A slight rise in the temperature in the last few posts, let's take a step back and look at things coolly.
Frode reported what one particular TG said to him, with the qualification that she had limited education. Some very educated people though, in many nations, hold equally unpleasant views. Her assertion that the black players on the TV must smell is clearly prejudiced, because, unless you have smell-o-vision, there is no way of knowing. The girl's other comments reflect the the limited contact that she and her friends will have had with blacks and the fear that unfamiliarity instills. She will have had the same reaction, probably, to seeing her first Farang (white Westerner) after leaving the farm, but will have overcome it rapidly because they became her main source of income and very common in her new working environment. The fear rapidly dissolves into familiarity, which in some cases - as we all know - breeds contempt, yielding the cynical, take-them-for-every-Baht type of BG.
Returning to the smell issue. We have heard soooooo often on this forum that TGs think Farangs smell. They don't really smell more, just different. The sense of smell, like all senses, is subject to habituation - a continuous stimulus eventually ceases to register. You don't notice the touch of your clothes shortly after dressing, your chewing gum loses it's flavour faster than chemical assays say the flavour molecules decline and, if you kick off your shoes you'll rapidly habituate to the smell, but anyone entering the room for the first time will soon let you know about it. So we become accustomed to the smell of our regular companions and when we encounter someone with, say, a radically different diet or body chemistry, then we notice their smell. It has been said that TGs have commented that their LT Farangs smell less after a few weeks on Thai food, but even those who persist on a Western diet are sufficiently familiar to their TGs who are both habituated to Farang smells and motivated to overlook them. Again this is not the case with the minority populations of blacks, Arabs, Indians, etc. amongst the mongering populace. As these groups discover LOS and increase in numbers, bringing more money, then they too will be accepted with open arms (amongst other limbs).
Steve's reaction to Frode's report give me two causes for concern: Firstly, to confront people head-on over such deeply ingrained social conditioning is seldom the most productive way of changing their opinion. They will often just take up the defensive and cling to their views, albethey second-hand ("Girls in the bar say they [smell]..."), all the more strongly. And remember, Frode has to live with her: Constant criticism will just lead to resentment and undermine the relationship. Far better to introduce her gradually to positive role-models and representatives of other cultures and let her change her views herself through her own experience.
Secondly, to criticise Frode for sharing the experience - which he doesn't condone or try to excuse beyond the quite reasonably pointing out the girl's limited education and contact with other cultures - is rather naive. It's unlikely that anyone reading Frode's original posting would interpret it as condoning the girl's view, view but reporting it, in context, is a valuable addition to this discussion, informing us on the roots of the prejudices these girls possess (like all social groups in all societies, remember) and how they are passed amongst them by word of mouth, not necessarily by first-hand experience.
I have spent a lot of time studying the rise of Nazism, it's origins and the social and political conditions that allowed it to flourish. I'm not prepared to look away from these dark characters and dismiss them as aberrations, monsters and lunatics. These were human beings and they reacted to, and where conditioned by, their times to allow a minority to lead - and the majority to follow - a misguided and disastrous creed. To fail to study and publicly discuss these matters is to leave the world ill-prepared to recognize and avert the same thing happening again. In the same way, a frank exchange of reports on BG attitudes - providing it is recognised that they are individual cases and that the authors themselves are subject to prejudice and generalization - should help BMs in recognising the roots of a TG's attitudes and, through a better understanding, change or, indeed, allow oneself to be changed by them.
Armand has already said he learned to speak up and advertise that he is American to dispel some of the prejudice his colour stirs in bars, and I will, for entirely selfish reasons, take to a Thai diet for a good two weeks before arrival to reduce my Farang odour.