zlacker

I said that it was at least American. The tendency to link other types of identity with a basic sense of racial identity is probably not uniquely American, but the way that connection links those types of mundane signifiers of identity with American racial violence (social and physical) probably is (tautology appreciated). Maybe wearing the wrong jacket in Germany conjures the ghosts of social dynamics involved in pogroms where a patch was sewn into one's jacket, I don't know. In America, having a "second-class" phone or car or location of residence does seem to prompt people to treat you as we've come to know "second-class" people ought to be treated.

As for whether it's worse in other countries... I don't think you get to make that determination without being a visible minority. Certainly, ethnic violence and racial violence are akin but not the same, just as treating people as second-class citizens based on the color of their skin is akin but not the same as treating customers as second class citizens because you don't like the strength of their OS's security standards, or don't want to hire Android programmers, or whatever.

>>underl+(OP)
> As for whether it's worse in other countries... I don't think you get to make that determination without being a visible minority.

Bluntly, I didn't need to be a Turk to notice how Germans treated and talked about Turks, or to compare that to how white Americans treated and talked about minorities.