The 10 least racist countries in Asia demonstrate that racial equality and tolerance are still alive in a world that seems to be getting darker every day. Racism has been a hot topic on a global scale, since time immemorial. The United States has seen slavery and race issues divide the country, as in the civil war, which took place in the early 1900s, though it took until the 1960s for the country to ostensibly recognize black people as equal to the whites.
However, this does not mean that the picture is perfect right now. Even now, racism is still a major issue in the country, with black people much more likely to be apprehended than a white person. A white man’s chances of being imprisoned is 1 in 7 and a black man’s chances is 1 in 3. Furthermore, as everyone is aware of the police shootings against black citizens which have triggered massive outrage and protests throughout the country. All of this has happened despite the fact that the nation elected its first black President in history, Barack Obama who served for 8 years.
When such incidents could occur freely while he was the leader, it is not surprising to find out that they these events have actually increased in number in the short time that Donald Trump has been in charge. After Trump had won the election, an election for which he used racism as a key tool in his campaign, racist incidents started to spike, with over 200 being reported in the first week after he was elected. Considering the way things are going ever since Trump became President, I fear that the rate of such incidents will keep on increasingly sharply.
However, this doesn’t mean that the rest of the world is quite pure in its ways. Take South Africa for example, which enforced the apartheid era, for nearly half a century, ensuring systematic segregation between the black and the white population of the country. And again, while it has been around 25 years since apartheid was abolished, racism still exists in the country.
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On the other hand, some countries are more xenophobic than racist. The thing is, many people often confuse the two words to mean the same thing, which ends up with them considering racist countries as xenophobic and vice versa. However, there is a clear distinction between the two. A xenophobic country is one where the citizens and the government are afraid or hostile towards people who are from a foreign country. A racist country is one where the citizens and the government are afraid or hostile towards people who belong to a different race. Just to hammer this point home, a person who is against blacks is racist while a person who is against people from South Africa is a xenophobe.
It turns out that Asians can be pretty racist as well, with some countries such as India, being considered one of the least racially tolerant countries in the world. However, since the continent is host to a variety of countries, there are many which are not racist as well. To determine these countries, we consulted the World Values Survey Report, which contains data up to 2014. The report asks respondents from nearly 60 countries regarding dozens of different questions. One of the questions asked was ‘On this list are various groups of people. Could you please mention any that you would not like to have as neighbors?’ Among the options included for selection was ‘People of a different race’. The participants were then told to select the options presented and the results were tabulated according to the percentage of people who selected ‘People of a different race.’ It is important to note that only a few thousand people were asked the question from each country, so the results may be skewed or an inaccurate reflection of the true preferences of these countries. We filtered the countries which are in Asia, and thus, came up with the least racist countries in Asia. If you prefer a global perspective, you can learn more by visiting the 13 Least Racist Countries in the World.
Now let’s finally see which countries are the least racist countries in Asia!
