To be this upset about minor racist joke

[Jetlaggedandangry]

I am on a business trip to my country of birth, where I secured a major win today for my British employer. I should be celebrating but instead I am so upset😠
A colleague who is travelling with me called the HQ and when he said "I am calling from jetlag's country" the response was "I am amazed they have mobile network there". They were both very chuffed at the joke.
This is a wealthy country with very developed infrastructure.
I am seething and not able to sleep. Please tell me the iabu and then we can be done with it.

That is why they need you on their team, because they would be incapable of selling snow to the Eskimos without putting their foot in it. I think the joke is on them.

Oh the irony!

Jokes about countries aren't really racism. Countries aren't races. It sounds like you're BU.

Might you be starting to develop a reputation for being humourless? Sometimes people will crack jokes knowingly in front of people who are and it adds to the fun of a joke that otherwise wouldn't amuse very much.

It's just twattery. Maybe they are trying to be funny/ break the ice? Im a Londoner born and bred but my father is Italian and I have a very Italian name. Ex boss used to greet me with " whens a your dolmio day "
Idiot .
On the other hand I have a very good friend who is Australian, and sometimes i say silly things like are you having a Barbie tonight . She rolls her eyes and probably thinks I'm a twat too.
People are twats by nature.

From now on take the piss out of your colleague about the country. So on every occasion you get mention that the country while backwards actually/really has X and it's been around for years/centuries.

I learnt this from Irish and Nordic people who had to deal with the ignorance of some US citizens.

Was it ignorant and bigoted? Yes. Racism? depends.

Racism gets thrown around on here a lot when people mean bigotry. Bigotry is prejudice based on characteristics, like skin colour. However,
racism is the existence of institutional systemic policies, practices and economic and political structures which place minority racial and ethnic groups at a disadvantage in relation to an institution's racial or ethnic majority. In our (western) society, there is no 'racism' against white people, as our institutional, systemic policies are advantageous of other white people. Of course there is going to be anecdotal evidence that people would like to say to the contrary, but by nearly every metric, white people do not face racism, as that is institutional and systematic. Sure, you will meet bigoted and ignorant people that say things against whites, but it isn't racism.

It depends on the country you are from. Majority white country like Switzerland? No, that isn't racist. Majority non-white country, like Singapore? Yes, that is racist to insinuate that only western countries have internet.

Meant to add, of course there is xenophobia and prejudice against white people from other nations in the UK, but that isn't 'racism'.

All of it is horrible, and we need to be fighting it. But we need to be clear when racism gets thrown around.

OMG at people surprised to find TV in Scotland!! I would love to have responded to 'you have TV here?!' with a 'yes, we invented it' (if I were Scottish)

Zoe I don’t disagree with your explanation of balance of power etc, but in legal UK terms race and ethnicity is a protected characteristic so an individual white person can definitely claim discrimination against them on the basis of their protected characteristic.

We are a predominantly non-white country. The reason it is not ignorance but deliberate "twattery" is that the very nature of what I am doing here suggests a certain degree of development, sophistication and wealth. The colleague is well travelled. I think it is racist as the suggestion is that we as a nation/race would not be organised or educated enough to set up a mobile network and/or roaming.

But I moved over it by now...

I host foreign students and about half of them approach the first meal I provide as if it’s literally poisonous. Take tiny portions that careful nibble. Then realise and get stuck in. Never understood it but one explained Italian teenagers taught that food in England is vile.

Meant to add, of course there is xenophobia and prejudice against white people from other nations in the UK, but that isn't 'racism'.

Yeah, no that's bollocks, and an invention of modern identitarians so they can get away with being racists. Misogynists make similar arguments about deserving targets.

Most of us accepted "racism is bad" decades ago, and as a principle it applies to everyone, because that's fair.

It isn’t racist. I would struggle to get even mildly annoyed about it to be honest and it sounds like you are pretty easily offended. It’s just a joke about the level of development of the country and as others have pointed out can be equally made about rural parts of the UK. Is it a particularly funny or imaginative joke? Probably not. Is it offensive? Nope.

Doesn’t it depend on the country?

If, say, Singapore, then assuming they’re not totally ignorant and know it’s one of the most developed places in the planet, the jibe would be tinged with a sense of imperial superiority and snobbery, and arguably racist as a result.

If, say, Burkino Faso, then it would be a understandably genuine and sincere expression of surprise given how under-developed the country is.

I also think you’re way way too sensitive. It’s the kind of thing people might josh about with among friends - be they from another country, another nation of the uk, another city in England or another suburb of London. Just leg pulling. Doesn’t sound offensive in the slightest really.

Know what you mean. It does get tedious, doesn't it? That charming combination of ignorance and smug complacency. . .

This probably runs deeper than a joke about your countries internet as a reaction to that alone would be very sensitive. If you here getting constant digs I would speak to your manager.

People love to make themselves feel big by putting down other places, op. It was a shitty thing for them to say.

My British grandparents came out to visit us in the ME in the '90s, and my grandmother shyly admitted after a while that she'd honestly thought there would be tents and camels everywhere. Our house was 3 times the size of theirs and we lived in a bustling city unlike them in their tiny Welsh outpost, but to her our life still 'should' have been worse then hers because it Wasn't British. Said it all really.

I would struggle to get even mildly annoyed about it to be honest and it sounds like you are pretty easily offended

You might think differently if you were constantly the butt of such 'jokes' from people who clearly think their UK heritage or whatever makes them more sophisticated, but at the same time are constantly showing their ignorance about other countries, cultures or even parts of their own country.

Like all those people from London who think they have the monopoly on culture, diversity and a big city lifestyle and everywhere outside London is some rural wasteland that doesn't have running water, electricity or paved roads.

And anyway, many apparently less developed countries have excellent mobile phone reception, because they had remote areas that didn't have a comprehensive landline system but when it became relatively cheap and easy to install solar powered mobile phone towers pretty much anywhere, mobile phone technology took off very fast, not that it sounds like this applies to the city that the OP is in.

There's a guy in my office from Middlesborough. When he goes home to see his folks, returns and tells us how his trip went, we're always saying things like "You actually have a cinema there!!!". "You have yogurt...in Middlesborough!!!!"

Saying "can't believe you get a phone signal" when someone is in a foreign country isn't racism, or ignorance (as they obviously know you can get a phone signal). It's a joke!!!!!!

Lifecraft - oh how he must laugh. You’re a twat.

I don't think this is racist, I think you're being a little oversensitive.

I moved to the South Wales valleys from the Midlands (not quite the same I know!) and you can imagine the 'jokes' I get from the people here about being English. Equally, the banter I get from friends back home about living in the valleys can be rather lively

Try not to dwell on it or let it affect you too much, I'm sure no offence at all was meant by it.

I bet people weep when you take annual leave, Lifecraft

And Yy Barbara, to everything you say. It gets boring.

Also, my DH is currently in rural Nigeria, and says mobile reception where he is is far better than in our East Midlands village.

I just love it when someone experiencing racism is told they're over sensitive. Well done

(I should clarify, my twat comment is obviously not offensive as “it’s just a joke”).