[Excelsior]

(12-26-2016 11:13 PM)John Michael Kane Wrote:  

I'm not black, but have read plenty of the black guys on this forum who have spent time in Asia have mixed reviews as to whether or not they were welcomed, abused or treated as an exotic treat. I'm interested in finding out what the general issues are regarding bi-racial marriages with a pairing of an Asian mother and some type of non-Asian father.

Quote:

Asian people are very racist toward non whites so theres that, didnt surprise me that those chinese-african kids faced discrimination.

Well, there's certainly not denying that there are racial biases against black dudes. I'm not black, so obviously my experiences in Asia are from my white perspective. For any black guy considering marrying an Asian woman, he probably has extra hurdles to make it work, but if he's determined enough not to settle for the average black woman here in America (overweight and not very feminine), then he's probably used to pulling extra weight to get what he wants. Any black men here want to comment?

All of my upcoming comments are based off of second hand knowledge, as well as some first-hand experience with asian-american women. Take it for what it's worth (grains of salt and all that).

Whiteness is, in a very general sense, the preference in Asia. I think this phenomenon is well known and well documented both here and elsewhere, so I shouldn't need to expand on it too much. It is fetishized and sought after more than anything else, and the "White god" factor is real.
This being said, there's variation by culture/nation with regard to the desirability of black men and the acceptability of dating them.

My general impression has been that The Philippines is the nation where black men are most desired and dating them most acceptable.
Korea seems to be the worst - stigmas seem stronger there than many other parts of East/Southeast Asia.

Korea is actually one of the most virulently racist places on Earth. To give you an idea of what I mean, consider this fact: in Korea, the military still uses mandatory conscription for all nationals. Until a few years ago, it was illegal for those of mixed race to serve in the Korean military - they could not be conscripted because being of mixed race was considered to be in the same category of other disqualifying "defects" like alcoholism, criminality, physical disorders, etc. Thus, mixed-race Koreans were exempted from conscription. The law has only recently been amended such that mixed folks can legally serve.

Let that sink in for a second: Korea was so virulently opposed to the existence of mixed race Koreans that it wouldn't even allow them to die in service of it until very recently.

Here's a reddit thread where you can find some comments detailing the nature of the bias against blacks in Korea from a romantic perspective. Bias exists against all non-Koreans in Korea, but it is much greater when it comes to blacks who are generally considered to be at the bottom of every totem pole in the Korean mind. You'll find few places in the developed world with similar levels of bigotry.

Thailand, Japan, and China seem generally more open and tolerant with regard to black men than Korea, though stigmas are still strong. Reports I read from black men who spend time in those nations seem far more positive than those in Korea - I actually don't think I've ever read a trip report/journal from a black male visiting Korea that was anything more than "eh" from a romantic sense. Most weren't positive at all.

So, to summarize, Filipinas are pretty open and put up fewer hurdles for black men. East Asia is harder, but the highest hurdles are probably on the Korean peninsula - Japan and China have some potential but there seem to be more hurdles there than in The Philippines. If you're black and you are looking to Asia as a romantic destination, The Philippines appears to be the safest bet and you should ignore South Korea entirely.

My first hand experiences with Asian American women line up with this for the most part: Asian-American girls with Southeast Asian (Mostly Filipina, but also Thai and Cambodian) backgrounds seem to be the most open, while East Asian (Japanese/Korean/Chinese-American) girls appear less so. The East Asian Americans seem significantly more open than their peers back in their ancestral homelands, but many of the racialist dating preferences do remain - they show an extremely strong preference for whites and some of the stigmas I described above are present among them to a greater degree than you might see within other American groups (especially if they were raised by parents who were born/raised back in the far east - those stigmas die hard and if they love their parents they will think twice about getting serious with a guy whose background is likely to instantly piss them off the minute she brings him home).

Below is a flow chart designed as a mock "dating guide" for your typical California Bay Area Asian girl. It is meant as a joke, but there are kernels of truth in it that are relevant and probably speak at least somewhat accurately to the real life openness/preferences of the average East Asian-American in the states.



TL;DR (to summarize the chart): Whites are preference #1 by a wide margin, while Asians and Blacks can get by after clearing significantly higher hurdles. The Filipinas have lower hurdles for black men than others.

Again, this is just my general impression of the Asian scene for black males and most of it is coming from secondhand observation (talking to peers with firsthand experience, reading reports/journals/blogs, etc), so take it with a grain of salt. Hopefully some of the black males in the community with more Asia experience (paging TravelerKai) can chime in and add more accurate firsthand perspectives and/or correct anything I missed/got wrong above.