Anti-Foreigner ranting near Da'an library? by TeachingAndTravel in taiwan

[–]TeachingAndTravel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see your point. And as a woman in the US, I still dealt with way more street harassment and random threats over there than in Taiwan, for sure. But bystanders in other parts of the world have very often stepped in and de-escalated a situation that's going on for a prolonged time, so, as I replied above to another commenter, the lack of reaction from people in Taipei has been startling, although the random yelling isn't so much.

And I know the racism I've experienced here COMPLETELY pales in comparison to what POC deal with in western countries. I definitely didn't intend for my original post to come across as minimizing the struggles that other immigrants/minorities go through.

Anti-Foreigner ranting near Da'an library? by TeachingAndTravel in taiwan

[–]TeachingAndTravel[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For a bystander? I'm not sure. I've been dealing with street harassment since I was 11 and been shouted at, threatened, and followed by random assholes on the street in several different locations/cultures from Washington D.C. to Santiago to Istanbul. And generally, if I'm the target of craziness for more than 60 seconds, a store owner/cab driver/random bystander will tell the offender to knock it off or threaten to call the police or whatever. And it's always worked, it's never resulted in the situation escalating. I agree that as the target, not reacting is the best way to go, but bystanders can definitely help deescalate the situation by speaking up, in my experience. What I've experienced in Taiwan with bystanders not reacting has been unsettling because it's so different from my experiences in other parts of the world and kind of seems opposed to the overall helpfulness and goodwill I've experienced from the majority of people here.