By Matthijs Wessels – So I’m going to rant a bit about something that has bothered me a lot in the past few months, so if you are reading this please bear with me.
A few months ago when China was at its worst time during the Covid-19 fight, there was a whole trend online by Asians about #imnotavirus.
Discrimination is not good and I am against it in all of its forms but I must ask where are those Asians who went viral and who have complained about racism against them when people in their own countries are doing the same to foreigners. Was it all for clout or do you only care if it is against you?
And yes you will probably think what does this white guy know about racism and discrimination.
You would be right to think that I have not experienced real discrimination or racism but I am married to a beautiful, strong and proud African woman. And I have seen what it is and I have felt it through her, the pain and shame when someone says something degrading about her skin color or where she comes from.
The Asian population said that they were being called names, people avoiding them when they meet in the streets, this is the daily life of a black person in China even more so if you are from Africa. You get dirty looks when you sit in the train, the person in the seat next to you decides to move away, taking pictures without permission, being called a black ghost, or other derogatory names.
It hurts to see and hear these things and when you say something about it you get the standardized answer ‘this is China!!!'(as I say it in a spartan voice just because otherwise I would lose my mind).
Recently, restaurants, hotels and other places here in China have started blatantly telling foreigners ‘we don’t serve foreigners.’ Before it seemed like it only happened in the major cities but today a friend of mine was told he can’t enter a restaurant because he is a foreigner in this little town that I live in where they almost had no cases during the whole outbreak.
My friend hadn’t left China for months let alone the town. This is disgusting behavior, and I have tried to have a conversation about discrimination in China with my Chinese boss and friends and they all say that is not discrimination or there is no racism in China.
Yet if it were to happen to their own people in other countries they will say that it’s discrimination.
Another example is one that recently occurred in the city of Guangzhou where Africans were kicked out of their houses in droves by their landlords, no warnings, no good reason just cus they were African and dangerous.
And the police and city officials did nothing about it. I believe that if you want to have people treat you differently you need to lead by example.
End of rant
*The picture is from a post of what Chinese Citizens believe should be done with the ‘foreign trash’. (of course they had to depict a black person which infuriates me. I got it from a wechat post by thebeijinger.
Chukwugozie Okeke reporting, Obinwannem News
