RACISM - Shocking Article

[brall3]

A friend sent this to me and asked if the information is correct, do Thais call us "farangs"?

 

The article was published at: www.https://uglytruththailand.wordpress.com/2014/09/13/thailand-is-an-extremely-racist-society/

 

Excerts: "THAILAND IS AN EXTREMELY RACIST SOCIETY." and "All Thais refer to white people as “Farangs”, a derogatory word equivalent to the use of the term “white devils” by Chinese racists. The term is used by academics. It depicts difference. “We are Thais”, they say and think proudly. But they are Farangs. And of course all Farangs think alike because democracy is a Farang concept. There is no recognition that there are right-wing and left-wing westerners. And of course, Farangs cannot possibly understand Thailand."

 

Upon reading this I was shocked and immediately went to the site. To quote Mr. Spock from Star Trek: "interesting".

[Londoner]

There are also deep social  and quasi-ethnic divisions which became particularly apparent during the events that led up to the coup. Prejudice against Isaan natives and other working-class and northern-based Thais, often based on skin-colour, was a feature of the anti-Red Shirt demagogues who ushered in the (very white-skinned) generals.

And how many shelves in the supermarkets groan under the weight of skin-whitening creams?

[Guest cdnmatt]

Simply being called a "farang" is by no means racist, and definitely not as racist as some farangs hype it up to be.  It just simply means foreigner, and is a way to describe you.  It's the same as me pointing out a black guy in a room full of white people by calling him the "black guy".  That doesn't mean I'm racist -- it just means he's black, and it's easy to describe him that way.

 

Now there is definitely some racism against farangs in Thailand, but the simple word "farang" being used means absolutely nothing.  If you add some descriptive words around it and say something like, "all farangs are useless, lieing, pieces of shit", then ok, that would be racist.

 

Same as if I said, "black people are rapist criminals and the scourge of society", now that would be racist.  Just simply talking about a sporting event and saying, "the black dude sure is good, eh?" on the other hand isn't racist.

 

From my experiences, the vast majority of Thais are not racist, and are totally indifferent as to whether or not you're a farang.  They're far more concerned about what's inside your heart than what your skin color is.  However, like in all countries, sure, there are some racists floating around out there, but I'd say they are in the minority.

[Guest abang1961]

I don't really think it is a racist nomenclature altogether.

I hope no one is "offended" by nick names here.

Westerners or more accurately, Caucasians have different nick names in different parts of Asia.

 

Ang Mo (red-hair, a Hokkien/Fujian term used mainly in Singapore and Malaysia) Lao Wei (foreigner, a term used mainly in China and Taiwan), Gwai-Lo (ghost-man, a Cantonese term used mainly in Hong Kong and Cantonese-speaking areas)

 

AMDK - Ang Mo Dua Ki which means Westerners have big dicks.. a derogatory term which means Ang Mo always have their ways (even if he is in the wrong!)

 

.. and I won't venture into the nick names for Malays, Indians and other darker skin people.

[NIrishGuy]

"Same as if I said, "black people are rapist criminals and the scourge of society", now that would be racist."

 

Or, if you changed Black for Mexican there's a possibility that you might then even get elected as the next President of the United States of America it seems !  

[Dalewood]

Don't laugh---there are a couple of Mexican-Americans who have a plausible shot at being president or vice-president in the next eight years or so. They are twin brothers, interestingly enough.

[Up2u]

The use of farang is not pejorative so don't get upset. Some think it comes from farangset which is the Thai word for a Frenchman. Many English speakers pronounce it, fa-rang, like "rang" the bell and is incorrect, or is not the Thai way. Phonetically it is more like fa-lung and if you listen carefully you can here yourself being referred to as "fa-lung" by Thai people.

[abidismaili]

 

From my experiences, the vast majority of Thais are not racist, and are totally indifferent as to whether or not you're a farang.  

 

I agree. Many gay Thai boys even tell me they are not into Thai guys but into Farang. I tend to believe that. I see this in more Asians. A Vietnamese once told me Most 'Farang in general look better than Asians". Gay Asian boys for some reason feel attraction to us Farangs. For me it is absolutely the other way around. I find Asian boys the most beautifull in the world.

[Aikuchi]

I wouldnt mind bring with a fa-rang and an asian ... and latino, and european, and african, and polynesian. At least to begin with.

