Taiwan video production group Stop Kidding Studio recently released a video entitled 台灣人對黑人的四大誤解:Things Taiwanese Don’t Know About Black People. In the video, African-American Tiffany tries to explain and debunk some of the common misconceptions Taiwanese have of blacks in Taiwan.

The video was posted to the Facebook group for Teachers Against Discrimination In Taiwan (TADIT). The title caught my attention because it’s something I’ve written and talked about at length since I first moved to Taiwan two years ago when, shortly after arriving in Kaohsiung, I was told–flat out–that finding a teaching gig would be difficult because my skin color didn’t fit the bill. Sadly, Taiwan has some catching up to do in the area of cultural diversity. It’s an issue that baffles me still, but given Stop Kidding Studio’s track record of creating provocative videos aimed at traversing the cultural rifts between Taiwanese and foreigners, I was optimistic about how they would handle the glossed over topic of Taiwanese untruths about black foreigners.

Photo: Facebook/StopKiddingStudio

Unfortunately, the video falls short of actually addressing some of the nuances of being black in a country where everyone loves Obama and Lebron, but where many can’t fathom the idea of a black native English speaker.

It begins with the common misconception that all blacks in Taiwan are from countries in Africa–a promising start as far as I see it. Indeed blacks hail from many parts of the world and represent a wide array of cultures, but perhaps further explanation is needed about what that means.

It would be helpful, for example, to mention that because “black” as a racial construct has very little (if anything) to do with nationality, there’s no set of cultural or behavioral traits that can appropriately define “being black.” What’s true for a black American is not necessarily true for someone who’s black from the U.K. or Belize or Kenya. It shouldn’t be surprising that we have different traditions, eat different foods, adorn ourselves in different fashions. Taiwan’s incredulous attitudes regarding blacks being from countries other than those in Africa is undeniably absurd, but failure to mention how we are as culturally diverse as the places we come from can be just as damaging as any misconception the video aims to correct. It’s nice that we’re told blacks are a global race, but how about a disclaimer that the views expressed in the video are from the perspective of a black American?

I applaud Tiffany for bringing up the belief that blacks only favor Hip-Hop music and nothing else, but again more is needed beyond listing off the music we’ve had a hand in creating or making popular. As annoying as it can be, it’s not surprising that people in Taiwan feel Hip-Hop is the only music blacks associate themselves with (people think the same thing in countries all over the world). Hip-Hop culture has had a significant influence on the global black community and it’s cultural texts are better traveled than most blacks from the country where Hip-Hop arguably was born. In Taiwan this has given birth to false assumptions about how blacks talk and carry themselves.

It’s probably the reason why, when in public with my white girlfriend, many Taiwanese will greet her with “Hello, how are you?”, while I get “Yo wassup, man!” or “Wassup mu’fucka!” Quite often I respond with a wave and a disappointing shake of the head.

True, it’s not as extreme as crotch grabbing and dropping the N-word, but when the swagger and bravado of Hip-Hop music becomes the outline upon which Taiwanese interactions with blacks are predicated, it takes more than a simple mentioning of our musical taste being eclectic beyond Jay-Z and Lil Wayne to set things right. Music matters but it doesn’t write the script for an entire race.

Still, probably the biggest issue I found with the video’s assessment of things Taiwanese don’t know about black people is the handling of black food tastes. I relate to the idea of “soul food,” but I come from an African American household where recipes for greens, yams, fried chicken, cornbread and the like have been swapped and handed down for several generations. I know this food. I love this food. I highly doubt this is the same food found in black households across Latin America or in the Caribbean or anywhere else that’s not the United States of America. Variations certainly exist (many American soul food dishes have their roots in Africa and the West Indies), but black cuisine is far more than what can be seen in the 1997 film Soul Food (a good movie that explains soul food about as much as Boys n the Hood explains malt liquor). During this segment in particular it would’ve been nice to hear from blacks from countries other than the U.S. to provide a better cross-section of black food opinions. How does traditional black food in the U.S. differ from that in South Africa? Soul Food doesn’t actually address this question or anything similar, so sending a bunch of curious Taiwanese netizens to black Hollywood for answers about what us black folks tend to eat probably isn’t the most culturally aware strategy.

For all it faults, the video does make a good point about the constant touching of black hair and questions about how it’s washed. It happens to me so often that I’ve almost ceased waiting for the question to be asked upon meeting Taiwanese for the first time. There’s usually a long pause right after “nice to meet you” in which my hair is curiously examined. This is usually my cue to say “yes, my hair is real, I wash it just like you’d expect and okay, you can touch it.” I can handle this with grace, but like Tiffany, I find it rude that someone would take it upon themselves to fondle my hair without my permission. No complaints from me on this front.

I appreciate Stop Kidding Studio’s efforts to put down the misconceptions many Taiwanese hold about black people, but because of the lack of opportunities for Taiwanese to interact with actual black people (rap videos, internet news reports and movies don’t count), greater care needs to be given in explaining the varied cultural facets of blacks from around the world.

A single voice speaking for an entire village is bound to piss off few neighbors.

Authors Note: Check out S.K.S.’s 台灣人有種族歧視??Taiwanese Are Racists? for related content.