Thread: Can the word "farang" be context-neutral?

Originally Posted by dr andy

If you call a foreigner in your country a "black" person, that is not racist, merely a description. If a Thai calls you a "farang", that is similar, it just means a white person, a foreigner. If you think it is an insult, you are mistaken (yes, I have it from Thais), it is merely descriptive. Once again, the morons and trolls are making something out of nothing

I've copied over the most interesting thaiophile response from the decade thread.

What I don't understand is why people can't see that sticking ethnic labels on people for no reason can cause insult for some people.

For example, you go into a UK pub, the bargirl gets called into the office by her manager and shouts to him "I'll be there in a minute, I'm just pulling a pint for this black guy". Now, why did the girl need to describe the ethnicity of the customer? Well, she didn't. But in Thailand, for some reason known only to the local chinegros, she would.

I think it is to do with reassurance-building nationalism, the need to alienate "outsiders" by using labels to regularly highlight the fact that they clearly arent thai and thus only a visiting guest.