[anddy]

The use of farang is not pejorative so don't get upset. Some think it comes from farangset which is the Thai word for a Frenchman. Many English speakers pronounce it, fa-rang, like "rang" the bell and is incorrect, or is not the Thai way. Phonetically it is more like fa-lung and if you listen carefully you can here yourself being referred to as "fa-lung" by Thai people.

let me slightly correct that: phonetically it is not like fa-lung, but like fa-rung, because the first letter of the second syllable is the Thai equivalent of an "r" (ร), not that of an "L". Now, the Thai "r" is different from the western/european "r" in that the western one is produced in the throat, whereas the Thai one is produced by rolling the tip o the tongue against the roof of the mouth right behind the front teeth. Now when people speak fast or sloppy or both, that way of producing the Thai "r" makes it sound like "L", which is also produced by touching the roof of the mouth with the tip of the tongue. More often than not, people in day-to-day talk are too lazy to make the proper rolling "r", thus giving rise to the frequent misrepresentation of fa-rung as fa-lung (or fa-rang vs fa-lang, depending on how you'd pronounce the "u" or "a", respectively, in your country).

 

OK, enough linguistic hair-splitting LOL ;-)

 

As for the racism part, it is not a racist term per-se, and it 's common use not meant in such a way. That said, some levels of racism, or should we call it prejudices and reservations, against outsiders do exist in Thai society, but name a country where that's not the case....

[NIrishGuy]

Many gay Thai boys even tell me they are not into Thai guys but into Farang.

 

 

Yep, cause it's not like Thai boys have ever been known to tell us what they think we want to hear :-)  Which is why when we've our backs turned we find they've several thai fuck buddies / REAL BF's ,,,,, and good luck to them for playing us in such a way if we're daft enough to believe them sometimes ......

[Rachman]

I noticed several of the Thai guys on grindr put in their profiles that they were only interested in farangs, including one I hooked up with. And they weren't money boys. It just seems to be a generic term for westerners.

 

Asian guys who are exclusively into white guys seems to be extremely common. I know, I've dated several.

[Alexx]

Also, some Thai guys have most of their profile in English, and in Thai they only write that they like farang to deter fellow Thais from contacting them.

 

Sometimes that's because of a genuine fetish/preference and in other cases moneyboys on the hunt, but in any case, that's a good example for the term being used not in a pejorative way, but simply as the catchiest or most concise expression to describe the group they are after.

[Up2u]

let me slightly correct that: phonetically it is not like fa-lung, but like fa-rung, because the first letter of the second syllable is the Thai equivalent of an "r" (ร), not that of an "L". Now, the Thai "r" is different from the western/european "r" in that the western one is produced in the throat, whereas the Thai one is produced by rolling the tip o the tongue against the roof of the mouth right behind the front teeth. Now when people speak fast or sloppy or both, that way of producing the Thai "r" makes it sound like "L", which is also produced by touching the roof of the mouth with the tip of the tongue. More often than not, people in day-to-day talk are too lazy to make the proper rolling "r", thus giving rise to the frequent misrepresentation of fa-rung as fa-lung (or fa-rang vs fa-lang, depending on how you'd pronounce the "u" or "a", respectively, in your country).

 

OK, enough linguistic hair-splitting LOL ;-) .....

 

 

Yes, I agree with your comments and the classic formal Thai as taught by my Thai teachers in America would agree too. Then there is the colloquial Thai as spoken by bar boys/girls, taxi drivers, maids, etc. my kind of people (and probably from Issarn/Lao). My bf cannot roll his r's which is not that unusual. Arai becomes alai(what?), farang becomes falung(westerner), khrap becomes kap/kup(polite male particle). Well educated Thais can and do roll r's but you certainly won't hear them in Screw Boys. ☺️

[Guest cdnmatt]

Sorry to interject, but it's a dialect thing.  If you're from Bangkok, it's "farang", but if you're from Issan it's "falang".

 

Thais from Bangkok and central Thailand pronounce the ร as "r", whereas Issan folks pronounce it as "L".  You'll notice it in tons of Thai words.  For example, in Bangkok "school" would be "roong-rian", whereas up here it's "loong-lian".

 

Go to an office building in central Bangkok and talk to a lawyer or something, then go talk to a bar boy from Issan, and listen how the two of them speak to their friends / colleagues.  You'll see what I mean.  Or after heaing a bar boy pronounce words with "L", take him out somewhere upscale / professional, and watch how those L's magically turn into R's, lol

[vinapu]

 

 

 prejudices and reservations, against outsiders do exist in Thai society, but name a country where that's not the case....

not only against outsiders but also insiders. Each country seems to have a part people coming from  are considered by the rest  lazy , slow thinking , cheap , greedy , you name it.

