Originally Posted by
elgarak
Tell that to the Koreans' I worked with...Hell, tell that to ANYONE from (South)-East Asia who is not Chinese. (Sometimes the default goes to Japanese, like here in Düsseldorf, because there's a large Japanese community.)
Yes, they nod, and smile, and politely correct you... but they CORRECT you. Always. It bothers them. A lot. Even more so when Koreans are confused with Japanese. No wonder if you know the history. It's racist.
Is it racist to confuse a Swede for a Norwegian? A Kenyan for a Tanzanian? A Serbian for a Croat? I'm pretty sure almost everybody would correct you if you mistake them but I don't see why it's necessarily always racist.
And if you answered "No" then I don't see why mistaken nationality is racist when it's east Asia and nowhere else.