• porcupine@lemmygrad.ml
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    1 year ago

    Are you really asking why it’s racist for white settlers to call the Chinese head of state a yellow animal? Do you think it wasn’t racially motivated when people made similar “jokes” about Barack Obama because they “just referred to one individual specifically”?

    • Kalinus@lemmings.world
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      1 year ago

      Ok, I never thought about the “yellow animal” angle, so thanks for bringing that up. I just always assumed he didn’t like the comparison because it was like insisting he was short and fat and since he didn’t like it, everyone sorta just ran with it as an insult. Meanwhile I was thinking “who the hell doesn’t like Winnie the Pooh? He shoulda embraced the comparison”

      So yea, thanks for the extra info.

      • Lath@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I’d say regular people in general don’t think that deeply about these things.
        And though the skin theory sounds correct, i still think it’s about the short and fat part more. It affected his dignity and image, and as i understand it, the concept of ‘giving face’ is of great importance in chinese culture.

    • Rolder@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      White settlers? Some brief searching tells me the origin was from Indian social media and then taken for use by Chinese citizens who disagree with him.

    • Lath@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      So in the same vein, all those monkey caricatures of Putin are also racist as well then.

      • OurToothbrush@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I mean yeah, depicting people as monkeys is generally rooted pretty explicitly in racism, and even white eastern europeans have been subject to racism from western Europe. Read what Emma Goldman wrote about that “conniving slanty eyed Asian”(paraphrased) Stalin.

        • pingveno@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          When have racist depictions of Eastern Europeans as monkeys been a thing?

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      In the origin of the meme, by your logic, Obama was compared to a tiger.

      Is Obama orange and striped with a white belly?