why your whataboutism effort to defend racism is a false equivalent and irrelevant

I’ve had thousands of conversations about race and racism, so there are predictable patterns.

Often, when people of color express an experience when they faced racism, or talk about how they wish there was better media representation of people of color, there are white folks and people of color dealing with internalized racism who say something like “what about how white people are treated in Asia?” or an argument like “But Asians in Asia are ok with…”

Here is why these arguments don’t work:

1. We were discussing the United States. The US is my country. It’s what I’m familiar with. I was born and grew up here. I’ve gone to Asia for maybe 2–3 weeks at a time only several times, and at most 2 months at a time. What happens elsewhere is irrelevant to the situation we’re discussing. It might be important as another conversation topic, but not relevant to what we are discussing.
2. The idea of white people being more valuable has been exported throughout centuries of history: from European and white American missionary work, colonization, and in white American media. White people might face some prejudice and discrimination, but overall are treated well around the world. I’ve often experienced white people being treated better than Asians and Asian Americans in Asian restaurants in the US, and in Asia. This global exportation of ideas of white people being more valuable has also led to, for example, Asian…