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Yet another fake of everyone's favourite racist toothpaste.
Some background from Golden China Brands:
Darlie, (黑人, hēi rén, or “black people”) is a toothpaste brand of the Hong Kong-based company Hawley&Hazel. Meanwhile it belongs to one of the US based multinationals. The original name when I started using it (about 25 years ago) was “Darkie”. Darky, or darkie, meanwhile is a racist term used primarily in America and the UK to refer to black people. The package featured an image of a wide-eyed, big-smiling, dark-skinned Black male wearing a top hat and tie. Because of the contrast with very dark skin, it was a common perception that the teeth of people of African descent were exceptionally white.Due to changing sensibilities regarding race and racism, over time the brand has gone through several re-naming and re-packaging activities. However, the Chinese name of the brand, “黑人牙膏” (in English, “Black Man Toothpaste”), has not changed; a Chinese-language advertising campaign reassured customers that “Black Man Toothpaste is still Black Man Toothpaste”. This is because the term “黑人” does not have any negative meaning in Chinese. The phrase 黑人(hēi rén) in Chinese is a general term for persons of African descent.
“Mr. thumbs-up” was actually created by Qianbaimei Daily Chemicals Co. Ltd. , a famous toothpaste manufacturing company based in Guangzhou spilling out over 350 million toothpastes a year. More of their products under the Meiyijie-Label can be found here 美怡洁.
See how Darlie has evolved over the years here.
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Love how in the quote he explains that "in Chinese" hei-ren doesn't have any negative meaning.
If you tune into STV's coverage of international sports - especially European club football - you can hear all kinds of creative examples on why it's negative and offensive.
And really, it's time for a whole bunch of China 'hands' to wake up. Just because a bunch of people from China tell us that in Chinese calling people fat, spotty, black-man, laowai or stupid to their faces is not offensive ... doesn't mean it's true.
ANY term can be used with intent as a derogatory term. But 黑人，白人 (black person, white person) refers to people of a race with no commentary other than that of perceived colour and how it differs from Chinese. Any additional inferences and implications would have to depend on context. How it is used surely can include racist intent as any term that depicts race can but soley on its own, the term does not have negative meaning unless you infer it to be.
If we stopped using every word just because it could also be used negatively then we'd run out of things to say pretty fast. Constantly re-defining language or inventing new terms such as "chalkboard" instead of "blackboard"
There is without doubt a lot of racism in China particularly towards black people, but arguing over the semantics of words is missing the point. And I do not find laowai offensive at all.
addendum:
Constantly re-defining language or inventing new terms such as "chalkboard" instead of "blackboard" is a waste of time.