Chinese anti-Black Racism

One can never make a blanket statement, "All of (this group of people) are (that).  Even so, trends and social tendencies, cultures, do happen.  This is one of those cases that I wonder about.  It troubles me, because I always want to see people becoming more rational and more knowledgeable.

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"Seeing the Dragon of Racial Prejudice" - giving some examples of Chinese racial bias, and stating "A broad admiration for certain facets of Chinese culture ought not conceal the fact that bad racial attitudes there may be at least as pervasive as they are in the United States"

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There is the attitude that Chinese exposure, at least in China, to people who are not ethnically chinese is very limited.  I have personally seen that, and on travel to China, people often wanted their pictures taken next to me, apparently to show their friends that they got their picture taken next to a big white guy.  Which is OK the first 5 or 10 times, but gets old.  

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Anecdotal comments from a Chinese-American point of view here support the contention of bias.

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Then there was the case of the 20 year old woman from Shanghai, whose mother was Chinese and whose father was an African American.   Lou Jing was a finalist on Dragon TV's "Go Oriental Angel.".  She was subjected to a barrage of racist hatred on the internet.

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Thelargest African community in Asia resides in Guangzhou, where there are 20,000 Africans but possibly 10 times that.  "86% of white-collar workers reported antagonism towards black people... groups which came into daily contact with the black population reported more favourable results. Those who worked in the service industry...65% acceptance rating, while businesspeople overwhelmingly accepted black people at 88%"  also "To the Chinese, black people are just black people. They don't know the difference between a black person from Congo or from Nigeria. They can't tell apart a black Muslim from a black Christian. To them, they are all the same. Due to this ignorance and increasing segregation, problems involving individual black people becomes magnified into problems involving the entire black community"

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Then there is this comment from a Chinese expat:  Racism against black people may be the strongest form of racism in China.  Many families in China would be horrified if their son or daughter married a black person. Some would even disown them outright. It can be difficult getting a job teaching English in China if you are black.  This is because of the perception of many people in China that only white people are ‘true Americans’ or ‘true English’ people.

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I suspect that we will find undercurrents of racism in every society.  The "us/them" dichotomy is a simplifying lens that people use to make the world easier to understand, even when it is false.  I personally listen to what people have to say, and tell them when I think their racist views are mistaken, try to give perspective, and discuss personal experience as well as history.  I don't know if that makes a difference.  I hope it does.