We need a bit of perspective here.
Racial profiling is wrong in every way? Where do you draw the line?
Japanese people are well into their martial arts. Are you not allowed to mention it? Japanese people are not very tall on average. Are we allowed to say Tats is small for a football player or ever mention his size?
To us the French are known as frogs. To them their insult is calling us roast beef. It's from hundreds of years ago because of what both sides ate. Is it racial profiling? Yes. Do I find it hurtful? No, although others might. We've had a laugh about it in my local bar a few times.
Racial abuse and racial profiling are on two totally different levels. One should not be tolerated in the slightest. The other should be down to context. Hurtful? Shouldn't be tolerated.
Americans love their mega sized food portions. A high percentage are obese and bigger. You see it mentioned frequently. Racial profiling?
It's a slippery slope that can water down the main aim. That is stopping racial abuse.
I appreciate you trying to have a productive discussion. There’s a few things in your post that don’t hold though.
You’re right that profiling and stereotyping do happen in various contexts, but not all of these stereotypes carry the same weight or consequences. Your examples about American food sizes or insults between the british and french don’t really have any harmful implications because they don’t contribute to systemic oppression. None of those groups you mention have faced any historical marginalisation or oppression based on those stereotypes. A big point that people overlook often too is
that they exist within contexts of power where those groups are not disadvantaged by those perceptions.
Here’s an example - I don’t give a shit if anybody imitates my charming British accent (love actually fans wya), which they do and will continue to do as I live in different places around the world. I would however feel extremely uncomfortable if someone who was british or American imitated a Chinese, Japanese, or Polish/Indian accent. Precisely because of the power dynamics at play and the historic marginalisation.
And look, while the above is very important, the biggest thing for me is the point I already made about assuming someone from Japan would know a martial art from China because, “Asia”, supports this whole concept that asia is a homogenous place.
Assuming someone from Japan knows Kung Fu is like assuming someone from Spain should be an expert in Russian Literature. The distance between Japan and China is roughly the same as the distance between Spain and Russia, and I mean after all, literature is part of the national curriculum in Spain isnt it?
I’ve made my point now so I’ll leave this alone. I know 80% of the people on here will think I’m a twat and making a big deal of things recently but I don’t care, it’s not enough to just “not be racist”, you have to be outwardly “anti racist” which to me means calling out any of this shit that can contribute to an environment where worse stuff happens