People from a different place

This was first written as an email to a friend that I decided to edit and post.

什么叫外地人呢？
看它的汉字结构应该能看明白:“外”是外边的意思，“地”指的是地方，所以意思就是从外地来的人。但说到外地人的含义，就没那么简单了。我发现外地人是贬义词。你问一个北京人，“中国人为什么随地吐痰呢？”他们会这样说：“这是因为外地人素质不高。”这不是事实（北京人也会吐痰），而是一种歧视外地人的说法。但这是什么样的歧视呢？我原来想是某种地理歧视。住在北京的上海人虽然算是来自外地的，但是不会被鄙视为外地人。所以我觉得这可不是一种地理歧视。一说“外地人”这个词，北京人就会立刻联想到农民工、服务员那样的人，而不会想到在一家百强公司工作的河南人。外地人这个词所带来的歧视味道好像跟地理、地方没啥关系。
那么,跟什么有关系呢？中国人能分人素质高低。我们美国人没有这种分别，这不是因为我们都有素质，而是因为我们觉得人的素质不好评价，素质高低分起来不容易。素质一般情况下指人们的文化水平，他们所接受过的教育。（其实受教育程度不非要和素质成正比，现实中也有高学历的人做出低素质的事情的例子。）博士的素质非常高，小学没毕业的人素质非常低。所以北京人歧视外地人的原因是因为北京人认为他们的素质低。

但我们还没说到底呢。

人怎么能够提高素质水平呢？多学习，多接受教育。外地人都那么笨，提高素质水平原来就这么容易，他们怎么还是素质那么低呢？上学要花钱。外地人都没什么钱，可以算得上现代社会的“无产阶级”。他们不是不想学，而是没办法上学。这都说明北京人看不起外地人是因为外地人没有钱，也就是说这是一种“阶级歧视”。

“在阶级社会中，每个人都在一定的经济地位中生活，各种思想无不打上阶级的烙印。”

虽然今年新中国庆祝六十周年，但是阶级的烙印还没消失。

Update:我发现美国人会歧视外地人，我们会把他们叫做hick(土老冒儿).这也是因为我们城市人觉得他们没接受过教育。不过，这个现象在美国没有在中国那么明显。北京人每天都接触很多外地人，但在美国这些hicks很少去城市。这也不是说美国在这方面比中国好。我只是想让大家都弄清楚这种歧视概念根源于哪儿。

Many Beijingers refer to some people as waidiren. Literally, this means someone from a place outside of Beijing. But what it actually means is a bit more complicated. If you ask a Beijinger, "Why do Chinese people spit all over the place," he'll probably answer you: "It's not people from Beijing, it's waidiren. They're not quality people." My neighbor blames most of the bathroom problems we've been having lately on the waidiren who are building a house nearby. If you're talking about someone from Shanghai, the wealthiest city in China, with a Beijinger, they're probably not thinking of that person the same way they think of waidiren, despite the fact that a person from Shanghai is obviously from out of town. When a Beijing thinks of waidiren, migrant workers and waiters at low-end restaurants immediately come to mind. The word waidiren, as it is used commonly in Beijing, does not refer to all people from outside Beijing.

Then how can we tell who is a waidiren? It seems that the term actually refers to the person's level of education. Educated people who make money and work at big companies are generally not thought of as waidiren. The discrimination contained in the term waidiren is therefore socioeconomic, since education is a privilege of the middle class, rather than simply geographic. Discrimination of any sort is obviously somewhat upsetting, but class based discrimination in a communist country is even more disconcerting.

"In a class society, everyone lives as a member of a particular class, and every kind of thinking, without exception, is stamped with the brand of a class." -Mao Zedong

The brands haven't faded even as New China celebrates its sixtieth anniversary.