnam does not have the same racist history as Europe, Canada and the usa. So mostly this racism the citizens learned it from mostly came from those two or was past on to them. Does that excuse it? NO!

Answer 9

This is a complete misnomer, and not a question likely looking for a sincere answer.

No matter who it is, whether they be Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese, Anglo, French, and most especially the ones who invented this intellectually toxic word, the Jews, will favour having an in-group preference, assuming that they are sane and acting like normal rational people who value their culture, language, bloodline, and everything else that distinguishes a people.

However much a group might divert from this and absorb aspects of other groups, whether cultural, linguistic, marriage, etc, will generally tend to be in scale of degrees closest from what is most familiar and/or what that population has had the most access and exposure to over time.

Therefore, we see Vietnam generally exhibiting characteristics that are most prevalent throughout Confucius influenced East Asia, the regions of East Asia and South Asia (India) where the historical spread of religious and spiritual traditions of Buddhism, ancestor worship, and lunar celestial celebrations exists, and more recently, the past 250 or so years of influences Western Civilisation has had mostly through a Latinised styling of writing, cuisine, industry, and various other elements fused with existing structures.

Therefore, it should not be any surprise or malfunction to know that, say, things from subsaharan Africa are going to be seen as more alien and less desirable to things that they are more closely familiar with. Just like how giving people in the Central African Republic chopsticks ???? to eat with is going to seem strange and undesirable to the people who live there. It doesn’t make them bad or backwards, it’s merely a feature of what makes them distinguished to others and is something to appreciate, not condemn.

Answer 10

It depends on what kind of Vietnamese you want to say? Let I say to you that some middle ages Vietnamese think America is a place that has many different diverse groups around the world go there and racist is a norm in America,meaning Vietnam does not have racial problem as same as in America.

“America is dangerous place,black being discriminated by white,violence is everywhere. At least in Vietnam,we don’t have that situation”-said by a Vietnamese that I know.

By some younger Vietnamese,they have “funny words” like:”Anh da đen(Black man)” or “Tây lông(Hairy Westerners)”,that’s an impression when they see some foreigners. They don’t think those are racist words.

Many older generations(during Vietnam War),they did meet many foreigners when they were young, especially American troops. They viewed American troops as good people because American troops gave them canned foods,candies and chocolate(Those were rare in Vietnam back then). Their view towards foreign people are less “xenophobic” and “curious” than other generations.

By those messures,Vietnamese never think that they are racist. Racist(Phân biệt chủng tộc in Vietnamese) and discrimination(Kỳ thị in Vietnamese),though they are a same meaning in Vietnamese,but it can be different depend on what kind of situation.

In Vietnam,there is some discriminated against some minority ethnics(Khmer,Cham,Highland and Northwestern ethics people),but not like as what China are doing in their land,arrest and concentrate groups of ethic people who opposed the CCP into isolated camps. There are arguments and “talking behind someone's back” between majority Vietnamese(Người Việt) and many minority ethnic groups in Vietnam,but not as hateful to be caused a revolt(Maybe in the past,there were some revolts from many ethnic groups against central government).

Sorry but I don’t know how racist Vietnamese are?By Vietnamese mindset,Vietnam is not having racist issue to be one of major problems like in America,China and many African nations.My ill-experienced with racial issues in Vietnam may made my answer look full of biased and not good to read.I would stop my answer here.