[vinapu]

Sorry to interject, but it's a dialect thing.  If you're from Bangkok, it's "farang", but if you're from Issan it's "falang".

 

Thais from Bangkok and central Thailand pronounce the ร as "r", whereas Issan folks pronounce it as "L".  You'll notice it in tons of Thai words.  For example, in Bangkok "school" would be "roong-rian", whereas up here it's "loong-lian".

 

Go to an office building in central Bangkok and talk to a lawyer or something, then go talk to a bar boy from Issan, and listen how the two of them speak to their friends / colleagues.  You'll see what I mean.  Or after heaing a bar boy pronounce words with "L", take him out somewhere upscale / professional, and watch how those L's magically turn into R's, lol

hence boys will say in the bar English : " I go loom you"

[KhorTose]

I do not see Farang is in any way derogatory, but in my experience Thais definitely have a problem with most black people, and they really do look down on people from Issan.  While it is not racism, I see a very strong sense of classism in Thai culture, which to my way of thinking is just another form of bigotry.

[witty]

I'm currently in the habit of annoying fair-skin Thais or Khmer boys whenever they talk about making their skin fairer. I simply tell them that I personally prefer the darker skin tones of guys from Surin, Buriram etc and their facial features too.

[jfarmer017]

Most countries are "racist" by western standards. Forget farang, the typical Thai is likely to have quite negative feelings towards neighboring Burmese and Khmer. Siam was renamed Thailand in the 1940s in a blatant move of ethno-nationalism. One of the reasons that Thailand does not function well as a nation-state is because its borders enclose competing nationalities. Northeast Isan is much more culturally and linguistically aligned with Laos than it is with the rest of Thailand. 

[abidismaili]

Most countries are "racist" by western standards.  

 

100% true.

 

People in the West are accused so many times of racism (so much even that some people think only a white Western guy can be racist, because we never hear it about others). The West has to excuse itself  for her history of colonialism. Which was a perfectly normal way of operating at that time. We were just much more successfull because of our technological advancement. Turkey colonized much of the Middle East (Ottoman Empire). China colonized its Western half (now fully annexed, but the history is colonization; we freed our colonies, China kept them). Russia's east is in origin colonization, conquest of foreign cultures. They didnt free them, they still have them. 

 

Western societies are the LEAST racist the MOST free and the MOST tolerant in all of human history and yet we are internationally the MOST accused of racism and our history.

 

Japan a rich country will never allow the level of immigration from other races and cultures than we allow in the West. China the same. Turkey the same. Thailand the same, well it goes for every country, except the West. We should be the ones pointing the finger. We should defend our culture and history more, be more proud of it. By the way our colonization brought advancement to other cultures, we lifted them into modern times. Did they ever thank us for that? Like we in Europe thank the ancient Romans? Will India ever say thank you to the UK? 

 

Long live Western culture!

[eurasian]

So Abdiismaili you say the main reason for the West to colonize other countries was to lift that countries to modern times !!!... my comment to that will be LOL . BTW I am a farang who knows west and east very well , don't get confused with my username   

[Guest abang1961]

As a Chinese Asian, I am tanned (can see my favourite activity from my avatar).

I have been mistaken as a Malay, a Thai or someone from Indo-China.

So I'v been called unmentionable names throughout my life.

My resolution is just to ignore them!

 

Similarly a I've mentioned earlier, don't expect name calling to halt.  

Just take it with a pinch of salt.

I, like many, am a FARANG in this beautiful Land of Smiles.

[abidismaili]

So Abdiismaili you say the main reason for the West to colonize other countries was to lift that countries to modern times !!!... my comment to that will be LOL . BTW I am a farang who knows west and east very well , don't get confused with my username   

 

Can you please quote the sentence where I said it was the main reason? It was a by-product.

Please try to read what I say, not what you wanted me to say. Now with that in mind, reply again please to my points.

[Guest colinr]

Colonisation was basically looting and pillaging. Why should the Indians thank us for being looted and pillaged? And the comparisons with Russia and China don't work: Europeans have held on to N  America and Australia, for example. Having first massacred most of the original inhabitants, which I  don't think was the case with Russia and China.