Air China 'racist' guide to London

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I guess it depends how it is interpreted, avoiding areas with lots of black people in because they're dangerous areas doesn't necessarily imply that black people are to be avoided or that the areas are dangerous because they happen to contain a higher portion of black people.
 
My friend showed me this today, he is Indian and I am black. We both burst out laughing :D

In some cases it could be true but hey!:p

I went to china 3 years ago. They kept on taking photos of me and asking to stand in photos with them as many had never seen a black person before. I felt like a celebrity, will go back one day :) I'm sure many of them wont believe to stuff in the document.
 
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h4rm0ny said:
I'd thought rather more obviously making a sardonic comment on the Chinese leaflet.
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And if i had posted a same variation tongue in cheek comment :


You blacks are quite the violent kind.
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Would it be deemed sardonic or racist ?

The Chinese leaflet thing is nothing more than a warning ' badly' translated into English.

If people want to read more into it , then i will.
 
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Apparently they've pulled all copies of it, and shifted the blame to the magazine editors, who they say should have known better. Despite being published under the heading of "Tips from Air China". Fairly standard Chinese response - find a scapegoat, shift blame, don't make any apologies, and repeat some nonsense about how all minorities are treated equally.
 
Well it depends on your intent, doesn't it? The joys of online forums is that it's hard to work out the tone of someones actual view. Now if one of my friends said it to me, it would be a non issue as it's obvious there would be no malicious intent behind it. Not that I am one to get upset about racism anyway.

Had I followed up with a :p then I think most would've known it was a joke. If not painfully obvious but I guess I've been called out for baiting or playing a victim so not as obvious as I had hoped. At least one guy got it :)

Regarding the leaflet; come on, It's a bit more than a bad translation. Lets not pretend that it isn't right for a major airline to not know better. But big deal, words on a bit of paper. If someone reads that and takes it as gospel they probably had those preconceptions in the first place.
 
I know the gangland/culture in London is usually associated with black people, but there is a good amount of them who are white. I.e. MLE (Multicultural-London English) is a common dialect used by this subculture, which is used by blacks, slavs, s.asians and whites.
 
JunglistE said:
Regarding the leaflet; come on, It's a bit more than a bad translation. Lets not pretend that it isn't right for a major airline to not know better. But big deal, words on a bit of paper. If someone reads that and takes it as gospel they probably had those preconceptions in the first place.
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I'd actually say that if anything, the translation is too accurate :p It's fluffed out a bit more in the English, but the key points are exactly the same.

Edit/ Thinking about it I retract that, London is described as very safe, with some Black/Indian/Pakistani areas being comparatively...unruly? (not the right word, but just "less ordered") relative to the rest of the city. The "precautions are needed" bit doesn't really feature. Bit of an overblown translation.

Not trying to defend them in any way with that, incidentally, still both daft and unsurprising.
 
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Hxc said:
I agree.

There's pretty much nowhere in London I'd call an area which would be problematic. The place you're most likely to have problems are in the big hotspots - pickpockets and the like!
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Other than perhaps around places like the big blocks of flats in Tower Hamlets, or other very deprived areas. But then relative to many other places it wouldn't even get a look in - not that any Chinese tourist would somehow end up there in any way but on purpose...
 
Elsewhere in the news!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...gun-shoots-man-chest-making-getaway-bike.html

I do not know which I find more astonishing,

The idea that there are people who think that a travel agency/airline on the other side of the world should ignore this sort of thing when giving advice to their passengers,

Or,

The idea that there are people rather closer to home chose to do so as a matter of routine!

:confused:
 
Or 3. It's that rare that it's reported in a national newspaper.

Brixtons a bit of an odd one, it's touristy but at the same time some areas may not be particularly safe.
 
People always seem to ascribe skin colour to issues like this.

It's more of a rich vs poor thing.

Are certain black areas dangerous? absolutely because poor blacks live there. Are certain run down poor white areas dangerous? 100% yes.
 
Odd that anywhere else people are rightly offended. Come to OCUK and the consensus is "yep sounds about right". Not even thinly veiled racism here huh...
 
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