Nigerian In China: Why Are People Here So Racist Towards Black People?
Eric Olander and Cobus van Staden are the duo behind the China
Africa Project and hosts of the popular China in Africa Podcast. We’re
here to answer your most pressing, puzzling, even politically incorrect
questions, about all things related to the Chinese in Africa and
Africans in China. China’s engagement in Africa is a distinctly 21st century
phenomenon and, as such, is still poorly understood by most people, most
notably among Chinese and Africans themselves who are still getting to
know one another.
In that spirit, we’ve started this new column as a way
to help spark dialogue and cross-cultural communication in order to
explore this fascinating, complex relationship. In many instances, people are either too shy or embarrassed to
publicly ask that question that could be misconstrued as insensitive or
politically incorrect. In an issue like this that touches on questions
of race, power and culture, things can get messy real fast. Instead,
we’ll take each question seriously, and with the benefit of our
backgrounds in China-Africa journalism and academic scholarship, we’ll
do our best to give you a thoughtful, well-reasoned response. So let’s get started...
Hey Guys: why are
Chinese people so racist towards black people? I mean really. I am from
Nigeria and I have lived in Guangzhou for 6 months already and I can
tell you that a lot of people here really don’t like black people. What
%$^&#* me off so much is that there are so many more Chinese people
who live in my country and yet they don’t get hassled anywhere near as
much as we do in China! Why?
— Sent from Guangzhou via email
* * *
Yeah, you’re totally right to be upset because it sucks big time to
be on the receiving end of any kind of discrimination, racism or
prejudice. So we get that. Before I go any further, though, I also want
to point out that none of my explanations here are intended to justify
people being jerks and their bad behavior. However, there is a context
here that may be helpful to shed some light on why some Chinese
people seemingly respond negatively to blacks, whites and people of
other ethnicities (yes, it’s not just a black thing).
The Chinese will take every opportunity they can find to talk about
their 5,000 years of history and that theirs is the longest continuous
civilization on Earth (which is pretty impressive). For all of that
history, including the present, China has been almost exclusively a
mono-ethnic culture that is basically ethnic Han Chinese. Moreover,
throughout Chinese history there has been a strong belief that they are
superior to all other countries and people. As you may already know, the
word “China” in Chinese is pronounced “zhong guo,” which literally means “Middle Kingdom,” or in plain English, “The Center of the Universe.”
So combine the fact that there has long been a sense of cultural
superiority that is deeply ingrained in Chinese culture mixed with the
fact that the vast majority of Chinese people you meet on the streets of
Guangzhou have probably never interacted with someone of another race
or ethnicity and, well, you have all you need for a lot of cultural
misunderstanding.
But wait, there’s more…
When I worked at a radio station in Hong Kong way back in the day
(really really way back in the day in 1990), a young student intern in
the company would often quiz me about life in the U.S.. Not
surprisingly, it didn’t take long for our discussions to turn to the
issue of race. For someone who’s grown up largely around Chinese people,
she was particularly intrigued about what it was like to live in a more
racially diverse country. Interestingly, though, when I turned the
question around and asked about her views on black people in particular,
she became much more animated.
She told me straight up that when she sees a black person on the street she crosses the street in fear. Wait what?!
Curious about what in the world could provoke such mortal fear, I had to find out what she was so afraid of:
“Have you ever met a black person?” I asked. “No,” she answered without hesitation.
“Have you ever even spoken to a black person?” Again, without any reservation, she said, “no.”
The vast majority of Chinese people you meet on the
streets of Guangzhou have probably never interacted with someone of
another race or ethnicity.
“So let me get this straight,” I followed up feeling a bit agitated
over the stunning level of ignorance, “you’ve never met or even talked
with a black person but yet you are so afraid that they might hurt you
that you cross the street to get away? It just doesn’t make any sense.”
She
then went on to explain that the only black people she has ever seen
are in Hollywood movies and in almost every movie the black person is
the violent, bloodthirsty bad guy who hurts people. “So I know what I
see from the movies and I just don’t want to take any chances,” she
explained with that “duh” look at me as if I was the idiot!
That
night I went to a movie theater to try and see the world not as an
American who grew up in a multicultural environment but someone who is
ethnic Chinese. I saw the Sylvester Stallone movie “Cliffhanger”
(totally dating myself here, I know) and sure enough guess who was the
bad guy who tried to kill the white movie superstar? Yup, the main black
character! Not only that, he had blood dripping from his teeth and
depicted to be not only violent but immoral, and since that was the ONLY
black character in the film, it highlights just how racist American
films have been and continue to be today in their depictions of black
and brown people.
Buyers and sellers in The Canaan Market, Guangzhou’s first market catering mostly to Africans, in Guangzhou, China. So to wrap this all up, sure, there are racist jerks in China just as
there are everywhere. However, a lot of these people are struggling
themselves to live in a suddenly new multicultural environment that
challenges a lot of what they have learned from their own culture on top
of the fact that a lot of the messaging about black people they consume
from Hollywood and elsewhere contributes to their ignorant attitudes.
As
China engages the world and more of the world comes to China, a lot of
these views will likely begin to change. It will take time… so in the
meantime, the best thing I can tell you is hang in there and good luck!
— Eric
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